Ambisonics

28 Mar 2025

Episode 115 Andrew Knight-Hill & Emma Margetson (University of Greenwich)

By Immersive Audio Podcast

Announcement

We’re excited to announce the third instalment of the Immersive Audio Podcast Masterclass series.

As always, the sessions are designed to enhance your practical learning experience and are delivered by world-class experts. We’ll be providing video demonstrations, spatial audio playback and an exclusive opportunity to interact with our expert guests.

We proudly present our guests from Amadeus, the Co-Founder and CEO – Fabio Kaiser, and the Co-Founder and CTO – Volker Werner. Amadeus developed solutions for acoustic enhancement for live music and speech in multi-purpose venues, concert halls or theatres. Amadeus Immersive Audio provides 3D sound source spatialisation and rendering with accurate localisation and envelopment for indoor and outdoor venues. https://amadeus-acoustics.com/

In this session, we’ll do a deep dive into the science of active acoustics and cover tools and workflows featuring the newly released ART platform.

Event Sign Up Page

How to access the content from our Immersive Audio Podcast Masterclass series? Head out to our page on Patreon www.patreon.com/c/immersiveaudiopodcast. The sessions are designed to enhance your practical learning experience and are delivered by world-class experts. The livestream contains video demonstrations and spatial audio playback with live Q&A.

Summary

In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel and Monica Bolles are joined by the University of Greenwich Professor of Music and Sound Arts – Andrew Knight-Hill and the Acousmatic Composer and Sound Artist – Dr Emma Margetson from London, UK.

Professor Andrew Knight-Hill is a composer and researcher creating works that explore the interface between music and sound practice. His works have been heard internationally in film festivals and contemporary music concerts. He recently composed music and sound design for the immersive theatrical event “Over Lunan”, which was nominated for Outstanding Cultural Event as part of the 2022 Thistle Awards for Scottish Tourism. He is a Professor of Music and Sound Arts at the University of Greenwich; leader of the SOUND/IMAGE Research Centre; co-director of the Loudspeaker Orchestra Concert Series; convenor of the annual SOUND/IMAGE festival, and director of the Shared Hub for Immersive Future Technologies (SHIFT).

Dr. Emma Margetson is an acousmatic composer and sound artist. Her research interests include sound diffusion and spatialisation practices; site-specific works, sound walks and installations; audience development and engagement; and community music practice. She has received a variety of awards and special mentions for her work, including first prize in the prestigious L’Espace du Son International Spatialisation Competition by INFLUX (Musiques & Recherches), klingt gut! Young Artist Award in 2018 and Ars Electronica Forum Wallis 2019. She is a Senior Lecturer in Music and Sound at the University of Greenwich, a Research Fellow for the AHRC project “Audiovisual Space: Recontextualising Sound-Image Media”, and co-director of the Loudspeaker Orchestra Concert Series.

We dive into the meaning and functions of creativity in spatial audio across genres and disciplines, and you’ll hear a virtual tour of the University of Greenwich sound and music department facilities.

Andrew Knight-Hill Website

Andrew Knight-Hill LinkedIn

Emma Margetson LinkedIn

SHIFT: Shared Hub for Immersive Future Technologies

University of Greenwich

Loudspeaker Orchestra Project

Art of Sound: Creativity in Film Sound and Electroacoustic Music

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Show Notes

Survey

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Credits

This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Emma Rees and included music by Rhythm Scott.

28 Feb 2025

Episode 113 Nomono (Part 1)

By Immersive Audio Podcast

Summary

In this two-part series of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel travels to Oslo and Trondheim to meet the Nonomo team behind the Norwegian start-up whose innovation in hardware and cloud-processing aimed to enhance spatial sound recording and post production workflow. In part one, we break down the core tech behind the Nomono system, using a step-by-step process. You’ll hear the speech enhancement demo we’ve recorded outdoors in the city.

Kristine Snyder (CEO)

Kristine Snyder is the CEO of Nomono, a company dedicated to simplifying podcast and broadcast journalism production through intuitive hardware and software solutions. With a passion for immersive audio and the power of sound to connect people, Kristine leads Nomono in its mission to make storytelling as effortless and impactful as having a conversation. Kristine is deeply passionate about people and believes in the transformative power of great teamwork. She fosters a collaborative, trust-based and innovative culture at Nomono, enabling the team to push boundaries and bring groundbreaking audio solutions to storytellers worldwide. Before joining Nomono, Kristine worked as a commercial lawyer specialising in intellectual property, bringing a unique perspective to her role by combining strategic leadership with a deep appreciation for Nomono’s vision and technology.

