Help I'm surrounded

A dimly lit auditorium, the smell of popcorn and hot-dogs accompanied by the sound of fizzy drinks slurped through straws; the lights dim and a hush of expectation descends, sound fades in from all around, drawing the audience into the illusion of another reality. This is the world of the cinema, but is it possible to recreate this cinematic surround sound experience in the home? In order to address this question it is necessary to understand what is meant by "cinematic" surround sound and to consider some of the challenges faced by those seeking to translate it to the home environment. This article examines these issues through an exploration of the development of surround sound in the cinema and its transference to the home and concludes with a tentative look towards possible future developments

Narrative music: towards an understanding of musical narrative functions in multimedia

As the computer screen is replacing the book as the dominant medium for communication (Kress, 2003), questions about how meaning is constituted by the multimodal interaction of different media (including music) is becoming increasingly important in contemporary research of pedagogy, sociology and media studies. The overall aim with this licentiate thesis is to explore musical narrative functions as they appear in multimedia such as film and computer games. The thesis is based on three publications. Publication 1 proposes a classification of musical narrative functions, with 6 narrative classes(the Emotive, Informative, Descriptive, Guiding, Temporal and Rhetorical classes) and 11 categories. The relational interplay of music with contextual factors is emphasized. Publication 2 describes the design of a software tool, REMUPP (Relations Between Musical Parameters and Perceived Properties), to be used for experimental studies of musical expression. REMUPP is used for real time alteration of musical expression, by the manipulation of musical parameters such as tempo, harmony, rhythm, articulation, etc. Publication 3 describes a quasi-experiment using REMUPP, where a group of young participants (12-13 years old) were given the task of adapting musical expression – by manipulating 7 parameters – to make it fit 3 visual scenes shown on a computer screen. They also answered a questionnaire asking about their musical backgrounds and habits of listening to music, watching movies and playing computer games. Numerical data from the manipulations were analyzed statistically with regards to the preferred values of the musical parameters in relation to the different visual scenes. The results indicated awareness and knowledge about codes and conventions of musical narrative functions, and were to some degree affected by the participants’ gender, musical backgrounds and media habits

Psychoacoustic Considerations in Surround Sound with Height

This paper presents recent research findings in the psychoacoustics of 3D multichannel sound recording and rendering. The addition of height channels in new reproduction formats such as Auro-3D, Dolby Atmos and 22.2, etc. enhances the perceived spatial impression in reproduction. To achieve optimal acoustic recording and signal processing for such formats, it is first important to understand the fundamental principles of how we perceive sounds reproduced from vertically oriented stereophonic loudspeakers. Recent studies by the authors in this field provide insights into how such principles can be applied for practical 3D recording and upmixing. Topics that are discussed in this paper include the interchannel level and time difference relationships in terms of vertically induced interchannel crosstalk, the effectiveness of the precedence effect in the vertical plane, the aspect of tonal coloration resulting from vertical stereophonic reproduction, the effect of vertical microphone spacing on envelopment, the effect of interchannel decorrelation, and the use of spectral cues for extending vertical image spread

A Survey of Three-Dimensional Sound and its Applications

This research project seeks to develop a foundation of knowledge about three-dimensional sound (3-D sound) and its utilization across various media. Topics covered include the techniques by which 3-D sound is accomplished, its departures from the standard paradigm of stereophonic audio, the range of creative and engineering considerations within 3-D contexts and examinations of existing 3-D audio applications

CHORUS Deliverable 2.1: State of the Art on Multimedia Search Engines

Based on the information provided by European projects and national initiatives related to multimedia search as well as domains experts that participated in the CHORUS Think-thanks and workshops, this document reports on the state of the art related to multimedia content search from, a technical, and socio-economic perspective. The technical perspective includes an up to date view on content based indexing and retrieval technologies, multimedia search in the context of mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks, and an overview of current evaluation and benchmark inititiatives to measure the performance of multimedia search engines. From a socio-economic perspective we inventorize the impact and legal consequences of these technical advances and point out future directions of research

High definition systems in Japan

The successful implementation of a strategy to produce high-definition systems within the Japanese economy will favorably affect the fundamental competitiveness of Japan relative to the rest of the world. The development of an infrastructure necessary to support high-definition products and systems in that country involves major commitments of engineering resources, plants and equipment, educational programs and funding. The results of these efforts appear to affect virtually every aspect of the Japanese industrial complex. The results of assessments of the current progress of Japan toward the development of high-definition products and systems are presented. The assessments are based on the findings of a panel of U.S. experts made up of individuals from U.S. academia and industry, and derived from a study of the Japanese literature combined with visits to the primary relevant industrial laboratories and development agencies in Japan. Specific coverage includes an evaluation of progress in R&D for high-definition television (HDTV) displays that are evolving in Japan; high-definition standards and equipment development; Japanese intentions for the use of HDTV; economic evaluation of Japan's public policy initiatives in support of high-definition systems; management analysis of Japan's strategy of leverage with respect to high-definition products and systems

