Three-dimensional audio immersion: Development and human perception testing of a large scale, 128 loudspeaker surround sound system

Large-scale loudspeaker arrays for immersive audio are beginning to see increased interest in the research and entertainment industries. There are many algorithms to produce 3D sound fields. Although these algorithms are well developed, there is little published work that quantitatively compares their performance in terms of human perception for various numbers of speakers and speaker arrangements. In this talk, we will present listener perception test results using a 3D, 128 loudspeaker array. This loudspeaker array is part of the CUBE theatre at Virginia Tech. The CUBE is a 5-storey 50 ft. x 50 ft. black-box theatre that uses Dante™ audio-over-ethernet to send signals to the 128 loudspeakers. Combined with a 3D motion tracking system and an immersive video vision system. The CUBE provides a very high-resolution test bed for human perception studies. Using speech intelligibility tests with stimulus phrases and various interferers and noise fields, listener tests will be performed for surround sound algor...