Fresh From the Bench: APL Virtuoso v2 Binaural Renderer for Multichannel and Immersive Audio Formats

Originally launched in May of 2023, APL Virtuoso is a culmination of more than 10 years of research into binaural audio and spatial sound, offering users the ability to mix and monitor immersive audio over headphones, without the need for complex loudspeaker setups. The v2 update of APL Virtuoso introduced acoustics emulation and externalization, simulating the experience of listening to loudspeakers in a perfectly tuned room.

Sennheiser's AMBEO soundbar established the benchmark in the form-factor when it comes to bringing immersive audio into living rooms in an unforgettable quality – be it for TV sound or music streaming. The new AMBEO Soundbar Plus expands the concept in more compact soundbar and separate subwoofer, still driven by the same groundbreaking 3D sound developed in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS), incorporating upHear Processing and MPEG-H Audio.

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and Analog Devices, unveiled software technology at CEDIA 2017 designed to significantly improve the immersive sound reproduction capabilities of consumer playback devices. The new offering is a reference implementation of Fraunhofer upHear soundbar processing with MPEG-H decoding and rendering on an Analog Devices’ digital signal processor (DSP).