Designing Ambisonic Decoders for Improved Surround Sound Playback in Constrained Listening Spaces

Much research has been undertaken to optimise irregular 5-speaker Ambisonic decoders for idealised listening
environments. In such environments speaker placement is not restricted and can conform to the ITU 5.1 standard.
In domestic settings, the room shape, furniture and television positioning may restrict speaker placement. It is often
the case that a compromised speaker layout is enforced by other domestic requirements. This paper seeks to derive
Ambisonic decoders to optimise perceived localisation performance for these constrained asymmetrical speaker layouts. This work uses a heuristic search algorithm to derive decoder coefficients and simultaneously optimise speaker angle within specified bounds. Theoretical results are shown for different orders of newly derived Ambisonic decoders for typical domestic scenarios.