Audun Solvang (Senior Audio Researcher)

Audun Solvang is an entrepreneur, innovator, and researcher with a deep passion for sound. With expertise in audio signal processing, microphone and speaker arrays, psychoacoustics, 3D audio, and room acoustics. His career spans roles in both academia and industry, having co-founded Nomono, where he currently conducts research. Audun’s work has focused on innovative approaches in microphone arrays, beamforming, and sound localization, contributing to a number of patents in the field. With a PhD in audio signal processing from NTNU, he is committed to pushing the boundaries of audio technology while actively shaping the future of sound in communication and entertainment.

Sigurd Saue (Head of Audio Signal Processing)

Sigurd has more than 25 years of experience in audio signal processing, music technology and software development. His career includes pioneer work on sonification of seismic data for Statoil, the position as lead software engineer at Voxelvision and as team leader for seismic signal processing in Petrel/Schlumberger. In parallel he has implemented electronic art installations with internationally acclaimed composers and artists. He has served 8 years as associate professor in Music Technology at NTNU.

Ruben Åeng (Lead Audio Engineer)

Ruben Åeng is the lead audio engineer at Nomono, where he was hired in August of 2021. With 12 years of experience from Film and TV production audio, and postproduction, he is involved in many aspects of different teams at Nomono. Including QA, Growth, Content and R&D. For the last two years, he has investigated Ambisonics in particular, but also other immersive audio formats, and immersive media in general.

Iver Jordal (Senior Machine Learning Engineer)

Iver Jordal is a senior machine learning engineer at Nomono, where he ensures their speech enhancement technology delivers great audio quality. With over 20 years of programming experience, his background spans full-stack development, music technology, and a specialization in artificial intelligence. At Nomono, he blends traditional DSP techniques with cutting-edge AI while optimizing processing speed, so users receive their enhanced recordings faster. Outside of work, he’s a dad, vocalist, mountain biker, and demoscener.

Karoline Müller (Industrial Design Lead)

Karoline Müller is the Industrial Design Lead at Nomono, where she has been shaping the company’s products since joining in 2020. Starting as an industrial designer, she has contributed across various design disciplines, bringing creativity and versatility to the team. Over the years, she has played a key role in refining Nomono’s product experiences and design expressions. Passionate about lasting products, she led Nomono’s sustainability committee to drive conscious business practices.

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Show Notes

Nomono Website – https://nomono.co/

Nomono Sound Capsule – https://nomono.co/sound-capsule

Nomono Cloud – https://nomono.co/nomono-cloud

Nomono Spatial Audio – https://nomono.co/spatial-audio-with-nomono

Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/c/nomonosound

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/nomonosound/posts/?feedView=all

Immersive Audio Podcast Masterclass

How to access the content from our Immersive Audio Podcast Masterclass series? Head out to our Patreon. The sessions are designed to enhance your practical learning experience and are delivered by world-class experts. The livestream contains video demonstrations and spatial audio playback with live Q&A. Keep up to date with our upcoming events, announcements and industry news by subscribing to our newsletter.

Survey

Credits

This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Emma Rees and included music by Rhythm Scott.

26 Mar 2024

Episode 100 State of Play of Immersive Audio – Past, Present & Future (SXSW 2024)

By Immersive Audio Podcast

Summary

In this 100th-anniversary episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel and Monica Bolles travel to the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas to host a panel discussion on the State of Play of Immersive Audio – Past, Present & Future. We proudly feature our special guests the Segment Manager for Immersive and Experiential Applications at HOLOPLOT – Natalia Szczepanczyk and the Co-Founder and CTO of Audioscenic Limited – Marcos Simón.

This panel highlights the key developments that have defined the immersive audio industry for the past decade, reflects on the current trends and looks to the future. Our expert guests cover the key sectors: large-scale immersive events, interactive live performance, spatial audio for consumer devices and specialist virtual training and immersive media production. In an era where audio experiences are becoming increasingly integral to entertainment, gaming, virtual reality, and beyond, understanding the latest innovations and market dynamics is crucial. We discuss spatial audio, content creation, consumer adoption, and market challenges and opportunities.

Natalia Szczepanczyk (HOLOPLOT)

Natalia Szczepanczyk is the Segment Manager for Immersive and Experiential Applications at HOLOPLOT. She has a design and consultancy background and previously worked with loudspeaker manufacturer Genelec and consultancies Mouchel and Buro Happold. Natalia specialises in audio system design and acoustics for experiential audience experiences within the themed entertainment and experiential sectors.

