In 1988 professor Berkhout (Technical University of Delft) invented the principle of Wave Field Synthesis (WFS).

Wave Field Synthesis is based on the Huygens’ principle. In his Traité de la lumière Christiaan Huygens stated that a wavefront can be reconstructed from a continuous distribution of secondary sources on the wave front.

Lord Rayleigh advanced this theory by demonstrating that one can achieve the same result using secondary sources in a planer configuration.

Professor Berkhout subsequently conceived the idea that it is possible to reconstruct a virtual source.

An advantage of WFS is that the ’sweet spot’, typical in stereo reproduction, is enlarged to a ’sweet area’. This is because the reproduction is not based on psychoacoustical principles but on a physical reproduction of the sound field.

A ’sweet spot’ means that there is only one listening position where the spatial effect is rendered correctly. A ’sweet area’ means that there is a listening area and as a result many listeners can perceive the spatial rendering correctly at the same time.

A consequence of the physical reproduction of the sound field is that Doppler effects (i.e. sound of a passing siren) are rendered in a natural way.

In WFS sounds can be placed in front of the speakers. This is called a ‘focused source’.