A Comparison of Wave Field Synthesis and Higher-Order Ambisonics with Respect to Physical Properties and Spatial Sampling

Wave field synthesis (WFS) and higher-order Ambisonics (HOA) are two high-resolution spatial sound reproduction techniques aiming at overcoming some of the limitations of stereophonic reproduction techniques. In the past, the theoretical foundations of WFS and HOA have been formulated in a quite different fashion. Although, some work has been published that aims at comparing both approaches their similarities and differences are not well documented. This paper formulates the theory of both approaches in a common framework, highlights the different assumptions made to derive the driving functions and the resulting physical properties of the reproduced wave field. Special attention will be drawn to the consequences of spatial sampling since both approaches differ significantly here.

[1]  A. J. Berkhout,et al.  A Holographic Approach to Acoustic Control , 1988 .

[2]  Sascha Spors,et al.  Analytical driving functions for higher order Ambisonics , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing.

[3]  Philip M. Morse,et al.  Methods of Theoretical Physics Parts I & II , 1954 .

[4]  Jerome Daniel,et al.  Further Investigations of High-Order Ambisonics and Wavefield Synthesis for Holophonic Sound Imaging , 2003 .

[5]  Sascha Spors,et al.  Spatial Aliasing Artifacts Produced by Linear and Circular Loudspeaker Arrays used for Wave Field Synthesis , 2006 .

[6]  Jerome Daniel,et al.  Spatial Sound Encoding Including Near Field Effect: Introducing Distance Coding Filters and a Viable, New Ambisonic Format , 2003 .

[7]  Thushara D. Abhayapala,et al.  Soundfield reproduction using theoretical continuous loudspeaker , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing.

[8]  J. J. Sonke,et al.  Variable Acoustics by Wave Field Synthesis , 2000 .

[9]  Mark A. Poletti,et al.  Three-Dimensional Surround Sound Systems Based on Spherical Harmonics , 2005 .

[10]  Helmut. Wittek,et al.  Perceptual Differences Between Wavefield Synthesis and Stereophony. , 2007 .

[11]  E. Williams,et al.  Fourier Acoustics: Sound Radiation and Nearfield Acoustical Holography , 1999 .

[12]  Jens Ahrens,et al.  19 th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON ACOUSTICS MADRID , 2-7 SEPTEMBER 2007 COMPARISON OF HIGHER-ORDER AMBISONICS AND WAVE FIELD SYNTHESIS WITH RESPECT TO SPATIAL ALIASING ARTIFACTS , 2007 .

[13]  Jean Giroire.  Integral equation methods for the Helmholtz equation , 1982 .

[14]  Irene A. Stegun,et al.  Handbook of Mathematical Functions. , 1966 .

[15]  Marc Emerit.  Reproducing 3d-sound for Videoconferencing: a Comparison between Holophony and Ambisonic , 1998 .

[16]  S. Spors.  Extension of an Analytic Secondary Source Selection Criterion for Wave Field Synthesis , 2007 .

[17]  J. Ahrens,et al.  An Analytical Approach to Sound Field Reproduction Using Circular and Spherical Loudspeaker Distributions , 2008 .

[18]  R. Rabenstein,et al.  The Theory of Wave Field Synthesis Revisited , 2008 .

[19]  J. Daniel,et al.  Représentation de champs acoustiques, application à la transmission et à la reproduction de scènes sonores complexes dans un contexte multimédia , 2000 .

[20]  L. G. Copley,et al.  Fundamental Results Concerning Integral Representations in Acoustic Radiation , 1968 .