Marcos Simón (AUDIOSCENIC)

Marcos Simón is the Co-Founder and CTO of Audioscenic Limited. He is a world expert in sound beamforming technologies and audio signal processing that turned into an entrepreneur to change the way people currently consume spatial audio. Marcos Simón graduated in 2010 from the Technical University of Madrid with a B.Sc. in Telecommunications. Later he joined the University of Southampton where he pursued a PhD in using sound beamforming to improve audibility in hard-of-hearing people. He later did post-doctoral research in spatial audio at the same institution and went on to co-found Audioscenic in 2019. Marcos is currently focused on the commercialisation of Audioscenic technology and on liaising with the wider audio industry advocating for making spatial audio a present reality. Marcos combines his innovation passion with a love for cooking, sailing and DJing electronic music.

Monica Bolles (Resonant Interactions)

Monica Bolles has been working with spatial audio since 2011 when she first gained access to her local planetarium’s 15.1-channel surround system. Since then she has been continuously building toolsets in Max MSP to create large textured soundscapes that explore space, movement, and interaction. She is both a technician and an artist. She works to help artists and composers translate their work to spatial environments while at the same time creating and producing her own works that have been exhibited in large-scale multi-channel speaker arrays ranging in size from 8 to 140 channels. She is currently co-host of the Immersive Audio Podcast and helps to host the Spatial Audio Meetups organized by NOTAM.

Oliver Kadel (1.618 Digital)

Oliver Kadel is a multi-award-winning 3D sound designer, recording and mixing engineer based in London, UK. Since 2014 he’s worked on over 200 projects delivering spatial and interactive audio for new-generation immersive media including VR, MR, AR and 360, covering a broad range of sectors from virtual training and branded content to films, gaming, and location-based installations. In early 2018, Oliver and his team launched the Immersive Audio Podcast which hosts industry experts and influential guests discussing all areas of immersive audio and the XR industry.

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Shownotes

SXSW – https://schedule.sxsw.com/2024/events/PP132288

Natalia Szczepanczyk – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nszcz/

HOLOPLOT – https://holoplot.com

Marcos Simón – https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmfsg/

AUDIOSCENIC – https://www.audioscenic.com/

Monica Bolles – https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-bolles/

Oliver Kadel – https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverkadel/

Our Sponsors

HHB Communications is the UK’s leader in Pro Audio Technology. For years HHB has been delivering the latest and most innovative pro audio solutions to the world’s top recording studios, post facilities, and broadcasters. The team at HHB provide best-in-class consultation, installation, training, and technical support to customers who want to build or upgrade their studio environment for immersive audio workflow. To find out more or book a demo at their HQ facility visit www.hhb.co.uk

Innovate Audio offers a range of software-based spatial audio processing tools. Their latest product, panLab Console, is a macOS application that adds 3D spatial audio rendering capabilities to live audio mixing consoles, including popular models from Yamaha, Midas and Behringer. This means you can achieve an object-based audio workflow, utilising the hardware you already own. Immersive Audio Podcast listeners can get an exclusive 20% discount on all panLab licences, use code Immersive20 at checkout. Find out more at innovateaudio.co.uk *Offer available until June 2024.*

HOLOPLOT is a Berlin-based pro-audio company, which features the multi-award-winning X1 Matrix Array. X1 is software-driven, combining 3D Audio-Beamforming and Wave Field Synthesis to achieve authentic sound localisation and complete control over sound in both the vertical and horizontal axes. HOLOPLOT is pivoting the revolution in sound control, enabling the positioning of virtual loudspeakers within a space, allowing for a completely new way of designing and experiencing immersive audio on a large scale. To find more, visit holoplot.com.

Our Patreon

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to show your support please consider becoming a Patreon. Not only are you supporting us, but you will also get special access to bonus content and much more.

Find out more on our official Patreon page – https://www.patreon.com/immersiveaudiopodcast

We thank you kindly in advance!

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Credits

This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Emma Rees and included music by Rhythm Scott.

