![]() In the same year, the cooperation with another Stuttgart car manufacturer began: Mercedes-Benz. The first sedan of the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer debuted in 2009 with a Burmester high-end sound system. In 2006, our cooperation with Porsche began. The realization of this project laid the foundation for further partnerships. The know-how from the established high-end home audio sector could be successfully transferred. I look forward to checking out these new systems, but even the earlier prototype I heard was one of the best holographic sound demos I've ever experienced, expanding the soundfield well beyond the physical boundaries of the room and allowing pinpoint localization of all virtual sourcesthe true epitome of stereo audio reproduction.In 2001, we happily accepted the challenge with and redefined the high-end audio segment in the automotive sector with Bugatti. The Todd-AO system includes four rendering PCs and 224 channels powered by a total of 44,800 watts, while the Chinese Theater provides six rendering PCs and 376 channels powered by 99,200W. Iosono recently completed two more installationsone at Todd-AO (pictured above) and the other at Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood (shown at the top of this blog). Even the apparent distance from each source was clearly evident. In this demo, the sweet spot essentially encompassed the entire room, and the sonic image remained completely stable no matter how I turned my head. The effect was quite startling and much more natural sounding than even 5.1 systems, in which the sweet spot is often relatively small. The demo material included specially produced clips with many sound sources moving around and a single-source "whispering ghost" that attendees could move around the room with an electronic pen and tablet. That system included 304 channels and eight subwoofers, all fed by eight rendering PCs. I attended a demonstration of the Iosono system at Todd-AO in Los Angeles a few years ago. Using multiple computers, the current theatrical system has enough horsepower to render up to 32 separate sound sources in this manner. The software allows a mixing engineer to control the position and movement of each sound source graphically on the screen as shown in the screen shot above. This involves much more than simple amplitude panningcomplex changes in a signal's phase, delay, and spectrum are also important components of the process. WFS algorithms render signals for the speaker arrays in real time to simulate the sound of the original sources at the designated coordinates. Also encoded is information about the physical configuration of the speaker array and the room in which it is installed. Each input is encoded with localization coordinates for that source, along with other metadata. Sounds to be reproduced by Iosono can come from any playback system, such as Pro Tools. Thus, any virtual sound source can be realistically reproduced by an array of actual sound sources, such as the drivers in the Iosono panels. WFS is based on the work of 17th-century Dutch mathematician and astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who proposed that the wave field of a single source can be accurately emulated by many closely spaced sources located on the perimeter of the original wave field as shown in the diagram above. ![]() The Iosono system utilizes Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) technology. (The panels intended to be placed behind a perforated screen have small compression horns instead of dome tweeters, and the amp power for each channel is doubled.) Several powered subwoofers are also placed around the room to handle the low frequencies. Each channel of audio information is reproduced by one tweeter and two midranges in a 2-way configuration powered by two 100W Class D amps, and four such sets of drivers and ampsproducing a total of 800Ware mounted in each panel. The drivers include 1-inch dome tweeters and 6-inch midrange cones mounted in rectangular panels. Designed primarily for commercial cinema and other public-venue applications, the Iosono (pronounced EE-oh-so-no) system places literally hundreds of individually addressable speaker drivers around a room, forming a continuous line that completely encircles the audience. Similarly, 5.1 surround systems are far more "stereo" than 2-channel systems.Ī company called Iosono is extending this concept much farther. So you might be surprised to learn that "stereo" has nothing to do with the number 2 per seit derives from the Greek word for "solid." The word was applied to 2-channel sound systems when they first became available because those systems rendered a much more "solid" sonic image with more specific placement of individual elements (instruments, voices, etc.) than the monaural systems that had preceded them. Most consumers would probably apply the word "stereo" exclusively to 2-channel audio systems.
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