2D-to-3D ambience upmixing based on perceptual band allocation

Listening tests were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of a novel 2D-to-3D ambience upmixing technique named "perceptual band allocation" (PBA). Four-channel ambience signals captured in a reverberant concert hall were low-pass and high-pass filtered, which were then routed to lower and upper loudspeaker layers arranged in a 9-channel 3D configuration, respectively. The upmixed stimuli were compared against original 3D recordings made using an 8-channel ambience microphone array in terms of 3D listener envelopment and preference. The results suggest that the perceived quality of the proposed method could be at least comparable to that of an original 3D recording.