The conference will feature the AES's first-ever Immersive Audio Day (Sunday), an entire conference day packed with panels, papers, workshops and demonstrations focusing on one of the most active new areas of audio technology: immersive sound. Starting with the day's presentation by Francis Rumsey entitled Immersive Audio: Status and Challenges, the day will delve into issues pertaining to mixing, asset management and processing for these massive multichannel formats.
Immersive Audio Day will bring together both pioneers and up-and-comers in the field to discuss immersive audio formats and how they continue to change the way we experience sound in cinema, on television, in music and online. For instance, representatives from Radio France will show and discuss how its new website, nouvOson, will broadcast 5.1 and binaural sound, utilizing a binaural technique initially chosen to reach people who do not have a home theatre set for 5.1 productions.
A workshop, Cinema Immersive Audio Delivery Standards, co-sponsored by SMPTE and chaired by Brian Vessa of Sony Pictures Entertainment and also featuring panelists from Barco, DTS, Dolby Laboratories and Auro Technologies, will convey how standards for immersive audio are being developed.
Object-based audio, which is a key foundational element in immersive sound, will be addressed by three specialists from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, through the presentation of the paper Producing 3D Audio in Ambisonics.
Further exploration of object-based audio will continue with the presentation of Localization of Audio Objects in Multichannel Reproduction by the Fraunhofer Institute of Digital Media Technology IDMT in Ilmenau, Germany, which will also look into the new MPEG-H standard codec for high-efficiency coding and media delivery in heterogeneous environments.
"Immersive Audio remains a major direction in which professional audio is headed," stated Bob Moses, AES executive director. "This is the logical extension of the work that resulted in 5.1 surround sound becoming a standard for movies and television. AES's efforts helped establish those standards, and what we accomplish on our Immersive Audio Day at the 57th International Conference will go a long way towards doing the same for immersive sound."
(Jim Evans)
