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Dr Ben Shirley's Outputs (61)

Practical implementation of automated next generation audio production for live sports (2024)
Journal Article
Moulson, A., Walley, M., Grewe, Y., Oldfield, R., Shirley, B., & Scuda, U. (2024). Practical implementation of automated next generation audio production for live sports. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 72(7/8), 517-525

Producing a high-quality audio mix for a live sports production is a demanding task for
mixing engineers. The management of many microphone signals and monitoring of various
broadcast feeds mean engineers are often stretched, overseeing many tasks... Read More about Practical implementation of automated next generation audio production for live sports.

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.

Media production, delivery and interaction for platform independent systems : format-agnostic media (2013)
Book
(2014). O. Schreer, J. Macq, O. Niamut, J. Ruiz-Hidalgo, B. Shirley, G. Thallinger, & G. Thomas (Eds.), Media production, delivery and interaction for platform independent systems : format-agnostic media. Hoboken: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118706350

The underlying audio and video processing technology that is discussed in the book relates to areas such as 3D object extraction, audio event detection; 3D sound rendering and face detection, gesture analysis and tracking using video and depth inform... Read More about Media production, delivery and interaction for platform independent systems : format-agnostic media.

Scalable delivery of navigable and ultra-high resolution video (2013)
Book Chapter
Macq, J., Alface, P., Brandenberg, R., Niamut, O., Prins, M., & Verzijp, N. (2013). Scalable delivery of navigable and ultra-high resolution video. In B. Shirley (Ed.), Media Production, Delivery and Interaction for Platform Independent Systems: Format-Agnostic Media (260-297). Wiley

In recent years many developments have addressed the generic objective of delivering audiovisual content based on a single representation made available at the source, and where the network gets the ability to adapt the content on an end user basis.... Read More about Scalable delivery of navigable and ultra-high resolution video.

State-of-the-art and challenges in media production, broadcast and delivery (2013)
Book Chapter
Thomas, G., Engström, A., Macq, J., Niamut, O., Shirley, B., & Salmon, R. (2014). State-of-the-art and challenges in media production, broadcast and delivery. In O. Schreer, J. Macq, O. Niamut, J. Ruiz-Hidalgo, B. Shirley, G. Thallinger, & G. Thomas (Eds.), Media Production, Delivery and Interaction for Platform Independent Systems: Format-Agnostic Media. Hoboken: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118706350.ch2

This chapter describes the fundamental technical aspects of current TV production. It provides an overview of the ways in which technical limitations inherent in image capture have become a part of the ‘grammar’ of storytelling. It talks about curren... Read More about State-of-the-art and challenges in media production, broadcast and delivery.

Platform independent audio (2013)
Book Chapter
Shirley, B., Oldfield, R., Melchior, F., & Batke, J. (2014). Platform independent audio. In O. Schreer, J. Macq, O. Niamut, J. Ruiz-Hidalgo, B. Shirley, G. Thallinger, & G. Thomas (Eds.), Media Production, Delivery and Interaction for Platform Independent Systems : Format-Agnostic Media (130-165). Hoboken: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118706350.ch4

This chapter defines problem space from an audio perspective reviewing some of the current challenges faced in channel-based audio broadcast. The first section introduces some of the drivers for change in the broadcast environment, followed by explan... Read More about Platform independent audio.

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.

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.

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.

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.

FascinatE newsletter 1 (2010)
Other
Thallinger, G., & Shirley, B. (2010). FascinatE newsletter 1

This FascinatE newsletter explains how gesture recognition will be used in the FascinatE system, how our first test shoot went at a Premier League football match, and explains about up and coming events.

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.

The effect of stereo crosstalk on intelligibility : comparison of a phantom stereo image and a central loudspeaker source (2007)
Journal Article
Shirley, B., Kendrick, P., & Churchill, C. (2007). The effect of stereo crosstalk on intelligibility : comparison of a phantom stereo image and a central loudspeaker source. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 55(10), 852-863

The roll out of surround sound for broadcasting and packaged media, and the consequent addition of a center loudspeaker for sound accompanying video have the potential to reduce the impact of acoustical crosstalk and so improve the intelligibility of... Read More about The effect of stereo crosstalk on intelligibility : comparison of a phantom stereo image and a central loudspeaker source.

