While live streaming is valued for its ease of use and lack of restrictions on location and movement, achieving a sense of realism has been a challenge. Sony has evolved its proprietary 360 Reality Audio technology, enabling real-time distribution of object-based immersive audio together with video, so users can enjoy a live performance or concert remotely.
The first live event that will be distributed online in real time using 360 Reality Audio will be "40 Dai-Wa-Iroiro♬" by Hikaru Utada, one of the most popular Japanese artists of the last decades, scheduled for January 19, 2023. This event will be free for the first 10,000 attendees, and also streamed with standard 2-channel sound for unlimited access. Like any other available 360 Reality Audio content, the streaming can be auditioned live in proper immersive audio listening environments with multiple speakers, or simply enjoyed through compatible 360 Reality Audio headphones that are able to decode the object-based metadata to its HRTF-optimized binaural rendering engine.
Sony has improved its 360 Reality Audio production environment and developed a real-time encoder that provides both real-time distribution of a performance with studio sound quality for artists and sound engineers. In order to create a spatial music experience, sound engineers first assign position information to each sound source such as vocals, guitars, and drums, and arrange them in a spherical space. Sony's own 360 Reality Audio production tool now expanded with real-time distribution improves the production environment, allowing sound engineers and producers to decide on the placement of sound sources freely and instantly, creating a three-dimensional effect as intended.
In addition, in order to send the music stream to the server and deliver it to users, Sony also perfected a compression method of the 360 Reality Audio data including location information. This normally requires a certain amount of processing time to maintain the required sound quality. Sony has developed its own sound quality processing algorithm to achieve real-time performance, critical for live distribution, by taking advantage of the object-based metadata to optimize the amount of information (bit rate) given to each sound source (object), without compromising on the quality. The low latency encoding process, Sony says, enables real-time distribution synchronized with video.
The development of this 360 Reality Audio Live real-time distribution system was jointly developed by Sony with US software company Streamsoft, the San Francisco Bay Area based immersive audio specialists that also created the Artist Connection cloud streaming platform for studios and their production teams. Streamsoft is also a custom developer of advanced DSP for audio processing, specialized media libraries for MP4, MQA, and more.
In addition, the new Sony software solution is equipped with a real-time chat function, which allows real-time communication between artists and viewers, and between viewers, realizing a sense of unity online as if they were participating at the venue.
The first online event, "40 Dai-Wa-Iroiro♬" by Hikaru Utada, can be accessed from Sony's 360 Reality Audio Live website: https://www.sony.net/united/360RA_live/schedule/ or from the official online event website: https://www.utadahikaru.jp/40iroiro/en/
The event will be distributed around the world from 21:00 Japan time on Thursday, January 19, 2023, when Hikaru Utada turns 40. Apart from compatible decoding speakers or headphones, attendees need the download the 360 Reality Audio Live application to participate.
www.sony.com
