AES British Section newsletters
November 2006
Upcoming events
12th December 2006 - 7pm
Lecture: The Evolution of Computer Game AudioAdam Philp, Sensaura
Royal Academy of Engineering, London
9th January 2007 - 7pm
Lecture: The Balanced Mode RadiatorGraham Bank, Deben Acoustics
Royal Academy of Engineering, London
Lecture - The Evolution of Computer Game Audio
by Adam Philp, Sensaura
Tuesday 12th December - 7pm
Today's computer gaming platforms contain unprecedented audio processing power and complexity, and modern computer game development frequently involves teams of composers, sound designers, musicians and programmers who routinely create innovative audio that competes with Hollywood movie production values and is fully interactive to boot! Yet computer games are often seen as "for kids", and consequently many in the audio industry do not take computer game audio seriously, or are unaware of what an exciting area it has always been and continues to be today.
Its surprisingly long and varied history is presented, from the simple beeps of 'Pong' to today's platforms, where blistering DSP power that would grace any recording studio is combined with advanced algorithms to create 3 dimensional sound worlds that immerse the player in the game, all rendered in multichannel sound capable of surpassing home theatre systems. Beginning with the triumph of ingenuity and imagination over primitive hardware and miniscule resources; continuing through consistent technological innovation, and climaxing with a story of ever-increasing complexity that any audio professional will recognize.
Above all, the sheer memorability of the best computer game audio is a testament to what has been achieved - keep an eye on your fellow audience members as the accompanying demos transport many back to their mis-spent youth by the sheer power of sound!
Adam has over 15 years experience in audio research and development. His research into the psychoacoustics of spatial hearing was the technical foundation for Sensaura 3D audio technology, first used in the music industry on recordings by artists including Frank Sinatra. Adam then designed environmental acoustic modelling technology and developed Sensaura's 3D positioning algorithms for real-time interactive audio applications. Sensaura is currently available on over 150 million PCs and is the 3D audio solution for Microsoft's Xbox games console. Between 2000 and 2006, Adam specialized in developing audio middleware for console gaming platforms including the Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Gamecube. He is currently Research & Development Manager for Sensaura, which is now part of Creative Labs.
This lecture will be held at The Royal Academy of Engineering, 29 Great Peter Street, London, SW1P 3LW. Great Peter Street runs between Great Smith Street/Marsham Street and Millbank, just behind Westminster Abbey.
Nearest underground stations are St. James's Park and Westminster. There is free parking in local streets after 6.30pm. The Congestion Charge also operates in this area until 6.30pm. Refreshments at 6.30pm, lecture at 7.00pm. Everyone is welcome.
November lecture report
RoomPerfect DSP Room Correction
Jan Abildgaard Pedersen, Lyngdorf Audio
On November 14th the UK Section of the AES hosted a lecture titled "RoomPerfect DSP Room Correction" by Jan Abildgaard Pedersen, who worked for Bang & Olufsen for more than 10 years and joined Lyngdorf Audio (formerly TacT Audio) last year as CTO. Jan set out to describe how Lyngdorf Audio's RoomPerfect room correction system works.
Jan started with the basics of why room correction is required and described the normal room correction system as performing signal processing before the power amplifier with some feedback from the room.
The RoomPerfect system is novel in that it takes SPL measurements from multiple positions in the listening room as its feedback from the room.
The multiple measurements are power-averaged and used to calculate a set of gain limits to use when generating the correction filter for a specific listening position. Jan pointed out that using multiple measurements has many benefits including taking into account the three dimensional nature of the room, not having to use smoothing to compensate for the local peaks and being able to do automatic target selection.
Jan then discussed why he had picked multiple pure tones as the test signal for the RoomPerfect system. The benefits include the fact that from a steady state system any (linear) properties of the room can be determined, long analysis windows can be used which improves frequency resolution and long analysis times can be used to improve the SNR.
Another feature of the RoomPerfect system Jan talked about is the automatic generation of the target curve, taking into account the characteristics of the loudspeakers actually used, so that no standard curve is forced onto the loudspeaker.
Jan finished up by showing the results of the RoomPerfect system on the SPL at the listening position. He pointed out that as the RoomPerfect system takes into account the global effect of the room, the room correction improves the signal throughout the room even when optimizing for a specific listening position.
There followed an extensive question and answer session. A recording of the lecture is available from the UK section website at pastmeetings.aes-uk.org.
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