Abstract
An integrated recording and reproduction array system for spatial audio is presented. The architecture of the system consists of two stages. Stage I is an analysis microphone array that "encodes" the sound field into sparse source components in the angle space. Stage II is a field synthesis loudspeaker array that "decodes", or reproduces, the sound field on the basis of the source components obtained in Stage I. This generic framework for spatial sound system resembles the analysis-synthesis filterbanks in discrete time signal processing. Direction of Arrival (DOA) of sound sources is estimated by using Minimum Variance Distortionless Response (MVDR) or Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC). Source signals that are needed to be reproduced are also extracted via a deconvolution process. In Stage II, the target sound field produced by the identified sources is reproduced by a loudspeaker array. Specifically, this stage can be formulated as another deconvolution problem by matching the reproduced and target fields at numerous control points in the interior domain of the loudspeaker array, while minimizing the external radiation to mitigate the adverse effects of boundary reflections. Optimal filters are designed, with the aid of convex optimization. The proposed system is verified numerically and experimentally with a circular microphone array surrounded by a rectangular loudspeaker array.