Dr Bruce Wiggins
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Job title: Lecturer in Electronics and Sound
Email: b.j.wiggins@derby.ac.uk
Personal website: www.brucewiggins.co.uk
Phone No: +44 (0)1332 593157
Room: Markeaton Street 204
I'm a media friendly expert
Latest news
The game F1 2010 by Codemasters, which uses WigWare Ambisonic Plug-ins to create pre-rendered Ambisonic sound fields for use in the game, has won a BAFTA. Codemasters used 10 large soundfields (totalling 175 Mb before compression) for various aspects of the game, e.g. the paddock and garage. More details on the award can be found here, and details about the game itself can be found here.
Mac versions of my Wigware Ambisonic Plug-ins are now available! I've started to port my VST plug-ins to the Mac platform. The plug-ins can be downloaded from here.
Ambisonic Audio in Codemasters DiRT 2 Game - The WigWare Ambisonic plug-ins have been used to create pre-mixed 3D soundscapes that react to listener position in the Codemasters game, DiRT 2. Codemasters are pioneering speaker agnostic surround audio in games, and the use of pre-rendered audio that still reacts to which way the camera is pointing is thought to be a world first.
An end for re-mixing? - Our stand at Sounds Expo 2007 had a portable, laptop based, version of the software we use to control the 40+ speakers in our Multi-channel Surround Sound Lab here at the University of Derby.
Wii are the music makers - This BSc (Hons) Multimedia Technology and Music Production student project made use of the Wigware Ambisonic Encoders and Decoders in order to realise the 12-speaker surround sound array used. An example of how research inspires the curriculum at the University of Derby.
Recent publications
Conference Papers
- Wiggins, B. Spenceley, T. (2009) Distance Coding and Performance of the Mark 5 and ST350 Soundfield Microphones and their Suitability for Ambisonic Reproduction. Reproduced Sound 25, Institute of Acoustics, Vol. 31. Pt 4.
- Wiggins, B. (2008) Has Ambisonics Come of Age? Reproduced Sound 24 - Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, Vol 30. Pt 6.
- Wiggins, B. (2007) The Generation of Panning Laws for Irregular Speaker Arrays Using Heuristic Methods. Proceedings of the 31st International AES conference, London, UK.
- Wiggins, B. Paterson-Stephens, I., Lowndes, V., Berry, S. (2003) The Design and Optimisation of Surround Sound Decoders Using Heuristic Methods. Proceedings of UKSim 2003, Conference of the UK Simulation Society p.106-114.
- Schillebeeckx, P. Wiggins, B., Paterson-Stephens, I. (2001) Using Matlab/Simulink as an implementation tool for Multi-Channel Surround Sound. Proceedings of the 19th International AES conference on Surround Sound, Germany, p. 366-372.
- Wiggins, B. Paterson-Stephens, I., Schillebeeckx, P. (2001) The analysis of multi-channel sound reproduction algorithms using HRTF data. 19th International AES Surround Sound Convention, Germany, p. 111-123.
Professional Journal
- Paterson-Stephens, I; Wiggins, B; Denormal numbers in floating-point processor applications, GlobalDSP On-line Journal July 2003.
- Paterson-Stephens, I; Wiggins, B; Quadrature filtering using an optimised Hilbert transform, GlobalDSP On-line Journal March 2003
Other Publications
- Wiggins, B. (2004), An Investigation into the Real-time Manipulation and Control of Three-dimensional Sound Fields, PhD thesis, University of Derby, Derby, UK.
Other public output (reports, exhibitions)
- Wiggins, B., Lennox P., Flat Worm - 2.5D. 12 speaker 1st and 2nd order Ambisonic installation demonstration, Maxis festival, 2003.
- Wiggins, B., Lennox, P., Worm - Real-time 32 speaker 1st and 2nd order Ambisonic installation demonstration, Maxis festival, 2002.
Experience in Industry
- Designed the 32 speaker Ambisonic Decoder now found in the Royal Opera House.
- Ambisonic Decoder design and implementation for Dolby Labs.
- Ambisonic Decoder design and analysis for SoundField Ltd.
- Audio extraction and real-time spatialisation software development for Funktion One.
- Matrix surround decoder development for Dallas Masters.
Current Activities / Links with Industry
- On-going work with Codemasters bringing pre-mixed Ambisonic Surround Sound audio to their games.
