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Dr Ben Shirley's Outputs (65)

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.

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

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.

The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

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.