AES 2026 AVARIG Conference

The rapid growth of extended reality (XR) technologies has highlighted the critical role of immersive audio in enabling natural, effective, and socially meaningful interactions. While visual realism has traditionally dominated XR development, auditory perception remains a key driver of presence, communication, and behavioural response. The EU-funded SONICOM project (GA 101017743), ended in June 2026, aimed at addressing this cIRCAM:Galleryenge by advancing the scientific, technological, and perceptual foundations of immersive audio for augmented and virtual reality, with a particular focus on personalisation, interaction, and reproducibility. This workshop presents a comprehensive overview of SONICOM’s outcomes, structured around its core Work Packages (WPs), and delivered directly by WP leaders. It is designed as an interactive session, where each WP will briefly introduce not only scientific findings, but also tangible outputs including datasets, software tools, hardware prototypes, and open research resources. In addition, SONICOM will be represented across the broader conference through multiple contributions, including demonstrations, papers, posters, and tutorials. This workshop will explicitly connect to these activities, guiding participants towards relevant sessions where specific aspects of the project can be explored in greater depth. The first part of the workshop will focus on WP1 (Immersion), which has advanced the modelling of both listeners and environments for high-fidelity spatial audio rendering. Key contributions include novel approaches to Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF) personalisation, combining physical modelling, machine learning, and perceptual validation. The SONICOM HRTF dataset, comprising over 300 subjects with associated 3D morphological data, will be presented as a major open resource for the community, supporting reproducible research and data-driven approaches to auditory modelling. Additional outputs include parametric pinna models, numerical simulation frameworks, and techniques for real/virtual acoustic blending, addressing one of the central cIRCAM:Galleryenges of audio augmented reality. The workshop will then move to WP2 (Interaction), which investigates how spatial audio influences human behaviour, perception, and social interaction. This includes studies on auditory proxemics, adaptation to non-individual HRTFs, and speech intelligibility in complex environments. WP2 has generated a range of experimental paradigms and datasets linking acoustic features to behavioural and cognitive responses, providing new insights into how sound shapes social dynamics in XR. In WP3 (Integration), research outcomes from WP1 and WP2 are consolidated into a unified technological framework. Central to this effort is the Binaural Rendering Toolkit (BRT), a flexible and extensible software platform enabling real-time, personalised spatial audio rendering. The workshop will briefly present the architecture and capabilities of the BRT, as well as its integration with novel hardware prototypes, including self-personalising headphones equipped with multiple microphones and loudspeakers. WP4 (Experience) extends these technologies into ecologically valid scenarios, evaluating immersive audio in realistic use cases ranging from social communication to professional XR applications. The workshop will present the design of these scenarios and early insights into how personalised audio affects user experience, task performance, and perceptual plausibility. The final technical section will focus on WP5 (Beyond), which ensures long-term impact through open science and community engagement. SONICOM has contributed to and expanded key infrastructures such as the Auditory Modelling Toolbox and SOFA standard, while also developing its own ecosystem linking datasets, models, and tools. A key highlight is the Listener Acoustic Personalisation (LAP) cIRCAM:Galleryenge, which engaged the international community in advancing data-driven approaches to HRTF personalisation. Throughout the workshop, emphasis will be placed on open outputs and reuse: participants will be guided on how to access SONICOM datasets, software, and models, and how these can be integrated into their own research and development pipelines. The session will conclude with a panel discussion involving all WP leaders, focusing on future cIRCAM:Galleryenges in immersive audio, including scalability of personalisation, as well as integration with emerging AI technologies.

