An EBU workshop on 'Immersive Audio Over Headphones' brought 3D audio experts and practitioners to Geneva on 15-16 May to discuss the growing importance to broadcasters of 'binaural sound' – surround sound delivered over headphones.

Binaural sound is a special type of stereo audio designed to replicate the cues used by the human ear when we try to accurately locate the source of sounds in 3D space. There are signs that the technique, which has been around for decades, is set to undergo a boom, largely fuelled by the rise in headphone listening on mobile devices.

Speakers from EBU Member broadcasters and the wider audio industry considered both challenges and opportunities for radio and TV producers. Among the key challenges identified were a marked diversification of consumer-end platforms for the consumption of surround sound (including various multi-speaker setups currently in use), new considerations for content producers, and the technical challenge of 'personalizing' surround sound, since there are small but important variances in the way each individual person hears.

At the venue entrance participants were invited to take in demos of the latest technology used in the creation, synthesis, transmission and reproduction of binaural and surround sound.

The workshop was the first public event from the EBU’s recently launched 3D Audio project group, under the chairmanship of the BBC's Chris Pike. The group is part of the Technical Committee’s strategic programme on Future Audio Formats and Radio Production Systems (SP-FAR), whose vice-chair Matthieu Parmentier, of France Télévisions, is co-chairing the workshop.

More on audio tech.

In the most recent issue of EBU tech-i magazine, BBC's Chris Pike wrote about object-based audio coding, while Matthieu Parmentier of francetélévisions provided an overview of binaural audio. Click here to download the PDF.

The KEMAR head and torso simulator is widely used by audio technology researchers.