Ananas: A Networked Audio System for Distributed Spatial Audio Applications

Abstract

Spatial audio has an accessibility problem. Largescale spatial and immersive audio installations remain costly and exclusive, with high barriers to entry. We propose ''Ananas,'' a networked audio system consisting of network protocols, control software and microcontroller firmware, with the aim of rendering spatial audio applications accessible to a broad cohort of potential users. Based on a network of low-cost microcontroller development boards programmed in the Faust programming language, synchronised to nanosecond order via IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol, and controlled by approachable, digital audio workstation-based tooling, Ananas represents an opportunity to disrupt and democratise the spatial audio landscape. In this paper we demonstrate Ananas's protocols for audio and control data transmission and device discovery, its methods for media clock and presentation time recovery, and its applications to wave field synthesis and higher order ambisonics in a modular, scalable form.