The clean audio project: Digital TV as assistive technology (2006)
Journal Article
Shirley, B., & Kendrick, P. (2006). The clean audio project: Digital TV as assistive technology. Technology and Disability, 18(1/2006), 31-41

Technology used in Digital TV has the potential to enhance the viewing experience for millions of hard of hearing people. The Clean Audio project commissioned by the Independent Television Commission (ITC), and continued by Ofcom, looks at methods by... Read More about The clean audio project: Digital TV as assistive technology.

DataTV 2019 : 1st international workshop on data-driven personalisation of television
Presentation / Conference
Foss, J., Shirley, B., Malheiro, B., Kepplinger, S., Nixon, L., Philipp, B., …Ulisses, A. DataTV 2019 : 1st international workshop on data-driven personalisation of television. Presented at ACM TVX 2019, Salford, United Kingdom

The first international workshop on Data-driven Personalisation of Television aims to highlight the significantly growing importance of data in the support of new television content consumption experiences. This includes automatic video summarization... Read More about DataTV 2019 : 1st international workshop on data-driven personalisation of television.

Object-based audio for live sports audio
Presentation / Conference
Oldfield, R., & Shirley, B. Object-based audio for live sports audio. Presented at Reproduced Sound 2018 : putting sound in its place, Bristol, UK

Development and preliminary results of the University of Salford media Accessibility and hearing Impairment Database (U-SAID)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., & Davies, W. Development and preliminary results of the University of Salford media Accessibility and hearing Impairment Database (U-SAID). Presented at Reproduced Sound 2018 : putting sound in its place, Bristol, UK

Recent technological advances in object-based broadcasting present the opportunity to improve broadcast accessibility, particularly for the 11 million people in the UK with hearing impairment. Taking advantage of this opportunity is important given t... Read More about Development and preliminary results of the University of Salford media Accessibility and hearing Impairment Database (U-SAID).

R2SPIN : re-recording the Revised Speech Perception in Noise Test
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Robinson, C., Paradis, M., Tucker, K., & Shirley, B. R2SPIN : re-recording the Revised Speech Perception in Noise Test. Presented at 20th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association

Speech in noise tests are an important clinical and research toolfor understanding speech perception in realistic, adverse listen-ing conditions. Though relatively simple to implement, theirdevelopment is time and resource intensive. As a result,... Read More about R2SPIN : re-recording the Revised Speech Perception in Noise Test.

The room-in-room effect and its influence on perceived room size in spatial audio reproduction
Presentation / Conference
Hughes, R., Cox, T., Shirley, B., & Power, P. The room-in-room effect and its influence on perceived room size in spatial audio reproduction. Presented at 141st Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, Los Angeles, USA

In spatial audio it can be desirable to give the impression of a target space (e.g. a church). Often the reproduction environment is assumed acoustically dead; in practice most listening spaces (e.g. domestic living rooms) introduce significant refle... Read More about The room-in-room effect and its influence on perceived room size in spatial audio reproduction.

Dual frequency band amplitude panning for multichannel audio systems
Presentation / Conference
Hughes, R., Franck, A., Cox, T., Shirley, B., & Fazi, F. Dual frequency band amplitude panning for multichannel audio systems. Presented at 2018 AES International Conference on Spatial Reproduction - Aesthetics and Science, Tokyo, Japan

Panning laws for multi-loudspeaker setups, for example vector base amplitude panning, are typically derived based
on either low or high frequency assumptions. It is well known, however, that auditory cues for both localization and loudness differ at... Read More about Dual frequency band amplitude panning for multichannel audio systems.

Improving television sound for people with hearing impairments
Thesis
Shirley, B. Improving television sound for people with hearing impairments. (Thesis). University of Salford

This thesis investigates how developments in audio for digital television can be utilised to improve the experience of hearing impaired people when watching television. The work has had significant impact on international digital TV broadcast standar... Read More about Improving television sound for people with hearing impairments.