09 Feb 2024

Episode 97 Patrick Cairns (AudioLab, Immersive Network Music Performance)

By Immersive Audio Podcast

This episode is sponsored by HHB Communications, the UK’s leader in Pro Audio Technology. For years HHB has been delivering the latest and most innovative pro audio solutions to the world’s top recording studios, post facilities, and broadcasters. The team at HHB provide best-in-class consultation, installation, training, and technical support to customers who want to build or upgrade their studio environment for immersive audio workflow. To find out more or book a demo at their HQ facility visit www.hhb.co.uk

Summary

In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel is joined by the remote audio network engineer and PhD candidate at AudioLab, the University of York – Patrick Cairns from Glasgow, Scotland.

Patrick graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University (2019) with a BSc in Audio Systems Engineering. Patrick has since achieved an MSc by research in Audio Technology at the Audiolab, University of York (2021), where they currently continue their research as a PhD student. Patrick’s research explores the development, application and evaluation of bleeding-edge network music performance systems, with a focus on immersive audio. This work investigates how spatial audio and virtual acoustics can be applied to make network music experiences more like live performance, and examines the effect this can have on the way we interact with one another musically in shared virtual spaces. Patrick’s research also includes high-impact industry collaboration within the MINERVA project. Beyond academia, Patrick is an avid enthusiast of all things audio and has experience in various roles across the industry, including broadcast, live sound, sound for film, and music recording and production.

Patrick discusses in depth the current advancements in remote spatial audio networking for a range of industry use cases covering the core technology, signal flow and production workflows.

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Show Notes

Patrick Cairns Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-cairns-178387248/

Patrick Cairns AudioLab – https://audiolab.york.ac.uk

University of York – https://www.york.ac.uk/

Musical Interactions in Networked Experiences using Real-time Virtual Audio (MINERVA) – https://audiolab.york.ac.uk/minerva/

Scalable Audio Frameworks For Immersive Realtime Experiences (SAFFIRE) – https://audiolab.york.ac.uk/saffire/

AudioLab’s Spatial Audio Library, York – Huddersfield Networked Performance – https://audiolab.york.ac.uk/library/york-huddersfield-performance/

Evaluation of Metaverse Music Performance With BBC Maida Vale Recording Studios – https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=22139

Recording Music in the Metaverse: A case study of XR BBC Maida Vale Recording Studios – https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=21842

Immersive Network Music Performance: Design and Practical Deployment of a system for Immersive Vocal Performance – https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=20918

Parametric Evaluation of Ensemble Vocal Performance Using an Immersive Network Music Performance Audio System – https://secure.aes.org/forum/pubs/journal/?elib=21541

AES Paper: Context-Based Evaluation of the Opus Audio Codec for Spatial Audio Content in Virtual Reality – https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=22037

Our Sponsors

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Credits

This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Emma Rees and included music by Rhythm Scott.

15 Dec 2023

Episode 92 Mariam Gviniashvili (Composing in Spatial Audio)

By Immersive Audio Podcast

Summary

This episode is sponsored by Innovate Audio. Innovate Audio offers a range of software-based spatial audio processing tools. Their latest product, panLab Console, is a macOS application that adds 3D spatial audio rendering capabilities to live audio mixing consoles, including popular models from Yamaha, Midas and Behringer. This means you can achieve an object-based audio workflow, utilising the hardware you already own. Immersive Audio Podcast listeners can get an exclusive 20% discount on all panLab licences, use code Immersive20 at checkout. Find out more at innovateaudio.co.uk *Offer available until June 2024.*

In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel and Monica Bolles are joined by composer and sound artist Mariam Gviniashvili from Oslo, Norway.

Mariam works as a composer and sound artist – combining electronics, electroacoustics and 3D sound technology with visuals, dance and live performance to penetrate deep into the physical and emotional essence of sound and space. Growing up in eastern Georgia, she sang and played the piano, and studied composition in Tbilisi, Budapest and Oslo. Through her subject matter, her compositions display a curiosity about the world and society – from distractions during online meetings in DAYDREAMING (2022), to the viral patterns in DECONSTRUCTION (2020). Other works explore the Syrian war, a globally- sourced collection of songs and prayers, and a river soundscape in Oslo. Gviniashvili’s music has appeared at festivals all over the world – the New York Electroacoustic Music Festival (USA), BEAST FEaST (UK), Transitions at CCRMA (USA), ICMC (Korea), Mixtur Festival (Spain), ARD Hoerspieltage (Germany), Ars Electronica (Austria), Klingt Gut (Germany), Heroines of Sound (Germany) and Ultima Festival (Norway).

Mariam talks about her journey as a conventional composer evolving into a multidisciplinary sound artist performing her work in spatial audio on multi-channel arrays in different immersive spaces across the world.

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