Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton

Knowledge and understanding
Familiarity with the concept of channel quality.
Awareness of how stereophonic systems work (or not).

Cognitive (thinking) skills
Ability to use specifications to assess the suitability of items of audio equipment for a particular task.

To introduce the students to many aspects of audio engineering, in particular, those of importance in the design and use of audio systems.

To familiarise students with the concept of channel quality and its assessment.
To extend the students' awareness and understanding of audio equipment specifications.
To promote awareness of the technical difficulties associated with the production and reproduction of stereophonic signals.
To build on the students' existing nowledge of the human auditory system and apply it to the perception of audio signals.

• Channel quality: audio specifications: subjective vs objective assessment
  
• Auditory capabilities: masking: just noticeable differences.
  
• Stereophony: 2-channel theory: recording techniques: limitations: multi-channel
  
• Sound fields: room acoustics: rooms and the loudspeaker.
  
• Audio public address: intelligibility: cluster systems: distributed systems: feedback
  
• Signal conditioning: equalisation: dynamic control
  
• Analogue vs digital systems: sampling: resolution: data density: recording

Series of lectures.
Practical demonstration of processing of stereophonic signals.
Three talks by invited experts in various fields of audio.

Discussion of course material during lectures.
Participation in stereo demonstration (listening).