Personalised Audio for TV

Lecture given by Rupert Brun (Brun Audio Consulting Ltd) on Zoom on 15th August 2023.

In this talk, Rupert Brun will explain what audio objects are and why we need them. He will describe his award-winning Wimbledon “NetMix” experiment from 2011 and how it led directly to a focus on accessibility as the key feature for Next Generation Audio. He will talk about how audio objects can be created for both live and post-produced content, and how they can be distributed to the consumer. He will call on his extensive experience delivering audio object content for a wide range of programmes, from the Eurovision Song Contest to the European Athletics Championship. Rupert will base his talk on his personal experience with MPEG-H but will also mention the importance of other standards including the Audio Definition Model (ADM) and the emerging serial version SADM.

Rupert has been a member of the AES for many decades and was previously a member of the UK AES Committee, with responsibility for sustaining members. He is also a member of the IET Media Executive Committee and a STEM Ambassador. He helps to run the Radio Technology Conference in the UK each year. He lives near Whitstable in Kent with his wife and two dogs.

He worked for the BBC for nearly 35 years in a variety of roles including Senior Engineer, Maida Vale and Senior Engineer Radiophonic Workshop. He spent his last decade at the BBC as Head of Technology for Radio & Music TV, with responsibility for all of the technology across those areas including multi-million pound technology projects. He was part of the team which launched DAB in the UK and invented the popular high-quality
streaming service “HD Sound” for BBC Radio 3.

In 2011 he created the Wimbledon “NetMix” experiment which allowed listeners using a web browser to alter the relative volume of the commentary and the court sounds; this award-winning work is considered by many to be the first example of use of audio objects for Accessibility.

Rupert left the BBC to set up Brun Audio Consulting Ltd in March 2015. His clients include broadcasters, technology companies, manufacturers, and systems integrators. He continues to work with Fraunhofer IIS to promote MPEG-H “Next Generation Audio” for TV, with a focus on personalisation, especially accessibility.