Meeting Topic: Virtual Acoustics - Simulation of Sound Fields and Multichanel Reproduction
Moderator Name: E-Jo. Voelker
Speaker Name: Prof. Vorländer (Institute for Techical Acoustics), Tobias Lentz (Institut für Technische Akustik der RWTH Aachen), Alexander Bob + E-Jo. Voelker (Institut für Akustik und Bauphysik)
Other business or activities at the meeting: Founding of the Student Section of Aachen
Meeting Location: Technical University of Aachen, Germany
The AES Section of Central Germany had invited to this meeting at the Technical University of Aachen.31 members and guests were present including a large group of students who wanted to know more about the work of the AES and the student sections in Germany and all over the world. Aachen has for many years been a center of acoustics and electro-acoustics with Prof. Vorländer as Head of the Institute for Techical Acoustics. The school of Aachen became famous with Prof. Kutruff and his extended investigations in room-acoustics and electro-acoustics. This evening the highly motivated students founded a student section with the following officials: Chair: Aulus Telle, Vicechair: Steven Phee, Treasurer and Secretary: Christian Budde. Prof. Michael Vorländer became Faculty Sponsor for the Aachen AES Student Section.
The 91st AES Meeting in Aachen was full of interesting reports, information and demonstrations. Dipl.-Ing. Tobias Lentz reported on his investigations in the field of audio-virtual reality. Simulation is in many cases much cheaper and faster than in the reality. For an example he mentioned the airplane simulators or the simulation of production lines in the automobile industry. For new buildings room-acoustical conditions can be demonstrated in virtual reality making decisions much easier and faster. The reproduction of sound fields is based on the very fast calculation of sound transmission and the use of — in this case -- only two channels and the reproduction with loudspeakers instead of headphones.
Prof. Völker reported on comparisons between control room and normal living room when 5.1 Technology in multichannel stereo reproduction is concerned. The results are based on investigations in the IAB control room (Institute for Acoustics and Building Physics in Oberursel Germany). The opportunity was provided to build a complete living room with furniture and usual room-acoustical conditions in order to compare the two rooms, asking test persons to distinguish the differences. Alexander Bob completed this report describing the test and results. It has been shown that a normal living room with loudspeakers and in front of walls having additional sound reflections on ceiling walls and floor was not as bad as expected. Some test persons were in favour of these acoustical conditions compared to the normal non-reverbarant IAB control room in which the reproduction was reported to be more precise and more sharply directed.
After these presentations the attendees had the opportunity to visit the laboratories and to discuss with the students on their working places in question.
Dr. Markus Erne is the Cental Europe Vivepresident of the AES and is responsible for the student activities ,especially for the founding of new sections. He described the many activities worldwide with more than 80 student sections. As part of these he mentioned the German sections in Berlin, Detmold, Düsseldorf, Darmstadt, Ilmenau and now Aachen.
