Trevor Cox

I am a Professor of Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford where I carry out research and teaching focussing on architectural acoustics, signal processing and audio perception. I am also an author and radio broadcaster having presented many documentaries on BBC radio and written books for academics and the general public.

Architectural Acoustics

My work on diffusers is summarized in my academic book Acoustic Absorbers and Diffusers, which was co-authored with Peter D’Antonio, has the most citations in  my publications listed in Google Scholar. The most satisfying part of this work is seeing my research turned into actual designs which have been used in performance spaces worldwide.

Major current research projects

With the BBC move to MediaCityUK in Salford and the establishment of the BBC Audio Research Partnership, increasing amounts of my research are focussed on broadcast audio. (A list of past research projects can be found here)

Future Spatial Audio for The Home

This project wants listeners to experience the sense of “being there” at a live event, such as a concert or football match, from the comfort of their living room through delivery of immersive 3D sound to the home using object-based content delivery. This project is funded by EPSRC and is a major five-year research collaboration between 3 Universities, the BBC and UK audio industry. The project created the soundtrack for the BBC’s award-winning virtual reality fairy tale, The Turning Forest.

The good recording project

Many of us carry about mobiles and other technologies that can record sound, whether that is the sound of our child’s first music concert on a digital camera or capturing a practical joke on a mobile phone. Mainstream news bulletins often use amateur footage of dramatic events and some TV programmes entirely consist of user generated content. The sound quality is often poor: distorted, noisy, with garbled speech or indistinct music. The good recording project is trying to understand how these recording errors are perceived, and to develop computer programs using machine listening that can automatically detect the errors. The project is funded by EPSRC and had BBC R&D and the British Library as partners.

 

Public engagement

Author

My second popular science book, Now You’re Talking is published in 2018. My first popular science book Sonic Wonderland/The Sound Book appeared in 2014. I have also written articles for New Scientist and the Guardian. In 2015 I was given the ASA Science Writing Award for acoustics professionals.

Radio presenter

My most recent documentary was on Compression vs Art for BBC Radio 4. A more complete radio biography can be found here. I’ve also been involved in numerous media stories as an interviewee, with the most popular being a debunking of the phrase ‘a duck’s quack doesn’t echo’.

Work with schools

I helped develop extensive teaching resources for schools, the latest reached more than a quarter of a million pupils. I have developed and presented science shows seen by 17,000 children, including appearances at the Royal Albert Hall, the Purcell Rooms at the South Bank Centre and the Royal Institution.

Perceptual measurements across the Internet

I run a popular site which hosts web experiments which test people’s responses to sound. sound101.org hosted the hugely popular experiment into the Worst Sound in the World. On the site you’ll also find some other research experiments to try.

Other

• Former President of the Institute of Acoustics (IOA).
• Awarded the Tyndall Award by the IOA as well as their award for Promoting Acoustics to the Public.
• Honorary Fellow of the IOA.
• Ex-convener of ISO Working Group WG25
• Associate Editor of Acta Acustica 2000-13

Social Media

My favourite video from my YouTube channel (done as part of a Comic Relief project):

• @trevor_cox
• YouTube
• Linkedin
• Google+
• Flickr
• Google calender

Other contacts

• T.J.Cox@salford.ac.uk
• 0161 295 5474
• 07986 557 419