Understanding listener experience of spatial audio at home or on the move is central to disrupting the current channel-based studio formats and achieving practical advances because the listener will ultimately decide whether to adopt new technologies. Existing perceptual evaluation of audio technologies has primarily been conducted in controlled listening environments with ideal loudspeaker configurations and minimal acoustic reflection. Technical advances in spatial audio recording, transmission and reproduction are commonly developed in isolation without considering their impact on listener experience at home. S3A takes a holistic centred approach around listener experience in real settings with four interlinked streams.

S3A research streams:

• Stream 1: Object centred spatial audio production, standards & transmission.
• Stream 2: Understanding listener perception of spatial audio in real spaces.
• Stream 3: Audio-visual DSP for spatial audio object separation & listener localisation.
• Stream 4: Practical reproduction of personal spatial audio in real spaces.

Lean more about S3A research here.