Towards a format-agnostic approach for production, delivery and rendering of immersive media
Presentation / Conference
Niamut, O., Kaiser, R., Kienast, G., Kochdale, A., Spille, J., Schreer, O., …Shirley, B. Towards a format-agnostic approach for production, delivery and rendering of immersive media. Presented at 4th ACM Multimedia Systems Conference

The media industry is currently being pulled in the often-opposing directions of increased realism (high resolution, stereoscopic, large screen) and personalization (selection and control of content, availability on many devices). We investigate the... Read More about Towards a format-agnostic approach for production, delivery and rendering of immersive media.

VoIPText: Voice chat for deaf and hard of hearing people
Presentation / Conference
Shirley, B., Thomas, J., & Roche, P. VoIPText: Voice chat for deaf and hard of hearing people. Presented at Consumer Electronics - Berlin (ICCE-Berlin), 2012 IEEE International Conference on, 3-5 Sept. 2012

The spread of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, equipment and clients is transforming telephony worldwide. In addition to providing inexpensive, or even free, international telephone calls there is potentially additional benefit in using... Read More about VoIPText: Voice chat for deaf and hard of hearing people.

Automatic mixing and tracking of on-pitch football action for television broadcasts
Presentation / Conference
Oldfield, R., & Shirley, B. Automatic mixing and tracking of on-pitch football action for television broadcasts. Presented at 130th AES Convention

For the television broadcast of football in Europe, the sound engineer will typically have an arrangement of 12 shotgun microphones around the pitch to pick up on-pitch sounds such as whistle blows, players talking and ball kicks etc. Typically, duri... Read More about Automatic mixing and tracking of on-pitch football action for television broadcasts.

ITC clean audio project
Presentation / Conference
Shirley, B., & Kendrick, P. ITC clean audio project. Presented at 116th AES Convention, Berlin, Germany

In this paper a hybrid architecture is presented, that combines linear and switching topology, in order to obtain an audio amplifier featuring high efficiency, low distortion and high bandwidth. The intrinsic structure of the switching stage allows a... Read More about ITC clean audio project.

Personalization of object-based audio for accessibility using narrative importance
Presentation / Conference
Shirley, B., Ward, L., & Chourdakis, E. Personalization of object-based audio for accessibility using narrative importance. Presented at TVX 2019 - ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for Television and Online Video, Media City, Salford UK

An increasing incidence of hearing impairment and of re- ported problems with broadcast audio is leading to an in- creased demand for personalized audio services. Previous research has treated these issues as a ‘speech in noise’ prob- lem; sounds are... Read More about Personalization of object-based audio for accessibility using narrative importance.

Casualty accessible and enhanced (A&E) audio : trialling object-based accessible TV audio
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Paradis, M., Shirley, B., Russon, L., Moore, R., & Davies, R. Casualty accessible and enhanced (A&E) audio : trialling object-based accessible TV audio. Presented at 147th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention, New York, USA

Casualty Accessible and Enhanced (A&E) Audio is the first public trial of accessible audio technology using a narrative importance approach. This trial allows viewers to personalize the audio of an episode of the BBC’s "Casualty" drama series based o... Read More about Casualty accessible and enhanced (A&E) audio : trialling object-based accessible TV audio.

Accessible object-based audio using hierarchical narrative importance metadata
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., & Francombe, J. Accessible object-based audio using hierarchical narrative importance metadata. Presented at 145th Audio Engineering Society Convention, New York, USA

Object-based audio has great capacity for production and delivery of adaptive and personalizable content. This can be used to improve the accessibility of complex content for listeners with hearing impairments. An adaptive object-based audio system w... Read More about Accessible object-based audio using hierarchical narrative importance metadata.

Multi-zone personalisation for hard of hearing listeners using object-based audio
Presentation / Conference
Galvez, M., Laghidze, I., Ward, L., Franck, A., Shirley, B., & Fazi, F. Multi-zone personalisation for hard of hearing listeners using object-based audio. Presented at Reproduced Sound 2018 : putting sound in its place, Bristol, UK

Television plays an important social role, especially the communal experience of watching tele-vision together. Therefore ensuring accessibility of broadcast content for all is vital. The advent of object-based audio makes it possible to personalise... Read More about Multi-zone personalisation for hard of hearing listeners using object-based audio.

