Democratising spatial audio in live broadcast screenings

Emily Holmes is an Audio Technician at the School of Arts and Creative Technologies, University of York and a freelance live events technician.

Emily was awarded an R&D residency with XR Stories to develop an existing project that is exploring how to bring spatial audio to smaller venues without requiring specialist hardware. 

Emily will tap into state-of-the-art equipment and specialist expertise in the XR Stories immersive R&D lab to investigate ways to explore alternative methods of democratising spatial audio distribution for broadcast performances in theatre and live events.

The project will involve an assessment of the suitability of the MPEG-H suite, a set of tools enabling users to create personalised and immersive spatial audio for televised broadcast and streaming.

Emily’s research will investigate how the MPEG-H suite could feature within a server-based system and web interface that could be used by different sizes of venue, with varying technical facilities to participate in live broadcasts.

With live broadcast events often restricted to Dolby-equipped cinemas, the work aims to open up access for smaller venues to participate in live broadcast events without the need for specialist hardware. 

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Categories: Audio, Research, Technology