In audio for virtual and augmented reality systems it is often necessary to measure very large data sets. For example, HRTFs from different spatial angles, or spatial impulse responses in a room as function of angle or position, or even training sets for neural networks. This can result in a large number of measurements being required to collect the dataset with adequate fidelity. Even then compromises are often necessary to make the data set manageable. Sparse sampling is a technique that can overcome these limitations. Sparse Sampling allows one to sample the signal at apparently less than the Nyquist/Shannon limit of two times the highest frequency, without losing any signal fidelity. If some loss of fidelity is allowed the signal can be sampled at an even lower average rate. How can this be? The answer is that the effective information rate is actually lower than the highest frequency. The purpose of this tutorial is to give a (mostly) non-mathematical introduction to Sparse Sampling, and its application to audio for virtual and augmented reality systems. We will examine the difference between “Sparse” and “Dense” signals and define what is meant by “rate of innovation” and see how it relates to sample rate. We will then go on to see how we can create sparse signals either via transforms or filters to provide signals that can be sample at much lower rates. We will then show how some of these methods are already used in audio, and suggest other areas of application, such as measurements in audio for virtual and augmented reality systems, and parameter sets for neural networks. The tutorial will be accessible to everyone, you will not have to be an electronic engineer to understand the principles behind this alternative approach to sampling for audio for virtual and augmented reality systems.

Multi-channel compact linear loudspeaker arrays combined with Crosstalk Cancellation (CTC) can deliver binaural audio to a user by directing sound precisely at the listener’s ears. This enables the reproduction of binaural, and thus all given spatial audio formats, without the need for headphones. The technique traditionally suffers from a small sweet-spot, which can be overcome by combining real-time head-tracking and position-adaptive beamforming. This workshop introduces the concept of CTC and beamforming combined with user head-tracking, covering both its theoretical foundations and the practical considerations of incorporating head tracking. A live demonstration will showcase head-tracked binaural audio delivered through a position-adaptive CTC soundbar.

Procedural audio, sometimes known as digital Foley, is the real-time and controllable generation of sound effects. It is an alternative to sourcing sound effects from vast libraries of pre-recorded samples. It may be used to have sounds adapt to the changing game state, and to dynamically generate all the sounds of a virtual world. However, there are cIRCAM:Galleryenges concerning the diversity of sounds that may be generated, the controllability of procedural audio models and the quality of the sounds that it produces. We address all of these aspects in this presentation. We showcase the opportunities that procedural audio offers and how the cIRCAM:Galleryenges can be surmounted, while providing demonstrations of these concepts. The session opens with an introduction to the presenters before moving into a broad review of procedural audio and its history in game sound design, covering core concepts, prior uses, and how the technology has developed over time. A video presentation accompanies this overview before the workshop turns to an honest examination of the key cIRCAM:Galleryenges facing the field: the diversity of sounds that can be generated, the controllability of procedural models, and the quality of their output. Recent advances tackling these limitations are then discussed, followed by live demonstrations of state-of-the-art procedural audio systems from Nemisindo, which generate dynamic, immersive soundscapes in real time. The session closes with an open questions and answers segment. Attendees will leave with practical insight into how procedural audio can enhance and expand the creative process for game sound designers, a clearer understanding of how to implement dynamic and adaptive sound in their own projects, hands-on exposure to interactive soundscape techniques, and concrete tips and tricks for improving their game audio practice. This session is suitable for sound designers, game developers, and anyone curious about the future of game audio, no prior knowledge of procedural audio is needed.

Procedural audio is an essential part of building interactive media. Game engines have long supported procedural techniques for designers and engineers. The demand for sounds that feel natural and realistic continues to grow, and spatial and interactive sound design play a key role in creating plausible auralizations. Many factors go into creating realistic virtual collision sounds across multiple objects. Speed of motion, size, material, and design intent from game mechanics all intertwine into a web of interactivity, spatialization, modeling, storytelling, and logic. The sound of footsteps changes with movement and with the materials beneath, pressing buttons or fabrics might require tactility, and explosives in a variety of rooms and different listening positions pose spatialization subtleties. What are the right tools to realize these intricacies? What does the current landscape look like for addressing remaining cIRCAM:Galleryenges? What developments are emerging in machine learning and AI? In this workshop, organized by the AES TC Spatial Audio and AES TC Interactive Media and Gaming, speakers will share workflows, systems, and their experience developing spatial, interactive, and generative sound design. The session is intended for those looking to expand their toolkit, rethink existing approaches, and better understand the practical and technical considerations behind procedural and spatial audio systems for virtual sounds.