AUDIO EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Towards using virtual acoustics for evaluating spatial ecoacoustic monitoring technologies

We developed an ambisonic virtual sound environment (VSE) for simulating real natural soundscapes to evaluate spatial PAM technologies. We validated this novel approach using a PAM recorder with a six-microphone array, from which we extracted a typical suite of ecoacoustic metrics, including acoustic indices and avian species predictions and localisations from the software BirdNET and HARKBird, respectively. We first verified whether the VSE could replicate natural soundscapes well enough to test PAM technologies by comparing these metrics between field and VSE-based recordings. To pilot the VSE as an environment for testing PAM hardware, we assessed how orientation impacts the six-microphone array's performance by using the same suite of metrics to compare VSE recordings made with the array at various pitch angles. Finally, we piloted the VSE as a test platform for PAM software by investigating how BirdNET and HARKBird perform on bird calls added to the VSE-replicated soundscapes.