Objective Evaluation of Ambisonics Recording Performance Using Arbitrary Microphone Arrays

The recording technology for panoramic audio and video is gradually penetrating the consumer electronics market, and the technology for spatial audio recording using consumer electronics devices is receiving increasing attention. To accommodate different device form factors, there is a growing need for spatial audio recording techniques based on arbitrary geometric microphone arrays. This paper focuses on scene-based spatial audio, specifically Ambisonics technology, due to its significant advantages in emerging application scenarios such as panoramic audio and video, as well as extended reality. However, its high equipment requirements make arbitrary-array-based Ambisonics recording technology a challenging task. This study provides an overview of existing arbitrary-array-based Ambisonics recording techniques. Meanwhile, this study emphasizes the spatial characteristics of spatial audio, decoupling them and proposing corresponding objective metrics for evaluating the quality of Ambisonics audio. In a more realistic simulation environment, we implement the current mainstream methods and compare their algorithmic performance using the proposed metrics, offering meaningful references for research on arbitrary-array-based Ambisonics recording.