Geoffrey Low, Content Relations Manager SEA & ANZ, Dolby Singapore Pte Ltd, spoke about Building a Studio for Immersive Audio Production on Day three of ABU DBS 2021.

It was a part of the session titled Advanced Audio & Streaming Technologies, moderated by Dr Les Sabel, Chair, WorldDAB Asia Pacific Technical Group.

“Immersive audio is already available globally. Top 10 titles on Netflix have immersive audio soundtracks as well as in home entertainment and audio systems.”

In immersive audio, you can hear sounds all around you, not just front and back. In speaker systems such as Dolby Atmos, in numbers such as 5.1.2 and 7.1.2, the first digit represents the number of traditional surround speakers; the second, a subwoofer; and the third, ceiling or upward-firing speakers.

To create immersive sound there has to be a hybrid approach of static and dynamic audio objects. Content creators can mix in a 3D space allowing more creative freedom.

There are two ways to approach immersive audio. First is Post Production – which is similar to a live broadcast. It uses a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and a renderer. Objects go from DAW to renderer in meta data defining its position in a 3D space. The renderer then decides which speaker to put it to. It sends it to the monitoring setup where we can choose how the sound of an object plays out.

Geoffrey also shared some recommended technical requirements good for certification.

The second approach to immersive sounds involves live broadcasts, performances and events. The sound in put through a mixer, which has separate objects on separate channels to enable encoding a immersive stream and transmit it. 

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