Alex Wilson began the meeting with a lecture entitled "Listener-centric design of audio systems: adapting playback to users' needs and preferences". Alex first introduced concepts related to object-based audio delivery along with potential benefits to the user, and challenges to the system designers. The design and evaluation of an interactive audio renderer was then discussed. He explained that the system explored in the lecture was designed to allow the creation of personalised audio mixes based on feedback from the user. Applications for this proof-of-concept were then discussed.
Hugh O'Dwyer's lecture, entitled "Novel Methods for the Analysis and Assessment of Spatial Audio", focused on three primary topics. He first described a comparative study evaluating the perceived quality of Ambisonic microphones assessed using subjective listening tests of recordings and a directional encoding analysis of the B-format signals. He then discussed two virtual headphone testing methodologies demonstrating the validity of presenting headphone recordings, and stimuli filtered using headphone transfer functions, to assess the quality of headphones. Lastly, he explained how deep neural networks can be used to model sound source localization (elevation and distance) in binaural signals.
