Multizone sound field reproduction explained
Express your interest
Although private listening can be readily achievable with headphones, it is uncomfortable for listening over long periods of time and inconvenient in some scenarios, such as attending exhibitions in museums and art galleries or driving a vehicle. Using loudspeaker arrays to generate a multizone sound field can address these restrictions of headphones and enable shared listening spaces.
Multizone sound field reproduction (also referred to as personal audio) with loudspeaker arrays has emerged as a key research topic over the past two decades. However, despite rapid progress, most existing studies are theoretical or have been performed in ideal acoustic environments. There are still many challenges preventing a robust multizone sound field reproduction system to be implemented in realistic listening environments with multiple listeners and varying music/audio content. This project aims to investigate the optimisation strategy for a loudspeaker array to reproduce multiple sound zones in realistic listening environments.
The goals of the project will be to:
- Evaluate existing multizone sound field reproduction methods in various listening environments.
- Novel robust adaptive and distributed algorithms for multizone sound field reproduction in a reverberant environment.
- Optimise loudspeaker placement to achieve superior multizone sound field reproduction performance with a limited number of loudspeakers.
Learning opportunities
- A keen interest in sound technology and be familiar with MATLAB.
- Working in one of the most sophisticated locations at the Acoustic Lab at Tech Lab for experiments.
- Basic knowledge in acoustics and signal processing is desired but not essential.
Applicable knowledge
This project would suit 3rd and 4th year students.
How many places are available?
There are four (4) student positions available.
Why is this important?
Being part of this project will give an advanced knowledge base in sound field reproduction in a realistic listening environment. There could be potential to commercialise the technology to increase societal and economic impact. There will also be an opportunity to publish research outcomes in top journals and conference proceedings to increase academic impact.
Project leaders
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Lecturer School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering
