On 16 June 2016, ORPHEUS coordinator Fraunhofer IIS held a workshop with British spatial audio researchers from the S3A project. 30 people participated in the workshop at IIS headquarters in Erlangen, Germany, which explored audio-related technical research topics of mutual interest.
The S3A project, full name: Future Spatial Audio for an Immersive Listener Experience, explores a number of subjects closely related to the ORPHEUS work. This includes topics like 3D sound reproduction over different loudspeaker setups and headphones, and different issues related to audio object rendering.
Philip B. Jackson from the University of Surrey presented an overview on S3A, and Andreas Silzle from Fraunhofer IIS gave an introduction to the ORPHEUS project. The technical presentations covered topics like “Listener Adaptive Optimal Source Distribution System for Virtual Sound Imaging”, “Reverberation in object-based audio”, and “Understanding and Improving Listener Experience”.
Researchers from both projects agreed that a continued exchange could be mutually beneficial. Parts of the S3A research could be used in the ORPHEUS project, or at least provide some inspiration. The BBC is a partner in both ORPHEUS and S3A, which could facilitate sharing results.
In the workshop the idea emerged to hold the spring meeting of each project at the same location or nearby in order to enable a common day of presentations, information exchange, and discussions between the participants of both projects. Accordingly a co-located meeting in London is already considered as a suitable opportunity for spring 2017.