All Outputs (60)

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.

Improving broadcast accessibility for hard of hearing individuals : using object-based audio personalisation and narrative importance (2020)
Thesis
Ward, L. Improving broadcast accessibility for hard of hearing individuals : using object-based audio personalisation and narrative importance. (Thesis). University of Salford

Technological advances in broadcasting can be the impetus for advances in accessibility services. For the 11 million individuals in the United Kingdom with some degree of hearing loss, the advent of object-based broadcasting and it’s personalisation... Read More about Improving broadcast accessibility for hard of hearing individuals : using object-based audio personalisation and narrative importance.

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.

Dementia-friendly design of television news broadcasts (2019)
Journal Article
Funnell, L., Garriock, I., Shirley, B., & Williamson, T. (2019). Dementia-friendly design of television news broadcasts. Journal of Enabling Technologies, 13(3), 137-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/JET-02-2018-0009

Purpose - To understand factors that affect viewing of television news programmes by people living with dementia; to identify dementia-friendly design principles for television news programmes and factors for personalising object-based media broadc... Read More about Dementia-friendly design of television news broadcasts.

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.

The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise (2017)
Journal Article
Ward, L., Shirley, B., Tang, Y., & Davies, W. (2017). The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise. https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2017-500

In everyday life, speech is often accompanied by a situationspecific acoustic cue; a hungry bark as you ask ‘Has anyone fed the dog?’. This paper investigates the effect such cues have on speech intelligibility in noise and evaluates their interact... Read More about The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise.

The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., Tang, Y., & Davies, W. (2017, August). The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise. Presented at INTERSPEECH 2017, 18th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Stockholm, Sweden

In everyday life, speech is often accompanied by a situation-specific acoustic cue; a hungry bark as you ask ‘Has anyone fed the dog?’. This paper investigates the effect such cues have on speech intelligibility in noise and evaluates their interactio... Read More about The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise.

Snap, crackle and pop : how sound effects help, and hinder, hearing in broadcast audio (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., & Davies, W. (2017, June). Snap, crackle and pop : how sound effects help, and hinder, hearing in broadcast audio. Presented at SPARC 2017 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference, University of Salford, UK

Complaints about the intelligibility of television speech have become increasingly common, both for normal hearing and hard of hearing listeners alike. The debate these complaints have sparked have stretched from angry viewers on Twitter right up t... Read More about Snap, crackle and pop : how sound effects help, and hinder, hearing in broadcast audio.

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.

Assistive mixing system and method of assembling a synchronised spatial sound stage (2016)
Patent
Oldfield, R., & Shirley, B. (2016). Assistive mixing system and method of assembling a synchronised spatial sound stage

To permit contextually relevant sound events, such as blowing of a referee's whistle, to be identified, selected and broadcast in a time-delayed audio mix, FIG. 1 shows a system in which multiple directional microphones (DM1-DM12) capture sound event... Read More about Assistive mixing system and method of assembling a synchronised spatial sound stage.

Application of object-based audio for automated mixing of live football broadcast (2015)
Presentation / Conference
Oldfield, R., Shirley, B., & Satongar, D. (2015, October). Application of object-based audio for automated mixing of live football broadcast. Presented at 139th AES Convention, New York, USA

The challenge of creating a live sound mix for a sports event such as a football/soccer match cannot be underestimated. The mixing engineer needs to constantly raise and lower the levels of the faders corresponding to the pitch-side microphones that... Read More about Application of object-based audio for automated mixing of live football 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.