Recap of audio system diversification (more audio levels, more car variants (ICE, BEV, PHEV), more functionalities (incl RNC, haptics, headrest, etc) Challenges of today’s audio component integrations: Interior sound challenges, Exterior sound challenges Propositions for disrupting compact (and often doorless) architectures, still meeting performance and functional requirements Specific Speaker requirements for these compact architectures Final layout propositions
As automotive and embedded platforms evolve toward increasingly complex, multi-core SoCs, achieving reliable real-time audio performance has become more difficult than ever. Subtle interactions among computation, memory subsystems, caches, interrupts, and schedulers can produce intermittent audio dropouts that are hard to reproduce, diagnose, and assign to any single component. Diagnosing and isolating defects within software stacks developed by multiple distributed teams presents a significant challenge. Software-defined vehicles are transforming how automotive audio systems are designed, deployed, and updated. As audio functionality becomes increasingly software-driven, system engineers must deliver scalable, robust, and reusable architectures across complex platforms including multi-core SOCs and DSPs.
Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) are reshaping how automotive audio features are created and delivered, shifting innovation from hardware-bound implementations to software-defined capabilities. This transition introduces new challenges for IP providers, Tier 1 suppliers, and OEMs in packaging, protecting, integrating, and scaling third-party technologies—but also unlocks significant benefits, including shorter discovery and evaluation cycles, reduced integration burden, and expanded opportunities for both established and emerging IP vendors.
he development of automotive audio systems is increasingly driven by the need to reduce late‑stage integration risk and to support earlier, more informed design decisions—often before physical prototypes are available. In parallel, objective audio quality and speech intelligibility metrics are being adopted more widely to complement and reduce reliance on subjective listening tests. Together, these trends motivate a shift toward system‑level modeling and simulation approaches that connect digital signal processing (DSP), electro-acoustic transducers, cabin acoustics, and human perception. This tutorial presents practical strategies for unifying simulations of audio DSP and acoustics in the context of automotive audio design using MATLAB and Simulink. Drawing on experience from collaborations across OEMs and the automotive supply chain, the tutorial discusses workflows that allow combinations of multiple model partitions—such as DSP algorithms, loudspeaker and transducer models, cabin acoustic representations, and psychoacoustic assessment—to coexist within unified time‑domain simulations. This enables engineers to better understand cross‑domain interactions and evaluate design tradeoffs earlier in the development process.
Intermodulation Distortion in automotive loudspeakers has degraded the quality of the listening experience in vehicles since the onset of audio systems in cars. Even in the current state-of-the-art systems of 30 or more loudspeakers, it can still rear its ugly head. This tutorial will define the especially egregious Amplitude Modulation distortion, show what it looks like in scope captures and simple twin-tone IMOD measurements. It will demonstrate how to use common audio tools like Room EQ Wizard (REW), Smaart, and SpectraFoo to discover what are the danger frequencies in given loudspeaker by using the Spectragraph function. It will show how even expensive speakers within their linear Bl(x) (magnet strength) and linear Kms(x) (stiffness) curves can still suffer greatly from this AM distortion, even at lower excursions than their parameters would predict. We will show how typical automotive speaker mounting and protective speaker grills actually increase the presence and audibility of this distortion. We will show a technique to measure this distortion in the vehicle. The tutorial will show visualizations of distortion-causing cone motion recorded by a laser vibrometer. Finally, we will listen to the audible effects of this distortion on different music examples. The format will allow questions during any point in the tutorial to allow for full understanding and explore how diaphragm simulation could help solve some of these issues.
The rapid adoption of Dolby Atmos in automotive audio systems marks a fundamental shift from traditional channel-based reproduction toward object-based, content-driven spatial audio. Unlike legacy surround upmixers, which algorithmically derive envelopment from stereo or limited multichannel sources, Dolby Atmos enables playback of artist-authored spatial intent through dynamic rendering tailored to the vehicle’s speaker layout. This transition introduces both new opportunities and significant engineering challenges for OEMs and suppliers. This workshop explores the evolving role of immersive audio in the automotive environment, comparing the perceptual, technical, and implementation differences between Atmos rendering and advanced upmixing approaches. Key topics include system architecture implications such as height channel integration, the continued necessity of upmixers for non-Atmos content, and the balance between spatial accuracy and brand-specific sound tuning. Emphasis is placed on real-world constraints unique to vehicles, including asymmetric cabin geometries, seat-to-seat variability, limited speaker placement options, and the impact of reflective surfaces on spatial perception. The discussion will also address computational and cost considerations, content variability, and the challenges of validating spatial audio performance using both objective and subjective methods. Through a combination of technical insights and practical examples, this workshop aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how immersive audio technologies are reshaping automotive sound system design. Attendees will gain perspective on best practices, current limitations, and future directions for delivering compelling spatial audio experiences in production vehicles. As automotive audio systems evolve into high-channel-count, software-defined platforms, OEM decision-makers face a critical question: how to deliver compelling spatial audio experiences from a content ecosystem still dominated by stereo. This workshop examines the role of sound quality evaluation in guiding that transition, tracing the evolution of upmixing technologies from early matrix decoding to modern content-adaptive and object-inspired approaches. While upmixers remain essential for scalability across legacy content, they introduce inherent limitations—including spatial ambiguity, tonal artifacts, and content-dependent performance—that directly impact perceived quality and brand differentiation. In contrast, discrete multichannel and object-based formats such as Dolby Atmos offer improved localization, stability, and creative intent preservation, but introduce challenges in content availability, system cost, and integration complexity. Through a combination of technical insights, perceptual evaluation frameworks, and real-world automotive case studies, this workshop will explore how these trade-offs manifest in production vehicles. Special emphasis will be placed on how sound quality metrics—both objective and listener-based—can inform system tuning strategies, feature prioritization, and platform decisions.
