Ambisonics: BBC Team Experiments with Next-Gen 3D Sound

By Rob Scott
December 22, 2011

The audio team at BBC R&D is actively researching potential next generation audio formats, with an emphasis on investigating 3D sound.
Of particular interest to the team is Ambisonics, which “is different from other surround sound formats, such as 5.1 because it doesn’t rely on a specific speaker layout,” reports Wired UK. “Ambisonics captures the entire 3D sound field as a set of spherical harmonics which can then be decoded for a wide variety of speaker layouts, including stereo and 5.1. This means the audience can pick the sound profile that best suits their listening environment.”
The team has been experimenting with 3D audio capture in real-world live production environments, then returning to a dedicated listening lab that features a 16-speaker set up.
The research involves a spatial audio panner that uses gestural controls via the Microsoft Kinect to move sound around a 3D space. “Traditional mixing desk have a single rotary controller which controls the panning for each channel. When you have control over sounds in 3D space it becomes much more complex,” explains Chris Pike, audio research engineer with the Beeb team in Manchester.
3D audio would complement both 2D and 3D video experiences.
The Wired UK article includes an interesting BBC R&D video about immersive 3D audio systems.

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