Towards an Ex-Situ Ecologically Valid Soundscape Evaluation Methodology Using Immersive Audio

Abstract

The design of soundscape evaluation protocols, realized either in-situ (real-world) or in laboratory conditions, and the assessment of their ecological validity is gaining interest among researchers. This paper reports on an experiment that aims to simulate the listening conditions of interacting with a travel-guide application presenting users with recreations of historically-informed soundscapes, designed to be used in-situ, in a laboratory setting. This was achieved by simulating the real-world soundscapes, which would have surrounded users of the app when used outside, from a periphonic speaker arrangement in a sound-treated space using an 2D ambisonic reproduction of the corresponding data. The evaluation results showed that participants interacted with the travel-guide content in a manner that resembled a real-life situation. That is, they were in general able to recognize and separate the auditory content of the travel-guide from that of the real-world simulated auditory space they where placed within, with some occasional confusions. This study adds to the work on the ecological validity of soundscape evaluations and tries to highlight the boundaries between the two simultaneous soundscape auditions.