A method to synchronize dynamic media stream on heterogenous media playback devices

Meena N, Singh A, Singh M, Chaudhary M, Sood P. A method to synchronize dynamic media stream on heterogenous media playback devices. In: Convention Paper. Audio Engineering Society; 2026. Paper 10302. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23195

@inproceedings{Meena2026_23195,
  author = {Meena, Natasha and Singh, Avinash and Singh, Mohit and Chaudhary, Mohit and Sood, Parv},
  title = {{A method to synchronize dynamic media stream on heterogenous media playback devices}},
  note = {Paper 10302},
  year = {2026},
  month = may,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23195}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - A method to synchronize dynamic media stream on heterogenous media playback devices
AU  - Meena, Natasha
AU  - Singh, Avinash
AU  - Singh, Mohit
AU  - Chaudhary, Mohit
AU  - Sood, Parv
M1  - Paper 10302
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/28
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23195
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Audio synchronization across heterogeneous media playback devices is essential for delivering immersive sound experiences in applications such as speaker group play and multi room audio playback. Existing audio synchronization methods predominantly rely on tightly coupled network infrastructures and often embed a media sequence and timestamp information to the media packet at the transmitting source end, which restrict flexibility of selecting the transmitting source and also compromises robustness under dynamic network conditions. This paper proposes a network and transmitting source independent audio synchronization method that eliminates dependency on embedding media sequence and timestamp information to the media packet. The proposed system employs an audio fingerprinting-based media sequencing algorithm amongst the media playback devices without relying on the type of transmitting source and the network conditions. A novel audio synchronization algorithm is proposed which first determines a first Matched Media Packet given a dynamic media stream from the transmitting source and then communicates the audio fingerprint and timestamp amongst the media playback devices without modifying the original media packet structure. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves a high audio-audio synchronization of less than 10ms across media playback devices in a no-network environment, thereby extending the scope of immersive audio application irrespective of the transmitting source.
ER  -