Patent ID: 7567897

Claim:
A broadcast system comprising: a plurality of encoders providing different encoding of an original audio content, said encoders receiving as input the original audio content from a source and outputting respective versions of encoded audio content; a plurality of decoders each associated with the one of the plurality of encoders and receiving as input one of the versions of encoded audio content from the associated encoder, wherein the decoders decode the received version of encoded audio content to provide corresponding decoded audio content; and a comparator that receives as input the audio content decoded by each of the plurality of decoders and the original audio content and which compares each of the decoded audio content with the original content and selects the encoded audio content of the encoder associated with the decoder whose decoded audio content most closely resembles the original audio content based on the comparison, wherein the selected encoded audio content is selected for transmission from the broadcast system from among the versions of encoded audio content produced by the plurality of encoders; wherein the comparator completes the selection of audio content and associated encoder-decoder pair via a series of processes including: determining which decoded audio content most closely resembles the original audio content in quality; and calculating a quality-to-bandwidth ratio using the quality of each encoded audio content over the bandwidth required for transmission of the corresponding encoded audio content.