Planarity panning for listener-centered spatial audio

Techniques such as multi-point optimization, wave field synthesis and ambisonics attempt to create spatial effects by synthesizing a sound field over a listening region. In this paper, we propose planarity panning, which uses superdirective microphone array beamforming to focus the sound from the specified direction, as an alternative approach. Simulations compare performance against existing strategies, considering the cases where the listener is central and non-central in relation to a 60 channel circular loudspeaker array. Planarity panning requires low control effort and provides high sound field planarity over a large frequency range, when the zone positions match the target regions specified for the filter calculations. Future work should implement and validate the perceptual properties of the method.