Just when one thought a 5.1 high end speaker system sound is as good as it goes with surround sound, these do have a few drawbacks: First, the surround sound effect is only optimum at a single 'sweet spot' with in the room and second while the speakers can place a sound at a certain position within the circle around the listener, it is currently not possible to pinpoint sources at specific points such as a sound moving towards or away from the listener.
One of the creators behind the MP3 format Karlheinz Brandenburg has developed a new sophisticated multi-speaker set up that accurately produces sound waves to make a sound source appear to be coming from any pin-point within the room. This technology is named "Iosono" and unlike a typical 5.1 surround sound setup, this system works regardless of the listener's position.
Karlheinz along with his team of co-developers is showing off his new technology to the representatives of Hollywood studios. The current version requires 300 to 400 speakers and runs off a powerful Linux PC running the decoder. This technology does not come cheap however, at between $ 10,000 and $ 15,000 for licensing not to mention the expensive speaker and equipment cost. GristyMcFisty submitted the following news via our news submit :
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Karlheinz Brandenburg, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Media Technology, along with a team of co-developers, is in Los Angeles this week showing off his new "Iosono" technology to representatives of Hollywood studios and giants including Disney. Brandenburg is credited with much of the work leading to the MP3 format, also developed at Fraunhofer. He and his team are touting their new product as true "three dimensional" audio, which can give the impression of, for example, a horse galloping through the center aisle of a movie theater, or pinpoint a noise so that it sounds exactly like a person shouting from outside theater walls. The best existing surround sound speakers can approximate this only for a small "sweet spot," perhaps a few feet wide, while the Iosono system would create the same realistic illusion for everyone in the room. "It was an old dream to do something like that...to do something for immersive audio, where people would feel they were in a different place," Brandenburg said in an interview. "PCs have now become fast enough that you can do the (necessary) processing in real time. It was not realistic to do that 10 years ago." The project marks a substantial break from the way recorded sound has been replicated since Thomas Edison first began experimenting with recorded audio in the late 1870s. Just as video is being wholly transformed by digital cameras and computer processors, audio production and reproduction, too, is being transformed by the latest generation of PCs and processors. Read the full article here. |
One of the inventors of the MP3 format is back with a new technology that he hopes will revolutionize audio, creating superrealistic sound for theaters, theme parks and eventually even living rooms.
It would be interesting to see how long it would take to wire up 400 speakers, not to mention ensuring every cable is plugged in the right point (Uh... where does this plug into? :p ) Currently, it may be some time before the movie or recording industry starts thinking of using this sort of setup. Also, many theaters could not afford to install such a set up.
Then again, like the insane 4,000 scan line UHDV prototype, this speaker se tup may complement this when the time comes. Even still, hopefully the speaker requirements will be reduced as I cannot see many consumers having the patience to properly set up several hundred speakers even if the equipment was affordable, although speakers may likely be grouped in a single unit similar to floor-standing multi-driver Hi-Fi speakers.
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Source: CNET News - Entertainment