- On-going work with BBC R&D allowing for Ambisonic mixing and decoding of pre-recorded events.
Faculty: Arts, Design and Technology
School: School of Technology
Subject Area: Music and Media Technology
Lecturer on the programmes
- MA Music Production
- BSc(Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- BSc(Hons) Music Technology and Audio System Design
- BSc(Hons) Music Technology and Production
- BSc(Hons) Sound, Light and Live Event Technology
- BSc(Hons) Multimedia Technology and Production
- BA(Hons) Popular Music and Music Technology
Teaching responsibilities
Module leader for the undergraduate modules:
- Analogue and Digital Electronics
- Audio Systems Technology
- Real-time Audio Digital Signal Processing
- Multi-Channel Sound System Design
- Musical Applications Programming
- Digital Signal Processing & Sound Design
Also contributes to the modules:
- Electrical Principles and Measurement
- Computer Music Systems
- Computer Systems and Networks
- DSP Theory
- Independent Studies
Have previously taught:
- Real-time Software Engineering (MSc.)
- Information Technology and Electronic CAD
Research interests
Audio Digital Signal Processing. Surround Sound Algorithmic research including work on Ambisonics, binaural and transaural approaches. Use of Heuristic Methods in the optimisation of multi-speaker decodes.
Membership of professional bodies and advisory committees
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Recent Conferences
Conference Presentations
- Wiggins, B. Spenceley, T. (2009) Distance Coding and Performance of the Mark 5 and ST350 Soundfield Microphones and their Suitability for Ambisonic Reproduction. Presentation given at Institute of Acoustics' Reproduced Sound 25 International Conference.
- Wiggins, B. (2009) Future Proof Surround Sound Mixing Using Ambisonics. Presentation given at the Forum for Innovation in Music Production and Composition, Leeds College of Music, UK
- Wiggins, B. (2008) Has Ambisonics Come of Age? Presentation given at the Institute of Acoustics' Reproduced Sound 24 Internatinoal Conference
- Wiggins, B. (2007) The Generation of Panning Laws for Irregular Speaker Arrays Using Heuristic Methods. Presentation given at 31st International AES conference, London, UK.
- Wiggins, B. (2008) Screencasts for Education using BB Flashback and Adobe Captivate. Presentation given at Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology Teaching, Learning and Assessment conference, Derby, UK.
Additional Interests and Activities
Recent Projects:
Teaching Informed by Research Projects:
2006/7 & 2007/8 - SPARG True Multi-channel Mixing Environment. The Signal Processing Applications Research Group has carried out much research into the field of hierarchical multi-channel audio platforms and algorithms (e.g. see the PDF here ). However, all current audio mixing and editing software is 'hard wired' to utilise only a fixed number of speakers and with internal workings predicated on stereo mixing paradigms making any true, flexible multi-channel sound mixing problematic at best. This project is carrying out the implementation and documenting of a true hierarchical, flexible, mixing environment using the already established, permanent Multi-channel Sound Research Lab at the University of Derby. Our KRK Multi-channel Sound Lab consists of 30 speakers and four subs allowing for full 3D audio creation and audition. Custom software to drive the various speaker arrays available in the lab (the WigWear Ambisonic Plug-ins) have been constructed and hosted on music production software (such as Reaper - www.reaper.fm and Audiomulch - www.audiomulch.com) in order to allow for the creative use of the system using a convenient and familiar workflow. This work is currently being fed into a number of undergraduate modules allowing our students to create cutting edge, future proof, audio presentations. The outcomes of this work were presented at the Institute of Acoustics' Reproduced Sound 24 International Conference. Posters were also presented at two University of Derby Learning, Teaching and Assessment Conferences. View Poster 1 PDF. View Poster 2 PDF.
2008/9 - Novel Human Computer Interaction Development. Following the recent success of the Multi-media Applications project 'Wii are the Music makers' (www.derby.ac.uk/press-office/news-archive/wii-are-the-music-makers) which resulted in local news and radio coverage along with a stand prepared for the 'NanoWhat' event (www.nanowhat.co.uk/), this projects aim was to both develop novel human computer interfaces and embed this work both into performance (the use of) and technical teaching content (the development of) using cheap, readily available materials which will allow more intuitive control of audio and lighting/show control software (such as Wii controllers and web cams, for example, costing around £20 each to create multi-touch and motion sensing controllers which would normally cost over £2000 each).
