CoSTAR Screen Lab: Spatial Audio in Virtual Production
About this call
Virtual production has reshaped film, broadcast and live performance through LED volumes, real time engines and motion capture, but interaction with digital assets is still overwhelmingly visual and screen centred. This call asks how spatialised sound can become an interaction layer in its own right, letting performers and audiences navigate, influence and make sense of complex three dimensional scenes. Suggested directions include audio cues that guide a performer interacting with invisible virtual elements, moving sound sources that steer an audience's gaze, sonified metadata standing in for asset position and state, shared soundfields that coordinate group attention, and plug ins linking real time engines to spatial audio systems. Two projects are selected, each receiving up to 35,000 pounds in cash alongside a wider package valued at over 150,000 pounds. That package covers two intensive one week development sprints at the lab in Belfast, technical onboarding, facilities access and up to ten days of ad hoc research support. The lead applicant must be a UK registered company, though research organisations, sole traders and individual practitioners can join an application as partners. Applications close at 1pm BST on 19 August 2026, outcomes land in October, and delivery runs November 2026 to March 2027.
Who can apply
- Domestic applicants
- Medium: New Media / Installation / Performance / Video
- Free entry