Rendering object-based audio in a domestic environment

在家中创建沉浸式媒体体验是学术和主流出版物中流行的话题。在文献中已经描述了空间化音频对收听者偏好的积极影响，并且用于产生3D空间音频体验的技术已经很好地建立，其中基于声道的系统是最常用的。虽然这些系统的有效性已经在实验室和电影院类型的环境中得到了很好的证明，但在家庭环境中的实现面临着多种障碍，包括附加扬声器的成本与收听体验的改善之间的似乎不佳的权衡、对这种系统的设置缺乏知识和信心以及对房间美学的负面感知影响。作为该项目的一部分，最近进行了一项调查，其结果已提交出版，确定约11%的英国家庭拥有某种多声道环绕声系统，更多的家庭拥有无线和智能设备，尽管他们作为一项技术相对年轻。因此，最近在S3 A项目的期刊论文中描述为媒体设备演示（MDO）的新型系统寻求将联合收割机安装的扬声器与这些无线扬声器以及任何其他潜在的具有音频能力的设备组合，以在由智能渲染器控制的家庭环境中创建新型系统。该系统将接收基于对象的音频，而不是基于声道的音频，从而能够重新呈现声音场景，特别是针对任何特定起居室中的独特再现设置。该项目的重点是制定智能渲染器的规则，其中包括以下列表中的因素：扬声器的位置，质量，数量和类型;媒体内容的类型，包括纯音频和视听;叙事意图;以及个人和听众群体的需求。为了创建这些规则，使用安装在模拟家庭起居室环境中的MDO型系统进行了收听实验，以比较重新呈现音频的各种潜在方式以及这些不同因素的相互作用。这包括文本反应，个人评级和直接比较类型的实验。

Creating immersive media experiences in the home is a topic popular in both academic and mainstream publications. The positive effects of spatialised audio on listener preference have been described in the literature, and technologies for producing 3D spatial audio experiences are well established, with channel-based systems being most commonly used. Whilst the effectiveness of these systems has been well demonstrated in laboratory and cinema-type environments, implementation in the domestic environment faces multiple obstacles including the seemingly poor tradeoff between the cost of additional loudspeakers and improvement in listening experience, a lack of knowledge and confidence in the setup of such a system, and a negative perceived effect on room aesthetics. A recent survey, performed as part of this project, the results of which have been submitted for publishing, has determined that approximately 11% of UK households own some sort of multi-channel surround sound system and that more households own wireless and smart devices, despite their comparative youth as a technology. As such, a new type of system, recently described in a journal paper by the S3A Project as Media Device Orchestration (MDO), seeks to combine installed loudspeakers with these wireless loudspeakers, as well as any other potentially audio-capable devices, to create a new type of system in the domestic environment controlled by an intelligent renderer. This system would receive object-based audio, as opposed to channel-based audio, enabling the re-rendering of the sound scene specifically for the unique reproduction setup in any particular living room. The focus of this project is on the development of rules for the intelligent renderer, incorporating factors including those in the following list: position, quality, number and type of loudspeakers; type of media content including audio-only and audio-visual; narrative intent; and needs of individuals and groups of listeners. To create these rules, listening experiments have been performed to compare various potential ways of re-rendering audio and the interaction of these different factors, using an MDO-type system installed in a simulated domestic living room environment. This has included textual response, individual rating and direct comparison type experiments.