Wave Field Synthesis

Wave field synthesis (or WFS) is the attempt to reproduce in a different environment an acoustic scene exactly like the original one. In the past 20 years several wave field synthesis systems have been developed which use holographic techniques. Using multi-channel systems, WFS tries to resynthesize a two-dimensional sound field in a spatial environment based on the idea of superposition/interference of small sound sources represented by a large number of loudspeakers close to each other.

In this talk we will present a WFS project implemented at the Technical University of Berlim, and based on that experience we will discuss aspects of environmental acoustics, mathematics, audio infrastructures and computer programming.