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| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/T21387/01 |
| Title: |
SpACE-Net - The Spatial Audio Creative Engineering Network |
| Principal Investigator: |
Dr DT Murphy |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-investigator: |
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| Project Partner: |
| Sony Broadcast & Professional Europe |
Soundfield Ltd |
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| Department: |
Electronics |
| Organisation: |
University of York |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research |
| Starts: |
16 January 2006 |
Ends: |
15 July 2008 |
Value (£): |
41,651
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Acoustics |
Digital Signal Processing |
| User Interface Technologies |
Vision, Hearing and Other Senses - Applications in ICT |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
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| Related Grants: |
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| Panel History: |
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Summary |
Spatial audio research is concerned with the presentation of music and audio material to an audience in a manner that is optimized according to the spatial properties of the human hearing system. Ultimately this work seeks to rise to the challenge of synthesizing a complex three-dimensional acoustic world that is indistinguishable from what we normally hear around us.
Work in this area has reached a point where multichannel delivery systems are finally becoming accepted in the domestic environment, predominantly through applications in the entertainment industry such as DVD, home-theatre systems and multimedia computing technology. These recent developments therefore precipitate the need to identify future directions for research in this increasingly demanding area.
UK spatial audio research is currently small although there are a number of unique areas that ensure visibility in the wider international community. The proposed network aims to build on this current work to create a community of researchers, practitioners and artists, drawn from the fields of science, audio engineering and the arts. It is anticipated that through this network and the interface between theoretical, experimental and creative approaches, the effective coordination of these researchers and practitioners will lead to the identification, articulation and development of important directions in future spatial audio work.
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| Final Report Summary |
SpACE-Net has resulted in outcomes linked to the project objectives as follows:
(1) SpACE-Net has promoted UK based spatial audio research, encouraged debate, collaboration, exchange and facilitated dissemination to the wider international community. Two Spatial Audio Workshops have been hosted in York in January 2007 and January 2008, with 67 and 76 delegates respectively. Two satellite workshops on Virtual Acoustics and Heritage Applications (York, 37 delegates) and Spatial Sound and Music (Derby, 60 delegates) have also been hosted. Through a new collaboration with Creative Labs, SpACE-Net will be represented at the Audio Engineering Society's 35th Conference on Audio for Games in London 2009. Eight SpACE-Net supported international conference papers have resulted from travel grants awarded to members.
(2) SpACE-Net encouraged and invited participation from researchers, developers and end users including practitioners, sound designers, musicians and artists. The SpACE-Net website has 185 members, 112 from academia, 34 from industry and 39 based in the arts. Networking opportunities were included in all workshops with follow-up encouraged through the availability of travel bursaries - the satellite workshops were examples of such initiatives. Additional industry support was received from: Creative Labs (sponsored an artistic commission, tutorials, keynote); Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (tutorials, membership of Network Executive Board (NEB), invited presentation, hosted meetings); Genelec/Source Distribution (workshop surround systems); HHB and Sennheiser (tutorials, demos); Codemasters (invited presentation). Six artistic commissions were awarded from over 80 applications, five presented at network events, with one to be presented at the AES 35th Conference. All artists discussed their work and the role of spatial audio in both process and final outcome with some discussions highlighted in a recent journal publication [Otondo, F., "Contemporary trends in the use of space in electroacoustic music", Organised Sound, 13(1), Apr 2008, pp 77-81].
(3) Event networking activities have resulted in new funding bids (see Follow on Support) and informal collaborations, including possible industry focused projects. There has been a strong international presence at all events including international keynote speakers, e.g. Ville Pulkki from Helsinki University of Technology; Jean-Marc Jot from Creative Labs. Collaboration between Helsinki and York has continued with further exchanges in 2008 and more planned for 2009.
(4) SpACE-Net supported six research students in their attendance at international AES/IEEE conferences, resulting in associated publications. Workshop calls for papers/posters particularly encouraged PhD students or early stage researchers with thirteen accepted after review. Those presenting were automatically awarded a travel bursary to enable them to attend.
(5) The main new application area for spatial audio research is in computer games, resulting in strong industry representation at SpACE-Net workshops, see e.g. (2), and a natural transition from SpACE-Net into the AES 35th Conference. Also of note is the use of spatial audio in the representation, understanding and acoustic preservation of past environments as highlighted in one satellite workshop.
(6) Newly identified research includes speaker agnostic spatial audio codecs; sound source performance measures; multi-modal perception; hybrid acoustic modelling; perceptual testing; user control. The artistic commissions revealed that practitioners often resorted to tested compositional methods, often removed from, for instance, industry standard speaker formats. Current research (e.g. in speaker agnostic audio) should help to alleviate such issues but there is clearly much dialogue required and work to be done between disciplines.
(7) A website has been established as a central repository for SpACE-Net related activities at: http://space-net.org.uk/
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.york.ac.uk |
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