Multichannel Compensated Amplitude Panning, An Adaptive Object-Based Reproduction Method

Conventional approaches for surround sound panning require loudspeakers to be distributed over the regions where images are required. However in many listening situations it is not practical or desirable to place loudspeakers in some positions, such as behind or above the listener. Compensated Amplitude Panning (CAP) is an object-based reproduction method that adapts dynamically to the listener's head orientation to provide stable images in any direction, including behind and above. This is achieved by producing accurate dynamic Inter-aural Time Difference (ITD) cues. Here CAP is extended for more than two loudspeakers. Adding one or more loudspeakers allows the radiated energy and cancellation error to be reduced dramatically for some configurations. The multichannel CAP method is also compared with Ambisonic reproduction.