Proceedings of the 11th Convention of the
European Acoustics Association
Forum Acusticum / EuroNoise 2025


Málaga, Spain
June 23 - 26, 2025





Session: A24.01 Virtual acoustics - General
Date: Tuesday 24 June 2025
Time: 17:00
Title: Presenting the 'Diamonds Room'
Author(s): Jacopo Grassi
Matteo Pellegatti
Nicola Prodi
Chiara Visentin
Giulia Tampone
Andrea Bertelli
Luca Tebaldi
Pages: 6441-6444
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.61782/fa.2025.0700
PDF: https://dael.euracoustics.org/confs/fa2025/data/articles/000700.pdf
Conference proceedings
Abstract

The “Diamonds’ Room (DR)” (Camera dei Diamanti) is a new virtual reality test bench at the University of Ferrara. The present work describes how at first a commercial chamber designed for audiometric testing was  fitted with further sound absorbing material and equipped with an audio system consisting of 41 loudspeakers (32 passive, 8 active and a subwoofer). Later a virtual reality headset was included and finally audio and video were merged. The final configuration allows the creation of realistic virtual AV scenarios: the audio playback is achieved by means of HOA (higher order Ambisonics), while the video reproduction is managed by Unity software. An objective methodology, based on multichannel microphones, has been developed specifically to evaluate the performance of sound spatialization. The results in DR are encouragingly positive because the reproduction error for the minimum audible angle (MMA), which was evaluated for both real and virtual single sources, is mostly in the range 1°-4°. These values are not far from to the human ability to distinguish two sounds coming from different directions under optimal conditions. Thanks to its performance the  DR can be employed in a wide range of applications, spanning from medicine and psychology to industry.