The work combined the use of hardware such as webcams, wii controllers and mobile phones along with available software (such as glovepie http://carl.kenner.googlepages.com/glovepie and eyesweb www.infomus.org/EywMain.html ) and custom written Java applications in order to create flexible, wireless, powerful and intuitive human computer interaction devices which will be used to control various audio/video/lighting parameters in different ways. For example, the motion of someone walking across a stage could be used to control the virtual position of a sound source, or wii controllers handed around the audience to remix audio loops in real-time.
Both the technical and artistic outcomes of this work were presented at the Forum for Innovation in Music Production and Composition, Leeds College of Music, UK. A poster was also presented at the University of Derby Learning, Teaching and Assessment Conference. View the Poster PDF.
Research Inspired Curriculum Fund Projects
2007/8 - The simulation of distance in multi-channel audio. This project was to carry out the necessary research to firstly ascertain what it is the SoundField mics are recording in order to encode distance. This was tested using our SoundField microphones in combination with the software packages Adobe Audition 3 and the Aurora audio testing plug-in suite. The results can then be used to create a plug-in for standard audio packages (a VST plug-in) to correctly encode distance cues with the panning information. The work will also feed into SPARG's previous research as it can also be used in the calibration of the Ambisonic decoders that have already been created by as distance compensation can then be setup to take into account a) what distance the SoundField mics were calibrated at (i.e. where their 'focal distance' is set to), and b) the distance at which the speakers are. This work was presented at Institute of Acoustics' Reproduced Sound 25 International Conference and the University of Derby's Annual Research Conference.
Wigware Plug-in Suite (Windows and Mac):
Wigware Ambisonic Decoder (WAD)
This program now comes in two flavours, as a Direct Show filter and a VST plugin. The Direct Show Filter allows any Direct Show capable audio player software (such as Windows Media Player) the ability to read and decode B-format wave files (the format of which is specified here on Richard Dobson's web page - details on the Waveformat extensible file format used can be found on Microsofts web site here - details on Ambisonics can be found here).
The VST version comes in 1st and 2nd order versions (3rd and 4th order versions to follow) and allows you to alter the polar patterns of the speaker feeds either across the whole frequency range or using 'Shelf Filters' with a variable cut-off. Both of the VST plugins will derive outputs for a standard ITU 5 speaker array, with higher orders giving better frontal resolution.
Check my personal website (http://www.brucewiggins.co.uk) for updates to this software:
- VST (PC) 1st Order Ambisonic Decoding Plug-ins (5.0 and regular decoders are now separate) - v0.7
- VST (PC) 2nd Order Ambisonic Decoding Plug-in - v0.4
- VST (Mac) 1st Order Ambisonic Decoder Plug-ins can be found here.
- 1st Order Windows Media Player Plug-in (Direct Show Filter) - v0.3.2
- - Square decoder
- - ITU 5 Speaker decoder
- - Hexagon with a speaker at 0 degrees decoder
- - Hexagon without a speaker at 0 degrees decoder
- - Octagon with a speaker at 0 degrees decoder
- - Octagon without a speaker at 0 degrees decoder
- - with-height eight speaker Cube decoder
Wigware Ambisonic Panner (mono to 1st and 2nd order)
Panning plug-in taking mono in, and passing out 1st or 2nd order B-format. These currently include near-field compensation and distance filters, but the panning only currently works on the surface of the sphere. These have been released early due to issues found with currently available Ambisonic encoders.
- VST (PC) 1st and 2nd order Ambisonic Panning Plug-ins - v0.7
- VST (Mac) 1st Order Ambisonic Panning Plug-ins can be found here.
Wigware Ambisonic Reverb (1st Order....2nd order coming soon)
A simple, recursive, 4-channel, reverb plug-in. Perfect for 1st order Ambisonics.
- 1st Order Ambisonic Reverb Plug-in (PC)- v0.4 (based on the excellent open source Freeverb)
- 1st Order Ambisonic Reverb Plug-in (Mac) can be found here.
Undergraduate qualifications
- BSc (Hons) Music Technology and Audio Systems Design, University of Derby
Postgraduate qualifications
- Postgraduate Certificate in Learning & Teaching in Higher Education, University of Derby
Research qualifications
- PhD on The Real-Time Manipulation and Control of Three-Dimensional Sound Fields, University of Derby
