Apparatus and method for driving an array of loudspeakers with drive signals

A method for driving an array of loudspeakers with drive signals to generate one or more local wave fields at one or more audio zones, the method comprising:

• detecting at least one of a position or an orientation of a listener;
• deciding whether to generate the drive signals using a sound field synthesizer or whether to generate the drive signals using a binaural renderer based on a virtual position of a virtual sound source at one or more locations of the one or more audio zones, wherein when the one or more audio zones comprises more than one audio zone, a decision device is configured to decide to generate the drive signals for a selected audio zone of the more than one audio zone using the sound field synthesizer when an angular direction from the selected audio zone to a virtual source of one of the one or more sound fields deviates by more than a predefined angle from one or more angular directions from the selected audio zone to one or more remaining audio zones of the more than one audio zone, and
• implementing one of the following:
• generating sound field drive signals for causing the array of loudspeakers to generate one or more sound fields at one or more audio zones, and
• generating binaural drive signals for causing the array of loudspeakers to generate specified sound pressures in at least two positions, wherein the at least two positions are determined based on at least one of the detected position or the detected orientation of the listener.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program code, the program code comprising processor-readable instructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor to implement operations for driving an array of loudspeakers with drive signals to generate one or more local wave fields at one or more audio zones, the operations including:

• detecting at least one of a position or an orientation of a listener;
• deciding whether to generate the drive signals using a sound field synthesizer or whether to generate the drive signals using a binaural renderer based on a virtual position of a virtual sound source at one or more locations of the one or more audio zones, wherein when the one or more audio zones comprises more than one audio zone, a decision device is configured to decide to generate the drive signals for a selected audio zone of the more than one audio zone using the sound field synthesizer when an angular direction from the selected audio zone to a virtual source of one of the one or more sound fields deviates by more than a predefined angle from one or more angular directions from the selected audio zone to one or more remaining audio zones of the more than one audio zone;
• and
• implementing one of the following:
• generating sound field drive signals for causing the array of loudspeakers to generate one or more sound fields at one or more audio zones, and
• generating binaural drive signals for causing the array of loudspeakers to generate specified sound pressures in at least two positions, wherein the at least two positions are determined based on at least one of the detected position or the detected orientation of the listener.