Ambisonics: Introducing an Accessible, Distributed Approach

This paper presents an accessible, distributed approach to higher order ambisonics using a network of low-cost microcontroller-based devices. Leveraging recent advances in embedded computing, networked audio, and precise time synchronization, the system offers an alternative to conventional centralized architectures that typically require expensive multichannel interfaces and high-performance digital signal processing hardware. The proposed architecture combines an audio plugin for soundfield design with a modular network of ambisonics processing units, which, exploiting the parallelisable nature of ambisonics decoding, are each responsible for a subset of loudspeaker outputs. Synchronization is achieved through the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol, complemented by adaptive clock correction to maintain sub-microsecond alignment between devices. A third-order ambisonics implementation demonstrates the viability of the approach, with potential scalability to higher orders and larger arrays. Overall, this work contributes to the development of frugal, distributed solutions for immersive audio, expanding access to ambisonics-based systems for a wide range of applications.