The 3DBox is our first version of a spatial sound system for research and creative practice. Our main objective is to provide a space that can be used across all disciplines.

Setup and Hardware

The 3DBox sound system consists of 28 Neumann KH120 MKII loudspeakers, mounted on aluminum trusses.

• Dimensions: 4.7 x 5.2 x 3.7 meters
• AES67 ready speakers, combined with a DANTE network.

Rendering Software

Our system can be used with different rendering solutions. Some of them in a more conventional workflow, others more experimental.

Ambisonics Solution

The rendering software runs on a Linux computer with a Klark Teknik DN9630 audio interface. A Jack server is started with a sample rate of 48 000 Hz and a buffer size of 64 samples, resulting in an audio output latency of 1.33 ms.

A custom Ambisonics encoding system5 is implemented, based on SC-HOA, a Higher-Order Ambisonics extension for SuperCollider. This system utilizes fifth-order Ambisonics to generate four virtual sound sources, which are controlled through spherical coordinates received via OSC messages.

Experimental Panning System

Graduate student Xinni Li is currently working on a custom implementation of an experimental VBAP based algorithm.

Construction

The whole system has been built by students from our team and the School of Music.