3-D sound field reproduction with reverberation control on surround sound system by combining parametric and electro-dynamic loudspeakers

Abstract

Recently, with the development of video technology, 3-D sound field reproduction systems that can provide a high presence have attracted attention. Conventional systems with electro-dynamic loudspeakers have a problem that the sound image lacks sharpness when constructing a narrow sound image. To solve this problem, we utilize a parametric array loudspeaker which has sharp directivity by the straightness of ultrasounds. Parametric array loudspeakers can produce sharper sound images due to the sharper directivity and lower reverberation compared with electro-dynamic loudspeakers. However, it is difficult to represent reverberation by parametric array loudspeakers. In this paper, we propose a method for 3-D sound field reproduction to achieve both the sharp images and reverberation presence by combing parametric array loudspeakers and electro-dynamic loudspeakers in surround sound system. In the proposed method, sharp sound images are rendered by parametric array loudspeakers and the reverberation presence is provided by electro-dynamic loudspeakers, emitting reverberation signals synthesized with a reverberation control filter. The reverberation control filter is adaptively designed to reproduce the reverberation time and the direct-to-reverberation ratio of the target sound field in other environments. The experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve the reproducing the sharp sound image with some reverberation presence.