Abstract
The IoSR is responsible for world-class research in audio-related subject areas, and offers postgraduate research-based MPhil and PhD programmes, as well as being home to the world-famous Tonmeister™ BMus undergraduate degree course in Music & Sound Recording. Since the creation of the Institute of Sound Recording (IoSR) in 1998 it has become known internationally as a leading centre for research in psychoacoustic engineering, with world-class facilities and with significant funding from research councils (in particular EPSRC) and from industry (we have successfully completed projects in collaboration with Adrian James Acoustics, Bang & Olufsen, BBC R&D, Genelec, Harman-Becker, Institut für Rundfunktechnik, Meridian Audio, Nokia, Pharos Communications and Sony BPE). Additionally, the IoSR was a founding partner in the EPSRC-funded Digital Music Research Network (DMRN) and Spatial Audio Creative Engineering Network (SpACE-Net). We are interested in human perception of audio quality, primarily of high-fidelity music signals. Our work combines elements of acoustics, digital signal processing, psychoacoustics (theoretical and experimental), psychology, sound synthesis, software engineering, statistical analysis and user-interface design, with an understanding of the aesthetics of sound and music. One particular focus of our work is the development of tools to predict the perceived audio quality of a given soundfield or audio signal. If, for example, a new concert hall, hi-fi or audio codec is being designed, it is important to know how each candidate prototype would be rated by human listeners and how it would compare to other products which may be in competition. Traditional acoustic and electronic measurements (e.g. RT60, SNR, THD) can give some indication but a truly representative assessment requires lengthy listening tests with a panel of skilled human listeners. Such tests are time-consuming, costly and often logistically difficult. The tools that we are developing will describe the quality of the prototype without the need for human listeners. An introduction to our research will be given by the Director of research, Dr.Tim Brookes, followed by demonstrations and posters from our postgraduate researchers. We welcome those working in industry and academia to attend the presentation and to discuss our recent findings and overall research goals.