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Students from the media technology programme recently helped install a 24-channel ambisonic rig in the University's Spark building.

24th March 2017
TV, film, media production and technology

Students from the media technology programme were on hand to help install a 24-channel ambisonic rig in the University’s Spark building last week. The rig was used for a soundscape installation and featured at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) Conference over the weekend.

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Ambisonic systems provide a truly spherical sound field, with sound sources appearing above and below the listener as well as across the horizontal plane. This provides a much more immersive listening experience with distinct sounds appearing from any point around the listener. From the mixer’s perspective they are no longer constrained by loudspeaker positions and can focus on localising sounds instead.

Students from across the year groups and pathways erected the 7m x 7m x 3m scaffolding, installed the loudspeakers, and ran the cabling for the multichannel system. They were also on hand to help align and calibrate the system for optimal performance.

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Several of the students already had some experience of ambisonic rigs from a smaller setup in the department’s studios. All of the students involved benefitted from seeing some of the theory on spatial audio from the course put into practice on an unusually large scale.

Many thanks to all those involved.