Patent ID: 6944160

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a plurality of encoders for encoding respective sampled audio streams to produce respective encoded streams; a plurality of first buffers, for receiving respective encoded streams and forming therefrom respective sequences of transport cells, each of said transport cells comprising a portion of said respective encoded audio stream, each of said first buffers having associated with it a respective first buffer utilization level; and a second buffer, for receiving and forwarding to a communications channel said sequences of transport cells, said second buffer having associated with it a second buffer utilization level; wherein each of said encoders is operable for adapting an encoding fidelity level to produce said respective encoded streams comprising high, medium, and low priority bits, at least one of said low priority bits and said medium priority bits being removed from said transport cells in response to at least one of said respective first buffer utilization level and said second buffer utilization level being below at least one threshold utilization level.