Listening from the Booth: Multi-Perspective Auralisation and Theatrical Sound Engineering

Assis Barbosa P, Mannis JA, Katz BFG. Listening from the Booth: Multi-Perspective Auralisation and Theatrical Sound Engineering. In: AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games. Audio Engineering Society; 2026. Paper 488. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23380

@inproceedings{AssisBarbosa2026_23380,
  author = {Assis Barbosa, Paulo and Mannis, José Augusto and Katz, Brian F. G.},
  title = {{Listening from the Booth: Multi-Perspective Auralisation and Theatrical Sound Engineering}},
  booktitle = {AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games},
  note = {Paper 488},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23380}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Listening from the Booth: Multi-Perspective Auralisation and Theatrical Sound Engineering
AU  - Assis Barbosa, Paulo
AU  - Mannis, José Augusto
AU  - Katz, Brian F. G.
T2  - AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games
M1  - Paper 488
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/30
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23380
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Sound engineers doing live mixing for theatre must manage the balance between on-stage acoustic sources and electro-acoustic sounds diffused in the hall. They have to trigger, spatialise and mix pre-recorded and live sounds, while actors perform. Typically confined to the control booth of unfamiliar venues, they need to adapt to a listening perspective that differs significantly from the audiences experience in the stalls or the balconies. This work engages with sound studies, virtual acoustics, and archival practices to investigate complementary questions. How does the acoustic dissociation between the control booth and the rest of the venue influence the technical and aesthetic decisions of sound engineers? How would contemporary engineers interpret archived theatrical soundtracks when guided by annotated scripts? To address these questions, the research unfolds in four stages: capture multiple High Order Ambisonics Room Impulse Responses (HOA-RIRs) from emblematic theatres in So Paulo, Brazil, combining multiple sources and listening positions; build a real-time convolution engine, using the captured HOA-RIR with actors voices and archival soundtracks from the collection of Brazilian theatrical sound designer Tunica Teixeira; invite sound engineers to perform mixing tasks in a virtual acoustic environment, guided by Tunicas annotated scripts; and use the task metrics and structured questionnaires to assess the impact of multi-perspective listening on their technical and aesthetic decisions.
ER  -