Patent ID: 8639498

Claim:
An audio encoding apparatus comprising: a multi channel encoding means for down-mixing an audio signal including a plurality of channels, generating a spatial cue for the audio signal including the plurality of channels, and generating first rendering information including the generated spatial cue; and a multi object encoding means for down-mixing an audio signal including a plurality of objects, which includes the down-mixed signal from the multi channel encoding means, generating a spatial cue for the audio signal including the plurality of objects, and generating second rendering information including the generated spatial cue, wherein the multi channel encoding means generates a spatial cue for the audio signal including the plurality of objects regardless of a Coder-DECoder (CODEC) scheme the limits the multi channel encoding means, wherein the multi object encoding means generates a spatial cue for a subordinate sub-band limited by the CODEC scheme as a spatial cue for the audio signal including the plurality of objects.