MULTIKANAL-SPRACHAUFZEICHNUNGSGERÄT

摘要

A data compression system for combining a plurality of audio channels whilst retaining the intelligibility of the respective channels. Said system enabling the recordal of speech from one or more individuals within a predetermined area, such as the bridge of a ship, utilising a plurality of well-spaced microphones. Each of the respective audio outputs from each of the respective microphones is weighted in accordance with a predetermined weighting factor which is derived from the short term and long term amplitude characteristics of the audio signal. The weighting function modifies the response of individual audio signals such that the recovered digitally encoded signal has an optimised compression ratio and signal to noise ratio. Furthermore, parameters obtained from the weighting process retain spatial information which would otherwise be lost by simple mixing.