|
|||
 Motion picture exhibitors and soundtrack producers and engineers were presented with a replacement for “Digital Stereoscopic 3D” (surround) movie soundtracks during the recent SMPTE 2008 Tech Conference and Expo in Hollywood, California. The system exhibited at one of the Mann Chinese 6 Theatres uses 380 loudspeakers to expand the “sweet spot” to two-thirds of the seats, to create a more immersive audience experience. The technology comes from IOSONO (www.Iosono-sound.com) and was presented by SMPTE, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, an organization that helps to set standards for Digital Cinema and Digital Television. While the Mann Theatre uses 380 loudspeakers, the technology, says the company, is flexible enough to handle 200 to 500 loudspeakers to accommodate different theatre sizes. The location of each loudspeaker is measured with a laser and is used to calibrate the exhibition player software. The loudspeakers are arranged in three rows. The top and bottom rows are woofers, while the middle row holds the tweeters. Loudspeakers form a ring completely around the theatre, including behind the audience and screen. Up to 32 unique sound objects can be placed in a 3-D virtual sound space in the theatre. If one object is placed such that it sounds like it is coming from the 10th seat in from the left, in the 10th row, people in the 5th seat will think it is coming from their right. People in the 15th seat will think it is coming from their left. This trick is illustrated using IOSONO’s Spacial Audio Workstation. By moving the mouse to position the object in the theatre space, the system adjusts in real time to match. The listener can feel the object move about the theatre. Sound can also be programmed to simply come from a plane, for example, from the left wall. This mode is particularly effective if the movie score is expanded to make the orchestra's music come from all sides. The music is immersive, while characters speaking in the movie are heard to come from the screen. The expanded sound adds more definition to the music and the voices, and the experience is given added clarity. IOSONO’s inspiration originally came from the Delft Technical University about 20 years ago. Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg of the Fraunhofer Institut Digitale Medientechnologie in Germany took this research and expanded it into product form. IOSONO,  based in Hollywood, California, is now approaching studios and theatre owners about taking their technology to the next step––deployment. Uwe Karbenk, IOSONO’s CEO, does not want to talk about pricing just yet. Things are still a bit early, but they hope to have the first movie mixed for IOSONO sound out in 2009. There are also some theme park venues that have already installed the system. And, the IOSONO system can emulate a theatre's 5.1 loudspeaker system for regular movies. Stated Karbenk, “Theatre owners are constantly looking for ways to compete against the home theatre system. Many see Digital Stereoscopic 3D as the solution, where ticket sales on a 3-D screen can be twice the take from a 2-D screen. In the future, we may hear of an additional weapon—a totally immersive sound experience. This sound experience, coupled with Digital Stereoscopic 3D, will be quite a treat if the studios and exhibitors line up behind it.” This is certainly an exciting and adventuresome technology that promises to create a richer and more expansive movie experience. It is a promising technology for theatrical presentation, which when coupled with aggressive Holosonic® soundtrack mixing, will ensure audience patronage at the cinema. Gary Reber Editor-In-Chief & Publisher Widescreen Review
Tags:
- editor's couch -
|
|||
×
Access Widescreen Review on your iPad or iPhone.
Internet access is required, but PDFs of complete issues and individual articles can be saved to your device for reading offline.
Tap 
then "Add to Home Screen"
then "Add to Home Screen"