Abstract

Out of all the 3D sound reproduction systems, Wavefield Synthesis
(WFS) presents a series of advantages, especially with regard to
the realism and acoustic sense of immersion that provides.
Moreover, an additional advantage is that the useful listening
area is very wide, surpassing the rest of the systems available
nowadays. The WFS theory was proposed between the end of the 80's
and the beginning of the 90's, but until the XXI century there
were no available prototypes of these systems, however, nowadays
there are still several aspects not covered by the theory that
mean significant challenges.

This thesis deals with the study of the WFS systems implementation
providing practical solutions to the technological limitations
that present these systems, as well as another set of
implementation problems and real-time operation. In the first
instance, this limitations are not described as physical
constraints but they suppose a problem to overcome in the search
for a efficient implementation.

The final aim of this thesis is to provide solutions that
contribute to the development of a completely functional WFS
system. Thus, during its development it has been necessary to
overcome different types of problems proposing original solutions.
These problems can be grouped in two major sets, on the one hand,
the problems related with the physical limitations of WFS, on the
other hand, those related with the practical implementation.
Moreover, it has also been worked on computational aspects related
to the real-time implementation of the WFS systems, which require
a large calculation power for real-time operation without
drop-outs and low latency. This last aspect has been treated
rigorously devoting a full chapter for its analysis and the
proposal of effective and efficient solutions. It has been
achieved a solution based on one and only personal computer even
for arrays of great dimensions. For this reason, it has been
necessary to optimize to the maximum the different aspects of the
software architecture.

To finalize this thesis, it has been proposed a strategy to
naturally integrate a WFS system between the current musical
production platforms based on computer software, providing the
creation of WFS musical projects in an efficient and interactive
fashion.