Method and system for processing sound signals for a surround left channel and a surround right channel

1. A method, executing on hardware, for processing sound signals for a surround left channel (S L ) and a surround right channel (S R ), comprising the steps of:

generating a continually varying delay between the signals of the surround right channel (S R ) and the surround left channel (S L ), wherein the continually varying delay decorrelates the surround left channel (S L ) and the surround right channel (S R ), and wherein the continually varying delay varies over time so as not to have a fixed value;

processing the signals of the surround left channel (S L ), wherein processing of the signals of the surround left channel (S L ) includes the step of introducing a first delay to the signals of the surround left channel (S L ); and

processing the signals of the surround right channel (S R ), wherein processing of the signals of the surround right channel (S R ) includes the step of introducing a second delay to the signals of the surround right channel (S R ),

wherein the first delay and the second delay provide the continually varying delay between the signals of the surround right channel (S R ) and the surround left channel (S L ).

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the left surround channel (S L ) and the right surround channel (S R ) are each split into a number of frequency bands (B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B n , B′ 1 , B′ 2 , . . . , B′ n ), and each frequency band (B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B n , B′ 1 , B′ 2 , . . . , B′ n ) 1 of each surround channel (S R , S L ) is delayed with respect to other frequency bands (B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B n , B′ 1 , B′ 2 , . . . , B′ n ) of the same channel (S R , S L ), and also with respect to a corresponding frequency band (B′ 1 , B′ 2 , . . . , B′ n , B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B n ) of the other channel (S L , S R ).

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the surround left channel (S L ) and the surround right channel (S R ) are mixed with other sound channels (F R , F L , C) and forwarded to a number of loudspeakers (L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , R 1 , R 2 , R 3 ) in such a way as to yield sound output signals (A 1 , A 2 , A 3 , A 4 ) with a directional arrangement of dipole loudspeaker lobes (DL 1 , DL 2 , DL 3 , DL 4 , DL 5 , DL 6 ).

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the delayed surround channels (S L , S R ) are stored together with associated sound (F R , F L , C, B) and/or video channels in a storage media for later use.

5. A delay management unit ( 1 ) hardware device for processing a surround right channel (S R ) and a surround left channel (S L ) of a stereo surround channel (S), wherein the delay management unit ( 1 ) comprises:

a number of variable delay units (D 1 , D 2 , . . . , D n , D′ 1 , D′ 2 , . . . , D′ n ) to provide a continually varying delay between the signals of the surround right channel (S R ) and the surround left channel (S L ), wherein the continually varying delay decorrelates the surround left channel (S L ) and the surround right channel (S R ), and wherein continually varying delay varies over time so as not to have a fixed value.

6. A delay management unit ( 1 ) according to claim 5 , comprising variable delay units (D 1 , D 2 , . . . , D n , D′ 1 , D′ 2 , . . . , D′ n ) in each surround channel (S L , S R ) and a control signal generator ( 6 ) with control signal outputs (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , C n , C′ 1 , C′ 2 , . . . , C′ n ) connected to the variable delay units (D 1 , D 2 , . . . , D n , D′ 1 , D′ 2 , . . . , D′ n ) in such a way as to yield the continually varying delay.

7. A delay management unit ( 1 ) according to claim 5 , comprising:

a frequency splitting arrangement for the left surround channel (S L ) and for the right surround channel (S R ) to split each channel into a number of frequency bands (B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B n , B′ 1 , B′ 2 , . . . , B′ n );

variable delay units (D 1 , D 2 , . . . , D n , D′ 1 , D′ 2 , . . . , D′ n ) for the different frequency bands (B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B n , B′ 1 , B′ 2 , . . . , B′ n ) in the surround right channel (S R ) and the surround left channel (S L ); and

a control signal generator ( 6 ) for generating control signals (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , C n-1 , C′ 1 , C′ 2 , . . . , C′ n-1 ) to control the variable delays (D 1 , D 2 , . . . , D n , D′ 1 , D′ 2 , . . . , D′ n ) in such a way as to delay each frequency band (B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B n , B′ 1 , B′ 2 , . . . , B′ n ) of each surround channel (S L , S R ) with a continually varying delay with respect to other frequency bands (B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B n , B′ 1 , B′ 2 , . . . , B′ n ) of the same channel (S L , S R ), and with respect to a corresponding frequency band (B′ 1 , B′ 2 , . . . , B′ n , B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B n ) of the other channel (S R , S L ).

8. A delay management unit ( 1 ) according to claim 6 , where the control signal generator ( 6 ) comprises a signal source (G) and a signal modifier arrangement (M 1 , M 2 , . . . M n-1 ) which together provide control inputs (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , C n-1 , C′ 1 , C′ 2 , . . . , C′ n ) for the delay units (D 1 , D 2 , . . . , D n , D′ 1 , D′ 2 , . . . , D′ n ).

9. The delay management unit of claim 5 , wherein the delay management unit is part of a sound processing system ( 2 , 2 ′).

10. An acoustic system ( 3 ), said system comprising:

a source of a number of distinct sound channels (F, S, C, B) including a surround left channel (S L ) and a surround right channel (S R );

a sound processing system ( 2 ) according to claim 9 for processing the sound channels (F, S, C, B);

and a number of loudspeakers (L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , R 1 , R 2 , R 3 ) for converting the processed sound channels (A 1 , A 2 , A 3 , A 4 ) into audible sound.

11. An acoustic system ( 3 ) according to claim 10 , where the number of loudspeakers (L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , R 1 , R 2 , R 3 ) are arranged to form an array and where the sound processing system ( 2 ) comprises a mixing unit ( 4 ) for mixing sound input channels (F, S, C) to give sound output channels (A 1 , A 2 , A 3 ,), and forwarding sound output channels (A 1 , A 2 , A 3 , A 4 ) to the loudspeakers (L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , R 1 , R 2 , R 3 ) in such a way as to yield a directional arrangement of dipole loudspeaker lobes (DL 1 , DL 2 , DL 3 , DL 4 , DL 5 , DL 6 ) for the sound input channels (F, S, C, B).

12. A mixing unit ( 4 ) for a sound processing system ( 2 ) with a number of distinct sound channels (F, S, C) including a surround left channel (S L ) and a surround right channel (S R ) comprising:

line inputs ( 100 , 200 , 300 ) for the sound channels (F, S, C);

line outputs ( 101 , 201 , 301 ) for connection to loudspeakers (L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , R 1 , R 2 , R 3 );

a means for mixing the sound channels (F, S, C) to give sound output channels (A 1 , A 2 , A 3 ) in such a way as to yield a directional arrangement of dipole loudspeaker lobes (DL 1 , DL 2 , DL 3 , DL 4 , DL 5 , DL 6 ) and forwarding the sound output channels (A 1 , A 2 , A 3 ) to the line outputs ( 103 , 203 , 303 ); and

a delay management unit ( 1 ) according to claim 6 to generate a continually varying delay between the surround right and surround left channels (S R , S L ).

13. A mixing unit ( 4 ) according to claim 12 , comprising a user-configurable delay arrangement ( 5 ) for delaying the signals of the different sound channels (F R , F L , S R , S L , C) with respect to each other in such a way as to direct dipole loudspeaker lobes (DL 1 , DL 2 , DL 3 , DL 4 , DL 5 , DL 6 ) for at least some of the sound channels (F R , F L , S R , S L , C) by choosing suitable delay scale values.

14. A studio system comprising a sound processing system ( 2 ′) according to claim 9 .