Sound zone techniques enable separate audio playback at distinct listening areas in rooms. This requires using loudspeaker arrays, multiple control microphones per zone, and carefully designed control filters. The filters are based on room impulse responses between all loudspeaker-microphone pairs that, in some cases, can be obtained with very short acquisition times. Low frequencies, featuring longer wavelengths, allow for fewer spatial sampling points inside the sound zones, simplifying the setup and decreasing data processing requirements. This study evaluates the effects of reducing room impulse responses acquisition times and sampling points in low-frequency sound zone rendering. Different combinations of both strategies and multiple spatial sampling arrangements were explored. Their performance was evaluated in two acoustic conditions under objective metrics, and the area of influence of the system around the sound zones was also studied. Both strategies were found effective in reducing the amount of information included while performing as good as cases comprising all information available. For instance, under short reverberation time, four microphones and 150-ms acquisition time performed comparably to 15 microphones and 16-s acquisition time. Using more sampling points reduced the effects of their arrangement in the performance. Both strategies resulted in faster control filter calculations, suggesting improved efficiency.
(See document for exact affiliation information.)
https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22922
(1572KB)
Click to purchase paper as a non-member or login as an AES member. If your company or school subscribes to the E-Library then switch to the institutional version. If you are not an AES member Join the AES. If you need to check your member status, login to the Member Portal.
