EE4209

EE4209 Digital Audio Technology

Part I

Course Duration: One semester (13 weeks)
Credit Units: 3
Level: B4
Prerequisites:
EE3210 Signals and Systems, or
EE3118 Linear Systems and Signal Analysis
Precursors: Nil
Equivalent Course: Nil
Exclusive Courses: Nil

Part II

Course Aims:
The aim of this course is to provide students with a solid foundation in digital audio technology.

Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs)
Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

No.	CILOs
1.	describe the characteristics of audio signals and explain the principles of over-sampling analogue to digital conversion
2.	develop basic skills for coding audio signals digitally in time and frequency domains
3.	describe the concept and internal functioning of modern audio coding standards
4.	develop basic skills on the processing and synthesis of music signals
5	describe the design parameters for multi-channel home audio systems

Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs)
(Indicative of likely activities and tasks designed to facilitate students’ achievement of the CILOs. Final details will be provided to students in their first week of attendance in this course)

CILO 1	Teaching activities are based on lectures followed by tutorial examples on the subjects
CILO 2	Teaching activities are based on lectures followed by tutorial examples on the subjects. In addition, students are required to complete an assignment for implementing a simple audio coder to gain practical experience on audio coding
CILO 3	Teaching activities are based on lectures followed by tutorial examples on the subjects
CILO 4
CILO 5

Timetabling Information

Pattern	Hours
Lecture:	26
Tutorials:	13
Laboratory:	0
Other activities:	0

Assessment Tasks/Activities
(Indicative of likely activities and tasks designed to assess how well the students achieve the CILOs. Final details will be provided to students in their first week of attendance in this course)

	Type of assessment tasks	Weighting (if applicable)
Continuous Assessment	Assignments, Tests, Tutorial Quizzes, Presentation	30%
Examination	Written exam	70% 2 hours

Remarks: To pass the course, students are required to achieve at least 35% in course work and 35% in the examination.

Grading of Student Achievement:

Letter Grade	Grade Point	Grade Definitions
A+ A A-	4.3 4.0 3.7	Excellent
B+ B B-	3.3 3.0 2.7	Good
C+ C C-	2.3 2.0 1.7	Adequate
D	1.0	Marginal
F	0.0	Failure

Constructive Alignment with Programme Outcomes

PILO	How the course contribute to the specific PILO(s)
1, 2, 5	The course provides students with amble opportunities in the applications of mathematics, and engineering problem solving skills which are central to the aims of this program
3	Students are required to complete an assignment designed to gain practical experience in implementing a workable digital audio coding/decoding system. They need to write a report and present their work accordingly. These practical training and presentation skills are central to the aims of this program

Part III

Keyword Syllabus:
Introduction
Characteristics of audio and music signals; digitization of audio signal; bandwidth; precision, and signal-to-quantization noise ratio ; over-sampling A/D conversion; digital processing of audio signals; digital filtering; microphone and loudspeaker characteristics; sound propagation in different environments; human auditory perception; loudness and frequency masking; critical band.

Audio coding
Fundamental of data compression: lossy and lossless compression, Huffman and arithmetic coding, model-based predictive coding, time- and frequency-domain approaches.
Audio coding formats: WAV, AU, RA; coding formats for CD; Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB).
Waveform coding: PCM, Delta Modulation, ADPCM, Dolby DTS.
Pyschoacoustic coding: Transform coding, QMF and MDCT, MPEG I, II, IV Audio, Advanced audio coding and MP3.
Lossless coding: Meridean Lossless Packing coding for DVD-Audio, Direct Stream Digital for Sony/Philips Super Audio CD.

Music synthesis
Musical acoustic; Time- and frequency-domain representation of sound; sinusoidal and harmonic signal; additive synthesis and non-linear synthesis; FM synthesis and Chebyshev techniques; physical modelling; wavetable synthesis; MIDI format; instrument and sequencing.

Sound effects and audio production
Concert hall, studio and home listening room acoustics; absorption, reverberation time and Sabin calculations; room design for good acoustics; Sound effects: reverberation, depth perception, Sound localization/spatialization, Surround sound; Compression and expansion; Digital mixing; filtering; Dolby ProLogic; THX; Dynamic EQ; Common DSP techniques for audio processing.

Multimedia applications
Internet audio broadcast; music jukebox.

Last Updated on: 21 Jul 2011