Cloud-based AI for automatic audio production for personalized immersive XR experiences (2022)
Journal Article
Oldfield, R., Walley, M., Shirley, B., & Williams, D. (2022). Cloud-based AI for automatic audio production for personalized immersive XR experiences. SMPTE motion imaging journal, 131(7), 6-16. https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2022.3184849

In this article, we focus on the machine-learning approach developed for automatic audio source recognition and mixing for the U.K. Government Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) funded collaborative project called 5G Edge-XR. Leveraging gra... Read More about Cloud-based AI for automatic audio production for personalized immersive XR experiences.

Loudness differences for Voice-over-Voice audio in TV and streaming (2020)
Journal Article
Geary, D., Torcoli, M., Paulus, J., Simon, C., Straninger, D., Travaglini, A., & Shirley, B. (2020). Loudness differences for Voice-over-Voice audio in TV and streaming. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 68(11), 810-818. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2020.0022

Voice-over-Voice (VoV) is a common mixing practice observed in news reports and docu- mentaries, where a foreground voice is mixed on top of a background voice, e.g., to translate an interview. This is achieved by ducking the background voice so that... Read More about Loudness differences for Voice-over-Voice audio in TV and streaming.

Intelligibility vs. comprehension : understanding quality of accessible next-generation audio broadcast (2020)
Journal Article
accessible next-generation audio broadcast. Universal Access in the Information Society, 20(4), 691-699. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-020-00741-8

For traditional broadcasting formats, imple-mentation of accessible audio strategies for hard of hear-ing people have used a binary, intelligibility-based ap-proach. In this approach sounds are categorized eitheras speech, contributing to compreh... Read More about Intelligibility vs. comprehension : understanding quality of accessible next-generation audio broadcast.

Preferred levels for background ducking to produce esthetically pleasing audio for TV with clear speech (2019)
Journal Article
Torcoli, M., Freke-Morin, A., Paulus, J., Simon, C., & Shirley, B. (2019). Preferred levels for background ducking to produce esthetically pleasing audio for TV with clear speech. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 67(12), 1003-1011. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2019.0052

In audio production, background ducking facilitates speech intelligibility while allowing the background to fulfill its purpose, e.g., to create ambience, set the mood, or convey semantic cues. Technical details for recommended ducking practices are... Read More about Preferred levels for background ducking to produce esthetically pleasing audio for TV with clear speech.

Personalization in object-based audio for accessibility : a review of advancements for hearing impaired listeners (2019)
Journal Article
Ward, L., & Shirley, B. (2019). Personalization in object-based audio for accessibility : a review of advancements for hearing impaired listeners. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 67(7/8), 584-597. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2019.0021

Hearing loss is widespread and significantly impacts an individual’s ability to engage with broadcast media. Access can be improved through new object-based audio personalization methods. Utilizing the literature on hearing loss and intelligibility t... Read More about Personalization in object-based audio for accessibility : a review of advancements for hearing impaired listeners.

Background ducking to produce esthetically pleasing audio for TV with clear speech (2019)
Presentation / Conference
audio for TV with clear speech. Presented at Audio Engineering Society Convention 146, Dublin

In audio production, background ducking facilitates speech intelligibility, while keeping the background track enjoyable. Technical details for recommendable ducking practices are not currently documented in literature. Hence, we first analyze comm... Read More about Background ducking to produce esthetically pleasing audio for TV with clear speech.

Speech-to-screen : spatial separation of dialogue from noise towards improved speech intelligibility for the small screen (2018)
Presentation / Conference
Demonte, P., Tang, Y., Hughes, R., Cox, T., Fazenda, B., & Shirley, B. (2018, May). Speech-to-screen : spatial separation of dialogue from noise towards improved speech intelligibility for the small screen. Presented at 144th International Pro Audio Convention (AES Milan 2018), Milan, Italy

Can externalizing dialogue when in the presence of stereo background noise improve speech intelligibility? This has been investigated for audio over headphones using head-tracking in order to explore potential future developments for small-screen dev... Read More about Speech-to-screen : spatial separation of dialogue from noise towards improved speech intelligibility for the small screen.

Big pictures and small screens; how television sound research can work with, and for, hard of hearing viewers (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., & Davies, W. (2017, November). Big pictures and small screens; how television sound research can work with, and for, hard of hearing viewers. Presented at Reproduced Sound 2017, Nottingham, UK

Hearing loss affects one in six people in the United Kingdom and, given an ageing population, this figure is increasing.1 Numerous studies highlight that improvements in the intelligibility of television sound are required to increase television’s... Read More about Big pictures and small screens; how television sound research can work with, and for, hard of hearing viewers.

Turning up the background noise; The effects of salient non-speech audio elements on dialogue intelligibility in complex acoustic scenes (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., & Davies, W. (2017, November). Turning up the background noise; The effects of salient non-speech audio elements on dialogue intelligibility in complex acoustic scenes. Presented at Reproduced Sound, Southampton, UK

As an acoustic scene becomes more complex listeners increasingly rely on complementary intelligibility cues, such as context and language structure, to understand speech. Despite the role salient non-speech audio elements, like sound effects, play in... Read More about Turning up the background noise; The effects of salient non-speech audio elements on dialogue intelligibility in complex acoustic scenes.

Personalized object-based audio for hearing impaired TV viewers (2017)
Journal Article
Shirley, B., Meadows, M., Malak, F., Woodcock, J., & Tidball, A. (2017). Personalized object-based audio for hearing impaired TV viewers. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 65(4), 293-303. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2017.0005

Age demographics have led to an increase in the proportion of the population suffering from some form of hearing loss. The introduction of object-based audio to television broadcast has the potential to improve the viewing experience for millions o... Read More about Personalized object-based audio for hearing impaired TV viewers.

