3-D, Immersive Sound System Launched By Fraunhofer Institute; Pioneer Of MP3 Co-Develops Technology That Transforms Audience Experience

23-Jul-04

A new spatial, immersive, sound system called IOSONO, which creates an unparalleled listening experience, was introduced to the Hollywood entertainment industry today by Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg, who is renowned for his pioneering work on the MP3 music format. Developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Media Technology (Fraunhofer IDMT) by Brandenburg and Drs. Thomas Sporer and Sandra Brix, IOSONO is the first system to project sounds as if they are coming from a specific spot inside or outside the listening area. It provides a perfectly balanced ìsweet spotî for every spectator, no matter where positioned in the audience. IOSONO was unveiled at postproduction sound company Todd-AO, at an event hosted by the Entertainment Technology Center at USC (ETC-USC). IOSONO applies Wave Field Synthesis (WFS), and several newly patented hardware and software technologies. It was designed for application in cinemas, theme parks, music and entertainment venues and home theatres. ìWe have spent many years developing this technology to accomplish two things: to give audiences truly natural sound and give artists more tools with which to create them,î explains Brandenburg. ìIt is our belief that the enhancement from 5.1 to IOSONO is comparable to the step from mono to stereo.î In an IOSONO listening environment, speakers surround the audience and sounds come from every direction as they do in reality. The ocean, a busy street corner, a tropical rainforest, wash over the audience as they would if the listener were at the beach, walking down 5th Avenue or deep in the Amazon jungle. Indoor room sounds and acoustics are true to life; audiences experience the hollow echo of a church or the commotion of a hospital ward.IOSONO recreates natural sound waves using WFS, as opposed to other solutions, which merely amplify sound. The IOSONO system is comprised of the Spatial AudioWorkstation, which is used to create the IOSONO ìsoundtrack;î an IOSONO server, installed in each venue to configure an IOSONO produced sound experience to thespecific environment; and a 360-degree ring of speakers, hung in a specially calibrated fashion. The Spatial Audio Station is user-friendly, operated by sound engineers with the touch of a special pen. The IOSONO system complements existing audio postproduction practices by working with sound files generated by standard mixing software such as ProTools. Fraunhofer IDMT is Europeís largest applied research group, comprised of more than 10,000 engineers and scientists working on 60 campuses in Germany, the U.S. and Asia. The Instituteís main objective is to develop new media technologies for professional markets, as well as the home entertainment sector. Other activities range from developing audio-metadata technologies, audio applications such as medical audio technology, coding for special applications, and secure business models for the digital distribution of virtual goods via Internet.For more information, please log on www.etcenter.org.

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