Why immersive spatial audio matters, with the IKO speaker | Brona Martin | TEDxUniversityofGreenwich

NOTE FROM TED: TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give TEDx organizers are described in more detail here: http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/t...

“Headphones recommended for best listening experience”
This talk provides you with 6 minutes of Sound/Image listening experience and then Brona Martin expands on why such experiences matter to us.
The 3D Mars visuals were created by Maria Manastireanu and the sound of the demo is a binaural remix created for headphone listening by Dr Brona Martin.

Working with new spatial audio technologies such as the IKO loudspeaker allows composers and sound artists to explore this loudspeaker as an instrument. This talk discusses new spatial audio technologies such as the IKO 3D Audio speaker and how it can be used to create a variety of spatial audio experiences. Brona provides an example of how she is using the IKO loudspeaker within her creative practice.

The demo provides an example of an audio-visual collaboration. The Mars Landscape of the Jezero crater was created by 3D artist Maria Manastireanu in Unreal Engine. Maria used height maps from the NASA website to create an accurate topography of this terrain.

For the Mars soundscape Brona used recordings from NASA that were captured by the microphone on Perseverance’s Supercam in May 2021. These include sounds of the rover driving and laser impacts on rocks. Brona also spent a lot of time exploring the sounds of rocks, recording and processing their sounds and textures to reflect the Mars landscape.

These sounds were encoded into an ambisonic soundfield which is projected into space by the IKO loudspeaker. Dr. Brona is a composer and sound artist from Banagher, Co. Offaly, Ireland. Her compositions explore narrative in electroacoustic music, acoustic ecology and sound spatialisation techniques through the creation of metaphorical and real-world representations of environments. The aim of these compositions is to reveal particular sonic characters that are not normally the focus of listening.

Brona is a Lecturer in Music and Sound in the School of Stage and Screen at the University of Greenwich where she teaches composition for film, games and media. She is also a researcher within the SOUND/IMAGE Research Centre. Brona’s research focuses on spatial audio applications and workflows in electroacoustic music and VR and gaming technologies and the explorations of heritage spaces and narratives through sound. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx