Ultra-low delay lossy audio coding using DPCM and block companded quantization

Real-time audio transmission requires good quality for a restricted channel capacity and minimum latency. An ultra-low delay audio coding scheme based on differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) and block companded quantization is presented. The prediction filter of the base backward DPCM codec is attained as a FIR filter in lattice structure. The proposed block based audio coding introduces an algorithmic latency below one millisecond and an overhead of less than a half bit per sample. The advantage of the block companded quantization with DPCM is the capability to follow rapid changes in the signal. Therefore, it significantly improves the perceptual audio quality compared to a plain DPCM coding scheme with an adaptive quantizer.