A spatial audio technique using dense speaker arrays to physically reconstruct sound waves — creating acoustic holograms in space.
Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) uses a large number of densely packed loudspeakers to physically recreate the wavefront of a sound source at its original position. Unlike Ambisonics (which simulates spatial perception via psychoacoustic tricks) or channel-based formats (which pan between fixed speakers), WFS creates a physical acoustic hologram — the sound waves actually converge at a point in space.
Based on the Huygens-Fresnel principle: any wavefront can be reconstructed from an array of secondary point sources along a boundary. In practice, a dense line or ring of speakers each emit carefully delayed and filtered signals that sum to create the desired wavefront in the listening area.
True WFS needs very densely spaced loudspeakers, so it is rare in fulldome venues. Even a large dome array such as the Satosphere at SAT Montréal (93 full-range speakers) is typically driven with object-based panning (SpatGRIS) or Ambisonics rather than WFS. The 4DSOUND system used at Monom Berlin also implements WFS-like spatial synthesis.
See also: Spatial Audio → · Ambisonics → · Object-Based Audio →
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