The First Cadenza Signal Processing Challenge: Improving Music for Those With a Hearing Loss

The Cadenza project aims to improve the audio quality of music for those whohave a hearing loss. This is being done through a series of signal processingchallenges, to foster better and more inclusive technologies. In the firstround, two common listening scenarios are considered: listening to music overheadphones, and with a hearing aid in a car. The first scenario is cast as ademixing-remixing problem, where the music is decomposed into vocals, bass,drums and other components. These can then be intelligently remixed in apersonalized way, to increase the audio quality for a person who has a hearingloss. In the second scenario, music is coming from car loudspeakers, and themusic has to be enhanced to overcome the masking effect of the car noise. Thisis done by taking into account the music, the hearing ability of the listener,the hearing aid and the speed of the car. The audio quality of the submissionswill be evaluated using the Hearing Aid Audio Quality Index (HAAQI) forobjective assessment and by a panel of people with hearing loss for subjectiveevaluation.