Investigating the interaction between positions and signals of height-channel loudspeakers in reproducing immersive 3d sound

Since transmission capacities have significantly increased over the past few years, researchers are now able to transmit a larger amount of data, namely multichannel audio content, in the consumer applications. What has not been investigated in a systematic way yet is how to deliver the multichannel content. Specifically, researchers\u27 attention is focused on the quest of a standardized immersive reproduction format that incorporates height loudspeakers coupled with the new high-resolution and three-dimensional (3D) media content for a comprehensive 3D experience. To better understand and utilize the immersive audio reproduction, this research focused on the (1) interaction between the positioning of height loudspeakers and the signals fed to the loudspeakers, (2) investigation of the perceptual characteristics associated with the height ambiences, and (3) the influence of inverse filtering on perceived sound quality for the realistic 3D sound reproduction. The experiment utilized the existence of two layers of loudspeakers: horizontal layer following the ITU-R BS.775 five-channel loudspeaker configuration and height layer locating a total of twelve loudspeakers at the azimuth of ±30°, ±50°, ±70°, ±90°, ±110° and ±130° and elevation of 30°. Eight configurations were formed, each of which selected four height-loudspeakers from twelve. In the subjective evaluation, listeners compared, ranked and described the eight randomly presented configurations of 4-channel height ambiences. The stimuli for the experiment were four nine-channel (5 channels for the horizontal and 4 for the height loudspeakers) multichannel music. Moreover, an approach of Finite Impulse Response (FIR) inverse filtering was attempted, in order to remove the particular room\u27s acoustic influence. Another set of trained professionals was informally asked to use descriptors to characterize the newly presented multichannel music with height ambiences rendered with inverse filtering. The experimental results indicate the significance of the positioning of the loudspeakers with respect to the signals being fed to those loudspeakers in delivering a 3D sound field. Furthermore, it has been revealed that the perceptual characteristics that listeners linked for multichannel music with height ambiences include envelopment, elevated-ness and fullness. Last but not least, after applying the inverse filtering the subjective preference was not affected significantly. This allows for the author to believe that, in fact, the room\u27s influence with respect to the subjective evaluation is not as important as the appropriate loudspeaker-positioning for the multichannel-reproduced music with height ambiences

The emotional contents of the ‘space’ in spatial music

Human spatial perception is how we understand places. Beyond understanding what is where (William James’ formulation of the psychological approach to perception); there are holistic qualities to places. We perceive places as busy, crowded, exciting, threatening or peaceful, calm, comfortable and so on. Designers of places spend a great deal of time and effort on these qualities; scientists rarely do. In the scientific world-view physical qualities and our emotive responses to them are neatly divided in the objective-subjective dichotomy. In this context, music has traditionally constituted an item in a place. Over the last two decades, development of “spatial music” has been within the prevailing engineering paradigm, informed by psychophysical data; here, space is an abstract, Euclidean 3-dimensional ‘container’ for events. The emotional consequence of spatial arrangements is not the main focus in this approach. This paper argues that a paradigm shift is appropriate, from ‘music-in-a-place’ to ‘music-as-a-place’ requiring a fundamental philosophical realignment of ‘meaning’ away from subjective response to include consequences-in-the-environment. Hence the hegemony of the subjective-objective dichotomy is questioned. There are precedents for this, for example in the ecological approach to perception (Gibson). An ecological approach to music-as-environment intrinsically treats the emotional consequences of spatio-musical arrangement holistically. A simplified taxonomy of the attributes of artificial spatial sound in this context will be discussed

The Sacrifice of Artistry for a Convenient Society

Over the past hundred or so years, the music industry has seen lots of change in the way that music is made, played, and displayed. With the advancement of recording technology, societal influence, and musicianship we see a plethora of different genres, as well as mediums of listening in today\u27s world. This thesis discusses the different modes of recording, from LP to streaming services, and comments on the sonic characteristics of numerous recordings from different genres and eras. This thesis also compares and contrasts certain aspects of professional level audio and consumer level audio, as well as sonic biases in them both. The central theme of this thesis, however, is the reduction of audio quality throughout the industry process when the original master recordings are encoded into a digital format. This process pulls away from the brilliance of an original recording, and displays the importance of respecting the craftsmanship of the artist as well as the engineers