Simplification of 3D Multichannel Sound System Based on Multizone Soundfield Reproduction

Home sound environments are becoming increasingly important to the entertainment and audio industries. Compared with single zone soundfield reproduction, 3D spatial multizone soundfield reproduction is a more complex and challenging problem with few loudspeakers. In this paper, we introduce a simplification method based on the Least-Squares sound pressure matching method, and two separated zones can be reproduced accurately. For NHK 22.2 system, fourteen kinds of loudspeaker arrangements from 22 to 8 channels are derived. Simulation results demonstrate the favorable performance for two zones soundfield reproduction, and subjective evaluation results show the soundfield of two heads can be reproduced perfectly until 10 channels, and 8-channel systems can keep low distortions at ears. Compared with Ando’s multichannel conversion method by subjective evaluation, our proposed method is very close Ando’s in terms of sound localization in the center zone, what’s more, the performance of sound localization are improved significantly in the other zone of which position off the center.