Modern automotive audio systems have evolved into distributed, software-defined platforms that combine traditional DSP with machine learning. These systems are continuously trained, tuned, and updated using real-world data, creating complex workflows that extend beyond the vehicle. As a result, AI-driven audio technologies have become valuable intellectual property. Development and deployment typically occur across distributed environments. Engineers capture real-world data, refine models, and validate performance, while finalized algorithms are deployed onto embedded vehicle hardware for real-time operation. This lifecycle introduces significant security risks. Development tools may expose proprietary models outside controlled settings, and deployed systems are vulnerable to reverse engineering, extraction, or unauthorised reuse—especially when physical access to hardware is possible. This workshop focuses on safeguarding AI-driven audio across its lifecycle, identifying where IP is most exposed, and examining common attack methods. It also presents practical strategies to secure both development workflows and in-vehicle systems, ensuring innovation, collaboration, and long-term business value are protected.
Automotive audio systems have historically been engineered around a driver-centric model, with fixed seating geometry and a well-defined listening reference. In contrast, emerging autonomous vehicle interiors introduce reconfigurable seating, multi-user scenarios, and use cases that extend beyond driving to include work, entertainment, and social interaction. These changes fundamentally shift the role of in-cabin audio from a playback system to a component of a broader user experience. This panel explores how audio system design must evolve to support cabin-centric, multi-occupant experiences. Key challenges include managing multiple concurrent use cases, balancing shared and personalized audio, and adapting to dynamic seating configurations and listener orientations. The discussion will also address how audio integrates with human-machine interfaces, including voice interaction, auditory alerts, and contextual feedback, particularly in the absence of a clearly defined driver role. Panelists will examine system-level approaches that bridge UX and engineering, including zonal audio strategies, adaptive rendering informed by occupant sensing, and experience-driven system tuning. Emphasis will be placed on practical design trade-offs, such as isolation versus social cohesion, system complexity versus robustness, and personalization versus consistency. The session aims to outline frameworks for designing audio systems that function as adaptive, user-centered components within next-generation autonomous vehicle cabins.
MEMS microphones in general and automotive – a tutorial Just as the semiconductor content in cars is increasing, so do MEMS microphones play an increasing role – both technology and application driven. Technology driven, because the legacy Electret Condenser Microphones are giving way to leveraging the benefits of MEMS technology, in automotive as they have in consumer electronics. Application driven because MEMS microphones play an increasing role in driver and passenger comfort, safety and the way we interact with our cars. This tutorial aims to give a broad overview of MEMS microphones with a particular focus on automotive. The participants will walk away knowing about MEMS microphone technology, its capabilities and (current) limits and applications in vehicles.
Currently, no widely accepted measurement methodology exists for in-car RNC systems. Automotive OEMs, suppliers, and research institutions apply different procedures, measurement microphone configurations, driving conditions, and performance metrics, making it difficult to compare system performance across vehicles, development teams, and research studies. In response to this situation, the NVH And Sound (NAS) Technical Subcommittee under TCAA established a dedicated Work Group to look into developing a common measurement and evaluation framework for in-car RNC systems.
The current market landscape for electric vehicles has in-cabin noise trending quieter and quieter with each new generation of vehicles. But as physical and economic limits for acoustic isolation are reached, that same landscape converges on the same exact experience of quietness for every car, regardless of brand. However, what if this same quiet vehicle was instead thought of as a canvas, allowing for the intentional design of every aspect of the user experience? Active Sound Design is one way to harness these ideas, but when augmented with Active Vibration Design, automakers can embed a deep sense of identity within every vehicle. This workshop, hosted by HEAD acoustics and GHSP, invites attendees to consider how a vehicle communicates its identity to its occupants, and how that can be harnessed through sound and vibration design. This workshop details the process of developing, prototyping, tuning, and deploying multiple Active Experience Design profiles within a real vehicle that attendees of the AES Automotive Audio Conference can drive.
In automotive audio, sound design plays a key role in defining brand identity and perceived quality. At the same time, development is constrained by long approval cycles, tight timelines, and the need for high consistency from early concept phases to series production. This workshop presents a holistic workflow, combining state-of-the-art Active Noise Control algorithms and vast Sound Design capabilities into a seamless, production-ready process. The workshop focuses on the integration of m|klang® e by Müller-BBM, a software framework for Active Noise Control and Sound Synthesis, with Max by Cycling ’74, a widely adopted visual programming environment used by sound designers and digital media creatives. Together, these tools enable designers and engineers to collaborate within a shared environment, starting at the earliest creative stages, continuing through in-vehicle tuning and production deployment, seamlessly reiterating these steps as many times as necessary. Realistic vehicle behavior can be made available within the early stage design process by replaying recorded vehicle signals (e.g., CAN traces), connecting to NVH simulators, or interfacing directly with a vehicle. This allows both the acoustic content and the associated control logic to be designed and evaluated under realistic operating conditions. Acoustic consistency is ensured across all development stages; the same sound behavior heard on a laptop during design is reproduced in the target hardware in the vehicle. The workflow further supports live in-vehicle tuning and the generation of production datasets, including post-production sound updates via software or over-the-air deployment.
