Skip to main content
Till KTH:s startsida

FDT3318 Room Acoustics and Spatial Audio 7.5 credits

Course memo Autumn 2024-51556

Version 1 – 10/28/2024, 11:21:34 AM

Course offering

Autumn 2024-51556 (Start date 28 Oct 2024, English)

Language Of Instruction

English

Offered By

EECS/Speech, Music and Hearing

Course memo Autumn 2024

Headings denoted with an asterisk ( * ) is retrieved from the course syllabus version Autumn 2024

Content and learning outcomes

Course contents

1-2 Fundamentals of room acoustics  

Seminar and tutorial

Field assignment: measure RT in two chosen rooms using Schröder’s reverse integration

3 Spatial hearing 

ILD, ITD, HRTF 

Lab – find your personal difference limen for direction 

4 Room acoustics simulation

        Conventional reverb – direct + early reflections + diffuse tail

Raytracing vs waveguide simulations 

Lab session in COMSOL

5 Spatial audio reproduction – simulation of ’soundscapes’

Binaural, cinematic 

Ambisonics, VBAP, wavefield synthesis 

6 Virtual acoustics in VR-environments and telepresence

         Guest lecturers from industry (Ericsson, ACAD)

7 Field trips to Stockholms Konserthus (active acoustics), KTH SCI MWL (anechoic room and more),  KMH Lilla Salen, 28-channel speaker dome and dummy-head microphones

8 Presentations of individual project outcomes

Intended learning outcomes

Be able to

  • describe the fundamentals of statistical and geometrical room acoustics
  • make basic calculations of room acoustic parameters for rectangular rooms
  • describe the principles of directional hearing and how they relate to acoustics indoors
  • make informed use of head-related impulse responses and transfer functions
  • simulate simple scenarios with a few sound sources in virtual rooms that have given properties
  • describe the characteristics of modern spatial audio techniques, including binaural, VBAP, Ambisonics, Dolby Atmos and wave-field synthesis

Preparations before course start

Recommended prerequisites

Basic classic physics, especially wave theory as in SK1120; fundamentals of acoustics e.g. DT1175; basic signal processing including at least digital audio and filtering.  

Literature

Kuttruff & Vorländer: Room Acoustics, 7th edition, ISBN 978-1032478258; eBook at KTHB.

Agnieszka Roginska, Paul Geluso (eds.) Immersive Sound The Art and Science of Binaural and Multi-Channel Audio, 

Copyright 2018 ISBN 978-1138900004; eBook at KTHB.

Liljencrants, Ternström: primer on room acoustics (new edition) 

Murphy, DT: You are surrounded, primer on spatial audio

The first two are for in-depth studies with reading guides, the last two are minimum requirements that should be learned in their entirety.

Equipment

Mathworks Matlab+COMSOL for programming assignments

Examination and completion

Grading scale

P, F

Examination

  • EXA1 - Examination, 7.5 credits, Grading scale: P, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

Active participation in all seminars, preferably on location, remote participation will be possible. 

Reading assignments and an individual project work. Performing simulations of sounds in rooms during the labs. 

Other requirements for final grade

Written personal reflections after each session.

Grading criteria/assessment criteria

To pass the course the student must

  • attend all sessions; if not possible, discuss with the examiner what to do instead
  • make at least one summarizing presentation to the class about a given section from the course textbooks
  • write a short but non-trivial personal reflection on each session in time for the next session
  • comment in writing on the reflections of other students in time for the session after that
  • For FDT3318: do all labs and submit a lab report for each, and present and summarize a research article of one's own choice.
    For SD2101 and DT2217: conduct a project in groups of two students, write a short report, and present the project at the final session.
    Master students are encouraged to do also the labs, but for them it is the project that counts.

 

 

Alternatives to missed activities or tasks

If the student is unable to attend one or more sessions, or to do one or more of the given assignments, to discuss and agree on alternative assignments with the examiner.

Ethical approach

  • All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
  • In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
  • In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

The section below is not retrieved from the course syllabus:

"Any help received" includes machine help, which must also be disclosed.

Further information

Changes of the course before this course offering

This is the first time that this course is offered, and changes are likely for the next course offering.

 

Round Facts

Start date

28 Oct 2024

Course offering

  • Autumn 2024-51556

Language Of Instruction

English

Offered By

EECS/Speech, Music and Hearing

Contacts

Communication during course

Course participants are encouraged to use the chat forum in the course's Canvas room. If no response is had within 24 hours, an e-mail can be sent to stern@kth.se or zea@kth.se.

Course Coordinator

Teachers

Examiner