Assessing Spatial Coherence and Plausibility in a Multi-Position Virtual Choir Experience

Dedousis G, Georgaki A, Andreopoulou A. Assessing Spatial Coherence and Plausibility in a Multi-Position Virtual Choir Experience. In: AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games. Audio Engineering Society; 2026. Paper 495. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23342

@inproceedings{Dedousis2026_23342,
  author = {Dedousis, Georgios and Georgaki, Anastasia and Andreopoulou, Areti},
  title = {{Assessing Spatial Coherence and Plausibility in a Multi-Position Virtual Choir Experience}},
  booktitle = {AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games},
  note = {Paper 495},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23342}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Assessing Spatial Coherence and Plausibility in a Multi-Position Virtual Choir Experience
AU  - Dedousis, Georgios
AU  - Georgaki, Anastasia
AU  - Andreopoulou, Areti
T2  - AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games
M1  - Paper 495
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/30
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23342
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - This work reports an exploratory perceptual assessment of a binaurally rendered virtual choir, focusing on how spatial, audiovisual, and performative (including conductor-related) dimensions shape perceived plausibility of the depicted musical event. A four-part a cappella passage from Purcells "Dido and Aeneas" was recorded at six positions, five within the choir and one at the conductor, using first-order Ambisonic recorders in a controlled acoustic environment. These recording positions were later matched to six teleportation points in a virtual performance space. The experience was reproduced over open-back headphones via a dual-engine system coupling Unity (visuals, interaction) with REAPER (audio rendering) via OSC; head-tracked scene rotation and algorithmically added late reverberation were applied in real time, with binaural decoding using an individualized KEMAR HRTF set. 24 participants with choral backgrounds wore a Meta Quest 3 headset and navigated among the teleportation points. Seven items were rated inside the virtual environment on 5-point scales: sourceposition connection, conductormusic temporal coherence, voice-part localizability, reverberationroom congruence, copresence, conductor naturalness, and event plausibility. Results suggested an uneven perceptual profile where audio-spatial aspects of the scene were experienced as comparatively coherent and the depicted musical event as plausible, whereas the animated conductor was the clearest limitation. The match between reverberation and visible room size was rated as moderate, and co-presence with the choir and conductor varied widely across participants.
ER  -