Spatial multizone soundfield reproduction

Abstract

Spatial multizone soundfield reproduction is a difficult problem, which has many potential applications. This paper provides a framework to recreate 2D spatial multizone soundfields using an array of loudspeakers. We derive the desired global soundfield by translating individual desired soundfields to a single global co-ordinate system and applying appropriate angular window functions. We reveal some of the fundamental limits of 2D multizone soundfield reproduction. We show that the ability of multizone reproduction is dependent on (i) maximum radius of multizones, (ii) window length (size, and nature), and (iii) radial distance to the furthermost zone. We illustrate the framework by designing and simulating a two dimensional two zone soundfield.