Google Discovers Ambisonics and Says it’s the Soundtrack of VR or Something

Google, the company that makes a business out of anything that’s Open Source, announced its new Omnitone project, a platform that they say “brings spatial audio to the web in order to provide more immersive VR experiences, using only the Web Audio API.” The platform uses all the known spatial audio, ambisonics and binaural techniques, including several existing open source efforts, now released on a set of integrated tools that enable exploring immersive audio or spatial audio directly on a web browser.

Recently I attended the excellent, The Home Entertainment (T.H.E.) Show in Newport, CA. Celebrating its 6th anniversary, and still mourning the tragic loss of its president and founder, Richard Beers, T.H.E. Show Newport exceeded its own 2015 attendance figures, with more than 10,000 attendees. I left with excellent memories of a wonderful organization, a very pleasant location (Irvine), and the motivation to return. Some excellent systems left me with enduring impressions that I thought fit to share in this space.

Did you read/hear one of the many rumor stories about the removal of the 3.5 mm audio "due to Apple's fixation on making devices slimmer?" Well, we all did, and the rumor has a reason. It's true! The only minor detail is: It wasn't just Apple on that one. To the surprise of many in the audio industry, the decision was taken in consensus among the powerful companies that decide about consumer technologies these days: the big semiconductor and IT companies and the smartphone makers, of course.

I have hardly had time to recover from another edition of Musikmesse and Prolight+Sound 2016 and catch up on all the announcements and what we have seen there - and it was plenty. So, was it worth? Indeed. But I couldn't help returning from Frankfurt with an uncomfortable feeling and the clear perception that this was the worst Musikmesse and Prolight+Sound ever. I will elaborate because there are lessons to be learned.

Following the announcement by the UHD Alliance of the Final Specification for Ultra HD Premium content, at CES 2016, the organization announced the “Ultra HD Premium” Logo and Certification Licensing for Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Players, coinciding with the first releases of UHD Blu-Ray Discs, which should also support high dynamic range (HDR) images and immersive audio experiences.

Returning from ALMA International Symposium & Expo (AISE) and CES 2016 show in Las Vegas - both extremely enlightening and motivating - we felt motivated to write about high-resolution audio (again). HRA was the main theme chosen for AISE 2016 – “Hi Res Audio: A Bridge To Build Or A Bridge Too Far?” – debated in all possible perspectives in an insightful and constructive manner.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in cooperation with The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) and The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing announced they would be adopting a new logo to promote the adoption of high-resolution music. This is different from the original High-Resolution Audio logo… Is there any logic in this?

audioXpress has published some really interesting stories about new audio companies, born out of their founders’ imagination, creativity, and deep convictions on their own designs. Crowdfunding helps to convert ideas into successful products and create new businesses. But the crowdfunding route is also full of valuable marketing lessons on what should not be attempted.

Some speaker designers approach their creations based purely on self-acquired knowledge and research, deliberately trying to distance themselves from existing trends and debates. Others, base their work on team efforts, industry partnerships, and sometimes market-oriented options. These are the people who I’ve started to categorize as the Wizards and the Cooks.

I promised to come back to Apple’s announcement of Beats1 Worldwide Radio as part of its Apple Music service. From one perspective, it is a great promotional idea—not much different from those great video ads Apple puts out. It will certainly stimulate awareness for traditional radio and Apple can afford to spend the money. So, no harm done. But that’s it.