Perceived Performance of Loudspeaker-Spatialized Speech for Teleconferencing

Spatial audio reproduction using loudspeakers can enhance teleconferencing applications by increasing the perceptual realism or telepresence, of participants' interactions. However, it is critical that any additional perceptual realism afforded by spatial audio does not compromise the perceived performance of the telecommunications in terms of participants' understanding of the words being conveyed. Formal subjective testing methods are used to verify that the spatial reproduction of speech does not compromise perceived performance relative to nonspatialized reproduction. Indeed, significant improvements in the performance as perceived by listeners have been found. Additional tests identify apparent discrepancies between which method permits the most accurate localization and which has the highest perceived performance.