Intelligibility vs comprehension : understanding quality of accessible next-generation audio broadcast (2016)
Presentation / Conference
Shirley, B., & Ward, L. (2016, June). Intelligibility vs comprehension : understanding quality of accessible next-generation audio broadcast. Presented at Understanding Media Accessibility Quality, Barcelona, Spain

For traditional broadcasting formats, implementation of accessible audio strategies for hard of hearing people have used a binary, intelligibility-based approach. In this approach sounds are categorized either as speech, contributing to comprehension... Read More about Intelligibility vs comprehension : understanding quality of accessible next-generation audio broadcast.

Clean Audio for TV broadcast: an object-based approach for hearing impaired viewers (2015)
Journal Article
Shirley, B., & Oldfield, R. (2015). Clean Audio for TV broadcast: an object-based approach for hearing impaired viewers. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 63(4), 245-256. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2015.0017

As the percentage of the population with hearing loss increases, broadcasters are receiving more complaints about the difficulty in understanding dialog in the presence of background sound and music. This article explores these issues, reviews previo... Read More about Clean Audio for TV broadcast: an object-based approach for hearing impaired viewers.

An object-based audio system for interactive broadcasting (2014)
Presentation / Conference
Oldfield, R., Shirley, B., & Spille, J. (2014, October). An object-based audio system for interactive broadcasting. Poster presented at 137th Audio Engineering Society Convention, Los Angeles, USA

This paper describes audio recording, delivery, and rendering for an end-to-end broadcast system allowing users free navigation of panoramic video content with matching interactive audio. The system is based on one developed as part of the EU FP7 fun... Read More about An object-based audio system for interactive broadcasting.

Demo paper: Audio object extraction for live sports broadcast (2013)
Presentation / Conference
Oldfield, R., Shirley, B., & Cullen, N. (2013, July). Demo paper: Audio object extraction for live sports broadcast. Presented at Multimedia and Expo Workshops (ICMEW), 2013 IEEE International Conference on, San Jose, Ca, USA

Recent interest in object-based audio systems for cinema opens interesting possibilities to extend the reach of an object-based approach to television broadcast of live events. For events where microphones may be placed close to the source of each so... Read More about Demo paper: Audio object extraction for live sports broadcast.

Object-based audio for interactive football broadcast (2013)
Journal Article
Oldfield, R., Shirley, B., & Spille, J. (2015). Object-based audio for interactive football broadcast. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 74(8), 2717-2741. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-013-1472-2

An end-to-end AV broadcast system providing an immersive, interactive experience for live events is the development aim for the EU FP7 funded project, FascinatE. The project has developed real time audio object event detection and localisation, scene... Read More about Object-based audio for interactive football broadcast.

Combining panoramic image and 3D audio capture with conventional coverage for immersive and interactive content production (2011)
Book
Thomas, G., Schreer, O., Shirley, B., & Spille, J. (2011). Combining panoramic image and 3D audio capture with conventional coverage for immersive and interactive content production. IBC

The media industry is currently being pulled in the often-opposing directions of increased realism (high resolution, stereoscopic, large screen) and personalisation (selection and control of content, availability on many devices). A capture, producti... Read More about Combining panoramic image and 3D audio capture with conventional coverage for immersive and interactive content production.

Format-Agnostic approach for 3d audio (2011)
Presentation / Conference
Kropp, H., Spille, J., Batke, J., Abeling, S., Keiler, F., Oldfield, R., & Shirley, B. (2011, September). Format-Agnostic approach for 3d audio. Presented at IBC, Amsterdam

In the market exists a large variety of media devices, reaching from mobile handsets equipped with headphones up to an ultra-high resolution display connected with a large loudspeaker setup. This makes it difficult for the broadcast industry to provi... Read More about Format-Agnostic approach for 3d audio.

Recording spatial audio signals for interactive broadcast systems (2011)
Presentation / Conference
Batke, J., Spille, J., Kropp, H., Kordon, S., Abeling, S., Shirley, B., & Oldfield, R. (2011, June). Recording spatial audio signals for interactive broadcast systems. Presented at 6th Forum Acusticum, organized by the European Acoustics Association (EAA), Aalborg, Denmark

Spatial audio processing is a key feature of the European funded FascinatE project. The FascinatE project will develop a system to allow end-users to interactively navigate and view around an ultra-high resolution video panorama showing a live event,... Read More about Recording spatial audio signals for interactive broadcast systems.

Spatial audio processing for interactive TV services (2011)
Presentation / Conference
Batke, J., Spille, J., Kropp, H., Abeling, S., Shirley, B., & Oldfield, R. (2011, May). Spatial audio processing for interactive TV services. Presented at 130th AES Convention, London

FascinatE is a European funded project that aims at developing a system to allow end users to interactively navigate around a video panorama showing a live event, with the accompanying audio automatically changing to match the selected view. The audi... Read More about Spatial audio processing for interactive TV services.

Performance of independent component analysis when used to separate competing acoustic sources in anechoic and reverberant conditions (2008)
Presentation / Conference
Shirley, B., & Kendrick, P. (2008, May). Performance of independent component analysis when used to separate competing acoustic sources in anechoic and reverberant conditions. Presented at AES 124th Convention, Amsterdam

A review of existing methods for independent component analysis was carried out and a series of experiments conducted assessing the use of existing independent component analysis (ICA) methods to separate microphone sources in varied acoustic environ... Read More about Performance of independent component analysis when used to separate competing acoustic sources in anechoic and reverberant conditions.