Notices

Last Updated: November 3, 2026

Registration is open Runs through Nov 17 — tap here to sign up.
Challenge is underway Runs Sep 1 through Nov 30 — a three-month sprint.

November 3, 2026

  • FAQ updated regarding memory-bandwidth calculations: The FAQ now clarifies how weights reused within a temporal frame should be counted for Track 2 memory-bandwidth calculations, including the distinction between reuse across spatial positions within one layer invocation and repeated invocations at different stages of a processing pipeline.

October 22, 2026

  • Baseline evaluation bug fixed and objective results updated: The LRAC 2.0 baseline repository has been updated to correct an evaluation data-preparation bug that caused clean audio to be used as the codec input for the noisy and reverberant conditions of the LRAC 1.0 Open Test Set. The corrected objective metric scores are now available on the Baseline page. The Open Test Set clean condition and the LRAC 1.0 Official Test Set results were unaffected.

October 16, 2026

  • FAQ updated regarding use of baseline pretrained weights: The FAQ now clarifies that participants may use the official LRAC 2.0 baseline models and pretrained weights as a starting point for further fine-tuning, even though they were released after the Challenge start date. Any further fine-tuning must use only datasets permitted under the Challenge rules.

October 9, 2026

  • Baseline model checkpoints published: The final epoch-1700 baseline checkpoints and accompanying license files are now available in the public baseline repository for Track 1 and Track 2.

  • Submission requirements and analytical model-design sheets published: Details of the mandatory submission materials, including the analytical model-design sheet, are available under Participate – Submissions and in the Official Rules. Completed baseline sheets are provided as worked examples for Track 1 and Track 2; see the Baseline guidance for their scope and limitations.

  • Baseline model recipes published: Recipes for training the Track 1 and Track 2 baseline models are now available in the ESPnet-based LRAC 2.0 baseline repository.

  • Baseline page expanded: The Baseline page now provides a detailed description of the VoCodec-based Track 1 and Track 2 models, their DAC-style residual vector quantizer, analytical model-design sheets, resource accounting, and streamability-checking guidance.

  • Track 2 memory-bandwidth penalty published: We now provide a detailed explanation of the additive Track 2 memory-bandwidth penalty, including the scoring formula, theoretical traffic convention, participant reporting requirements, and worked layer-level examples. Track 2 participants should follow this methodology when completing their analytical model-design sheet and calculating their system’s theoretical memory-bandwidth usage.

September 24, 2026

  • Common Voice 26.0 or 27.0 permitted: Following our earlier notice about the apparent access changes affecting Common Voice 26.0, we can now confirm the policy for LRAC 2.0. Participants may use either Common Voice 26.0 (cv-corpus-26.0-2026-06-12) or Common Voice 27.0 (cv-corpus-27.0-2026-09-11). If you have already prepared 26.0, no action is required and your data remains valid. Participants who would still like to use 26.0 can request access to the LRAC Common Voice 26.0 bundle through Mozilla Data Collective. For participants starting now, the preparation pipeline supports 27.0 and uses it by default. The same challenge curation and validation lists apply to both releases. This clarification does not change any other dataset rules or challenge deadlines. See the Datasets page for details.

September 22, 2026

  • FAQ added on invited paper authorship: We’ve added an FAQ item clarifying how the author list for an ICASSP 2027 SPGC invited paper may differ from the mandatory system report. See the FAQ page for details.

September 16, 2026

  • Common Voice 26.0 access update: We have received a report that the Common Voice 26.0 release configured for LRAC 2.0 may no longer be available through the previous Mozilla Data Collective access flow. We are checking this with Mozilla. For now, the prepare function will print a warning and continue without Common Voice when MDC cannot provide the configured release. Common Voice 26.0 remains an allowed dataset. Please do not replace it with an unapproved dataset. We will provide an update as we learn more.

September 10, 2026

September 1, 2026

  • Challenge officially underway: The LRAC 2.0 Challenge has officially commenced. See the Timeline page for key dates and the Official Rules for participation requirements.

  • Traing data pipeline: LRAC 2.0 data preparation pipeline is now available – see the Github repo along with Baseline and Datasets pages for details.

  • Datasets section finalized: The Datasets section is now finalized. Please use the current Datasets page as the authoritative source for permitted speech, noise, and room impulse response (RIR) datasets. References to datasets considered during the draft phase but omitted from the final list are obsolete.

August 31, 2026

  • Join the LRAC Community: Join our Google Group to receive Challenge announcements, keep up with the latest updates, and take part in community discussions.

  • Rules finalized: The Challenge Official Rules have been finalized ahead of the Challenge start. Any future updates or clarifications will be highlighted for easier review.

August 25, 2026

  • Registration is open: Register here to participate in the LRAC 2.0 Challenge. Registration closes November 17, 2026. See the Participate page for details.

August 17, 2026

  • Website in draft mode: The LRAC 2.0 Challenge website is now live but still in draft mode. Most details will be finalized by the time registration opens. Please check the Notices section regularly for important updates.

August 10, 2026

  • Challenge accepted: LRAC 2.0 has been accepted as an IEEE Signal Processing Grand Challenge and will be disseminated at ICASSP 2027 in Toronto. Thank you to everyone who supported the proposal!

July 27, 2026

  • Proposal submitted: The LRAC 2.0 proposal was submitted to the ICASSP 2027 SP Grand Challenge program.

July 1, 2026

  • Website launched: The LRAC 2.0 Challenge website is now live. Please check the Notices section regularly for important updates.