Acoustic room modelling using a spherical camera for reverberant spatial audio objects
Presentation / Conference
Hansung, K., Hughes, R., Remaggi, L., Jackson, P., Hilton, A., Cox, T., & Shirley, B. Acoustic room modelling using a spherical camera for reverberant spatial audio objects. Poster presented at 142nd AES Convention, Berlin, Germany

The ability to predict the acoustics of a room without acoustical measurements is a useful capability. The motivation here stems from spatial audio reproduction, where knowledge of the acoustics of a space could allow for more accurate reproduction o... Read More about Acoustic room modelling using a spherical camera for reverberant spatial audio objects.

In-Programme Personalization for Broadcast : IPP4B
Presentation / Conference
Foss, J., Shirley, B., Malheiro, B., Kepplinger, S., Ulisses, A., & Armstrong, M. In-Programme Personalization for Broadcast : IPP4B. Presented at TVX '17: ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for TV and Online Video, Hilversum, The Netherlands

The IPP4B workshop assembled a group of researchers from academia and industry -- BBC R&D, Ericsson and MOG Technologies to discuss the state of the art and together envisage future directions for in programme personalisation in broadcasting. The wor... Read More about In-Programme Personalization for Broadcast : IPP4B.

Television dialogue; balancing audibility, attention and accessibility
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., & Shirley, B. Television dialogue; balancing audibility, attention and accessibility. Presented at Conference on Accessibility in Film, Television and Interactive Media, Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York, United Kingdom

Sound effects and other non-speech broadcast elements play many roles within television and radio content, including
progressing the narrative. However, accessibility strategies for hard of hearing listeners tend to reduce all non-speech
elements e... Read More about Television dialogue; balancing audibility, attention and accessibility.

The effect of early impulse response length and visual environment on externalization of binaural virtual sources
Presentation / Conference
Sinker, J., & Shirley, B. The effect of early impulse response length and visual environment on externalization of binaural virtual sources. Presented at 140th AES Convention, Paris, France

When designing an audio-augmented-reality (AAR) system capable of rendering acoustic “overlays” to real environments, it is advantageous to create externalized virtual sources with minimal computational complexity. This paper describes experiments de... Read More about The effect of early impulse response length and visual environment on externalization of binaural virtual sources.

Format-agnostic approach for production, delivery and rendering of immersive media
Presentation / Conference
Thallinger, G., Shirley, B., Schreer, O., Thomas, G., Niamut, O., Macq, J., …Oldfield, R. Format-agnostic approach for production, delivery and rendering of immersive media. Presented at Networked and Electronic Media Summit 2011

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 Format-agnostic approach for production, delivery and rendering of immersive media.

FascinatE D3. 1.1 Survey of metadata and knowledge for automated scripting
Report
Thomas, G., Schreer, O., Oldfield, R., Shirley, B., Niamut, O., Poggi, A., …Verzijp, N. FascinatE D3. 1.1 Survey of metadata and knowledge for automated scripting

This document defines the various types of metadata in the FascinatE system and discusses representation requirements and candidate formats. The document considers various types of metadata describing capture, production, context, content, scripts, n... Read More about FascinatE D3. 1.1 Survey of metadata and knowledge for automated scripting.

Up-mixing and localisation-localisation performance of up-mixed consumer multichannel formats
Presentation / Conference
Chaffey, R., & Shirley, B. Up-mixing and localisation-localisation performance of up-mixed consumer multichannel formats. Presented at 122nd AES Convention, Vienna, Austria

A number of listening tests were carried out to assess localisation of sound in derived surround sound fields. Two up-mixed consumer multichannel formats that use matrix decoding of 3/2 multichannel surround channels to increase the surround channel... Read More about Up-mixing and localisation-localisation performance of up-mixed consumer multichannel formats.

Measurement of speech intelligibility in noise : a comparison of a stereo image source and a central loudspeaker source
Presentation / Conference
Kendrick, P., & Shirley, B. Measurement of speech intelligibility in noise : a comparison of a stereo image source and a central loudspeaker source. Presented at 118th AES Convention, Barcelona, Spain

Surround sound television is being taken up by broadcasters around the world and it is important to assess the impact of this for viewers, particularly those who struggle to understand speech on TV soundtracks. This research assesses the effect on in... Read More about Measurement of speech intelligibility in noise : a comparison of a stereo image source and a central loudspeaker source.