WEb Audio Virtual Environment Rendering (WEAVER): Online Virtual Acoustics for Sonic Art, Digital Heritage, and Broadcast

Auralisation, the audio equivalent of visualization, enables us to audition virtual acoustic environments that once existed, will exist or that are purely fictional. Auralisation is based on obtaining the acoustic room impulse response (RIR) of a space, through measurement if the building already exists, or otherwise via simulation using computational modelling. The result is a 3D acoustic rendering of any sound we wish to hear within the auralised environment. This research plays a key role in architecture, environmental noise assessment, recreating past environments in digital heritage, as well as enabling creativity in music production, broadcast and computer gaming.

The WEb Audio Virtual Environment Rendering (WEAVER) project will revisit the concept of spatial audio composition and rendering in relation to the last ten years of development in auralisation and virtual acoustics research. Since this research started in 2004, the specialised audio technology required to explore spatial composition using virtual acoustics, auralisation, acoustic measurement and modelling is now commonplace in most creative computer music software applications. Acoustic RIR measurements from various sites, buildings and venues, many of significant heritage value or interest have also been gathered and disseminated over this ten-year period via the online Open Acoustic Impulse Response Library (OpenAIR: www.openairlib.net). Over this time OpenAIR has become a key resource for electronic musicians, sound designers, software and computer game developers.

Much of the functionality required to explore and audition spatial audio content and virtual acoustic environments can now, in fact, be offered via a standard web browser and mobile device - additional acoustic RIR data is still needed to auralise these virtual spaces, but the ability to use or listen to these results is now carried by millions of potential users worldwide.

WEAVER will use the Web Audio API to deliver interactive virtual acoustic environments via a web browser, and to further realise some of the creative research aims first articulated over ten years ago. In combination with the research and resources related to OpenAIR, that was also an outcome from this initial work, WEAVER will develop impact and engagement in online sonic art, digital heritage and broadcast.

WEAVER will create novel online sonic art from OpenAIR data. We will scope the Web Audio API to detail its capabilities for developing creative virtual acoustics applications informed by existing examples and current practice, and provide a route to impact through the development of new user contacts for OpenAIR content.

We will work with York Theatre Royal, a regional producing theatre based on a historic site that has hosted a working theatre since 1744, to develop a web resource to engage new audiences with the redevelopment and heritage of the theatre's auditorium space. This presents a unique opportunity to apply our virtual acoustics research in a culturally and historically significant venue during its refurbishment. We will help York Theatre Royal to tell their story and engage new audiences using our expertise in acoustic heritage, auralisation and sound design, brought together through the development of novel, interactive online content.

With BBC Audio Research we will investigate how virtual acoustic rendering informs the experience of listening to audio broadcast material. WEAVER will expand on existing BBC spatial audio rendering for broadcast to include differently rendered virtual acoustic and playback listening environments, and will make use of BBC facilities and test platforms for reaching audiences in order to gain feedback on the effectiveness and future viability of this presentation technology.

At all stages data and code developed will be disseminated by open-source/open-access means, encouraging maximum potential impact for WEAVER and the resources it creates.

The WEAVER follow-on project will build on research in spatial audio composition and rendering by using the Web Audio API, together with OpenAIR data, to deliver interactive virtual acoustic content for the web, so developing new pathways to impact and engagement in online sonic art, digital heritage and broadcast. The main WEAVER beneficiaries are the partners who have shaped its content and direction.

York Theatre Royal (YTR) will use audio/image data, as gathered from the current theatre space throughout the existing refurbishment and beyond, to animate the history of the building and the site. The digital heritage community, both researchers and those managing museums, galleries and heritage sites, will also benefit from the learning developed from the design of the online materials for engagement that will be produced from this partnership.

WEAVER will enable BBC Audio Research to enhance their existing spatial audio rendering applications to include virtual acoustic and multiple playback options. Through our partnership we will further promote this work to the relatively new Web Audio community, who have recently hosted their first international conference with the BBC already active as contributors.

Additionally, audiences for both YTR and BBC will benefit from the enhanced opportunities that will be offered through WEAVER to digitally engage with the creative content that these organisations curate and deliver.

The wider creative music technology community will also benefit from outputs produced in terms of the novel sonic art created, code developed and RIR data that will be curated and made available online via OpenAIR.

OpenAIR has already created impact in computer music, digital heritage and computer gaming. WEAVER will also deliver impact in the area of computer music, extending to the web developer community through the novel use of OpenAIR data and the Web Audio API. Both data and code developed will be made open-source/open-access, encouraging maximum potential impact for WEAVER and the resources it creates. As the Web Audio community is relatively new, there is a good opportunity to make an early contribution to the field with lasting impact.

WEAVER will enhance the offering and potential audiences for our two high profile partners through the novel online content created. YTR and the BBC are part of the UK's Creative Industries, a socially important, export driven industry, and one of the UK's leading industrial sectors. Digital technology increasingly helps to drive the creative industries, and interactive digital media is becoming more important in conveying narrative and factual entertainment to audiences. Collaborating with our partners at this early stage in Web Audio's development maximizes the potential impact for our work given the national reputation of YTR and the global reach of the BBC. York has recently been designated as UNESCO City of Media Arts, providing an umbrella under which the collaboration with YTR has additional opportunity to make a global impact, with related benefit to the local, regional and UK economy.

Impact developed with YTR will become more beneficial as the theatre reopens in late 2015/early 2016, and starts on the next phase of its own development. WEAVER is also planned to start then, and benefits should be evident within the timescale of the project into the medium term. Integrating with the BBC's online technology will enable WEAVER outputs to deliver impact into the future based on their wider use and rollout. The Audio Research Partnership encourages further collaboration beyond the project timescale and joint dissemination to audiences in academia and industry is anticipated.

The project RA will develop professional skills in audio, web authoring and coding through engagement with the requirements of our two partners, coupled with a valuable industry placement with the BBC that will further opportunities for them across employment sectors.