Ice Climb

As part of the pre production for the Honours Project I had intended on carrying out a B-format recording of an ice climb, again in the Scottish mountains. To prepare for this I had taken the GoPro helmet camera and binaural recording set up along on a climb in January. I then realised that with the additional weight of the rucksack containing the b-format recording gear it would be too much work getting it to the climb. Most climbs in Scotland require a 2 hour walk with a full pack of climbing equipment. I would either need to recruit another person to transport the gear or think of an alternative solution for the project. I decided on the latter.

Instead of a B-Format recording I would concentrate on a binaural only recording. This would be ideal for the research required for the the dissertation, where I would be using various formats of soundtracks to gauge whether the viewer felt 'immersed' or part of the action. The binaural recording could be played through loudspeakers, where it should technically not give the same perceptual cues, possibly being reflected in the research findings. It could also be played to a different test group, this time using head phones, whereby an effective comparison could be made.

This idea of the comparison between loudspeakers and headphones resulted in me changing my mind with regard to the location in which the recording would take place. I had already shown that it was possible to carry out b-format recordings of two different sports in two very challenging outdoor environments, which was an area that I had chosen to investigate as part of my research. I now had the opportunity to focus the research in a very different way. This time I would carry out the recording indoors at an ice climbing wall. This allowed me to factor in the possibility of other people being present, contributing to the directional nature of some of the sounds and being in a relativity small environment I had a good idea of how it would sound.

Ice Factor Kinlochleven:



In this short clip the binaural audio clearly gives a sense of directional cues and ambient cues when I listen back over headphones. The research should determine if the technique will work on those listeners that have a different head shape than my own. I am interested to find out if the participants in the study have similar or very different experiences when viewing this sequence. There are a few other climbers present. The main voice that can be heard is that of the an instructor commenting on the section of ice that I am climbing.

Put on some headphones and listen for the ice hitting the helmet of the climber and listen to the position of the axes and crampons.

Ice climbing sequence

Ice Climbing Binaural from Colin Gunning on Vimeo.