Spatial Sound Reproduction with Wave Field Synthesis

Stereophonic spatial sound reproduction systems with two, five, or more channels are designed for a certain listener position and work well in its vicinity, the so called sweet spot. For listeners at other positions, the quality of the spatial reproduction may be degraded. This contribution describes an advanced spatial reproduction technique called wave field synthesis. It is based on a physical description of acoustic wave propagation and uses loudspeaker array technology for sound field reproduction without the sweet spot limitation. After discussing the physical foundations, the main steps from the acoustic description to the determination of the loudspeaker signals are outlined. Finally an implementation of a wave field synthesis system with 48 channels is presented.