AES Europe 2026

Audio synchronization across heterogeneous media playback
devices is essential for delivering immersive sound
experiences in applications such as speaker group play;
multi-room audio playback. Existing synchronization
techniques predominantly rely on tightly coupled network
infrastructures; often embed a media sequence;
timestamp information to the media packet at the
transmitting source end, which restrict flexibility of
selecting the transmitting source; also compromises
robustness under dynamic network conditions. This paper
proposes a network; source independent audio
synchronization framework that eliminates dependency on
embedding media sequence; timestamps. The proposed
system employs an audio fingerprinting-based media
sequencing algorithm amongst the media playback devices
without relying on the type of transmitting source; the
network availability. A novel audio synchronization
algorithm is proposed which first determines a common
sequence start information given a dynamic media stream
from the transmitting source; then communicates the
fingerprint; timestamp amongst the media playback
devices without modifying the original audio 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.