8–12 Sept 2026
Europe/Vienna timezone

Why 2.5D Sound Field Synthesis Isn't Going to Produce Diffuse Sound Fields Well Enough

FA2026/1
10 Sept 2026, 14:40
20m
Saal 10 (Messe Congress Graz)

Saal 10

Messe Congress Graz

A12 Numerical, Computational, and Theoretical Acoustics A12.12/A16.13 Diffuse Sound Fields and Reverberation

Speaker

Franz Zotter (University of Music and Performing Arts)

Description

Reproducing surround audio via a horizontal ring of 3D point-source loudspeakers is termed 2.5D synthesis. Such layouts were recently proven incapable of producing spatially extended diffuse sound fields when fed with mutually uncorrelated signals. Could feeding the loudspeakers via 2.5D sound field synthesis help?We show that the horizontal ring layout of vertical line sources is the ideal 2D layout and permits full control with convolutional driving functions. Such functions are general enough to also include 2.5D WFS or 2.5D Ambisonics with spectral division. But no convolutional driving function can help a 2.5D layout synthesize extended diffuse fields from uncorrelated input. While active sound intensity must vanish in the ideal diffuse field, convolutional driving functions for 2.5D inevitably produce net inward sound intensity.

Authors

Franz Zotter (University of Music and Performing Arts) Lukas Gölles (University of Music and Performing Arts) Matthias Frank (University of Music and Performing Arts)

Presentation materials