Patent ID: 7149594

Claim:
A method for processing a source audio signal to produce an encoded audio signal for subsequent transmission through a selected one of a plurality of transmission mediums, each of the plurality of transmission mediums having one or more transmission medium characteristics associated therewith, the method comprising: storing in a memory of a computer, processing parameter data associated with the plurality of transmission mediums, wherein the processing parameter data specifies audio signal processing in two or more cascaded processing stages based on the one or more of the transmission medium characteristics of the plurality of transmission mediums; receiving signals which specify one of the plurality of transmission mediums selected for the transmission of the encoded audio signal; retrieving from the memory, the processing parameter data associated with the transmission medium selected for the transmission of the encoded audio signal; and processing the source audio signal in the two or more cascaded processing stages in accordance with the retrieved processing parameter data to produce the encoded audio signal wherein the two or more cascaded processing stages is selected from a group of stages consisting: a format converter stage comprising converting the source audio signal to a delivery channel type specified in a format field of the retrieved processing parameter data to produce a format converted intermediate signal which has the transmission channel type; a sample rate converter stage comprising re-sampling the format converted intermediate signal in accordance with a transmission sample rate data specified in a sample rate field of the retrieved processing parameter data to produce a decimated/interpolated intermediate signal; a filtering stage comprising filtering the decimated/interpolated intermediate signal in the filtering stage in accordance with filtering parameter data specified in a filtering parameter field of the retrieved processing parameter data to produce a filtered intermediate audio signal; and a watermarking processing stage comprising watermarking the filtered intermediate audio signal based at least in part on identification data specified in a watermarking parameter field of the retrieved processing parameter data to generate a watermarked version of the filtered intermediate audio signal prior to generating the encoded audio signal.