Immerse yourself in spatial worlds of sound: High-tech listening lab at the I3TC ready for use in teaching and research
From the soundscape of the big city to the idyllic sounds of nature: Thanks to 77 precisely aligned loudspeakers, acoustic environments can now be realistically simulated in the VR Lab at the Ilmenau Interactive Immersive Technologies Center (I3TC). This was made possible by Research in Media Engineering students Christian Ziener and Niklas Edelmann, who set up the room in accordance with international standards. The hearing lab now opens up a wide range of possibilities for research into innovative virtual and augmented reality technologies and their applications: from the simulation of virtual soundscapes to the realistic evaluation of hearing aids and the development of immersive gaming projects.
The soundscape of a pulsating city, a concert or the idyllic sound of the rainforest - in the VR Lab at the Ilmenau Interactive Immersive Technologies Center (I3TC ) at TU Ilmenau, listeners can now immerse themselves in a wide variety of acoustic landscapes. Thanks to an optimized arrangement of 77 loudspeakers, the listening environments are simulated realistically. This is made possible not only by state-of-the-art technology, but also by the efforts of Christian Ziener and Niklas Edelmann, Master’s students of Research in Media Engineering (formerly Media Technology). As part of a media project, they made it ready for use in teaching and research at the TU Ilmenau.
Optimized surround sound thanks to precise speaker alignment
All common playback standards can now be realized in the listening laboratory of the Grace Hopper Building at TU Ilmenau - from simple stereo setups to complex systems such as 22.2 or Ambisonics, which are also used in cinemas. The special arrangement of the speakers makes it possible to precisely control the acoustic environment and create realistic sound images. To optimize the surround sound, Niklas and Christian measured the laboratory, in which the loudspeakers were initially mounted without specific alignment and not set up in accordance with the standard. This was followed by the precise positioning and alignment of the tweeters and woofers. According to Niklas and Christian, the key to an ideal sound experience lay in the alignment of the playback channels to the sweet spot, the point of optimal sound reproduction for listeners, which was determined by the two students in the center of the room. As a result, the VR Lab now complies with the recommended international standards, including those of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
A place to research and try things out
The VR Lab not only serves as a place for practical teaching, but also opens up a wide range of possibilities for researching innovative virtual and augmented reality technologies and their applications: from the simulation of virtual soundscapes to the realistic evaluation of hearing aids and the development of immersive gaming projects. Thanks to pre-installed settings that can be flexibly adapted, the loudspeaker arrangement can be used in a variety of ways, as Stephan Werner, acting head of the Electronic Media Technology Group and supervisor of the media project, explains:
The ability to use both fixed loudspeaker configurations and flexible audio playback in the VR Lab, where individual sounds can be precisely positioned in the room, is exceptional and rarely found anywhere in the world. . The lab opens up new research opportunities for us and creates a space for practical teaching to teach students how to work with modern audio systems and standards.
For students, the VR Lab is above all’a place to gain practical experience, as Christian and Niklas explain. The independent implementation of this technically demanding project not only deepened their specialist knowledge, but also encouraged them in their professional ambitions in the field of acoustics:
As acoustic engineers, we really enjoyed working in the VR Lab. It is special for us to implement a project that has a lasting benefit for the university and we are already very excited about future research projects that will be realized in the lab.
