SpherBedev 1.0

A fifty-node spherical loudspeaker array for Ambisonic playback.

A fifty-node spherical loudspeaker array for Ambisonic playback.

This spherical loudspeaker array of 2.14 m diameter is the first prototype I built during my PhD1 for the reconstruction of sound fields with Higher Order Ambisonics. The loudspeaker distribution follows a Lebedev mesh which has interesting properties for sound field sampling with spherical harmonics 2 3.

SpherBedev1.0
Figure 1: The SpherBedev 1.0

The speakers are 2” Aura Sound NSW2-326-8A mounted in PVC sleeves.

SpherBedev1.0
Figure 2: The SpherBedev 1.0 disassembled and ready to go in a transport case.

The entire support structure is made of aluminum tubes and it can be disassembled and fit into a transport case as shown in Fig.2.

The folowing video shows a timelapse of the assembly of this SpherBedev 1.0:

More details on the conception/realization are given in my PhD manuscript1 (in French).

The SpherBedev 1.0 array is located at the CNAM in Paris, at the Structural Mechanics and Coupled Systems Laboratory.

Thanks to the acoustics team and the technicians of the laboratory for their help during the realization of this SpherBedev 1.0!

  1. P. Lecomte, « Ambisonie d’ordre élevé en trois dimensions : captation, transformations et décodage adaptatifs de champs sonores », Université de Sherbrooke - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Sherbrooke - Paris, 2016.  2

  2. P. Lecomte, P.-A. Gauthier, C. Langrenne, A. Garcia, et A. Berry, « On the use of a Lebedev grid for Ambisonics », Audio Engineering Society Convention 139, AES, New York, 2015. 

  3. P. Lecomte, P.-A. Gauthier, C. Langrenne, A. Berry, et A. Garcia, « A Fifty-Node Lebedev Grid and Its Applications to Ambisonics », Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, vol. 64, nᵒ 11, p. 868‑881, 2016.