Modern cars — connected, electric, autonomous — aren’t just for transportation. They increasingly serve also as moving offices or home theaters where superior sound experiences are more important than ever. Swedish digital audio processing specialist Dirac, a leading company in automobile audio optimization, now announced it has created the foremost software foundation for improving automotive sound without costly hardware upgrades: the new Dirac Intelligent Audio Platform (IAP).
"Providing great sound in cars has never been more crucial and challenging," says Lars Carlsson, Head of Business Development of Automotive Audio for Dirac. "With modern cars capable of more than ever before, and including ever-more speakers and features, it’s important to deliver better sound while also allowing passengers to hear better. Dirac’s Intelligent Audio Platform offers software-driven sound perfection so car manufacturers can more easily, quickly, and cost-effectively deliver the in-car experiences consumers love."
Dirac IAP is a modular platform for achieving better automotive sound. It is unique to the car market because it offers state-of-the-art sound optimization and spatialization technology; the industry’s best measurement and tuning tools; and a single, unified interface and methodology for maximizing any type of sound system layout, from entry-level to premium.
It is fully data-driven, 70% of the tuning work can be done remotely, and all results can be shared globally throughout an organization. Moreover, Dirac IAP is supported by the industry’s most common chipsets and frameworks, so any car can sound better by leveraging all the powerful and effective sound solutions in Dirac Opteo and Dirac Virtuo.
Dirac IAP also includes the newest immersive feature sets from Dirac’s R&D labs. Making its debut at CES 2022, Dirac’s new upmixing technology, a critical new feature of the company’s Dirac Virtuo solution, can produce true, multichannel audio from existing stereo content. The new upmixing technology analyzes source content and splits into component parts, then intelligently generates a 5.1 or 7.1 version and distributes it to multichannel sound systems.
"Equipping a vehicle cabin with true surround sound can be tricky, but our upmixer achieves it with software and in real-time," continues Carlsson. "No added hardware is required, and passengers get to enjoy their favorite two-channel content in a much more immersive, spatialized way."
The Dirac IAP contains a full signal chain and works seamlessly with leading third-party audio technologies. It is available in three pre-configured tiers:
- Professional: The most advanced solution for ensuring perfect listening at all seat positions, powered by Dirac’s patented MIMO mixed phase correction technology.
- Premium: The industry’s preferred solution, adopted by premium brands and powered by Dirac’s magnitude and time domain correction technology.
- Performance: For upgrading the sound performance of entry-level systems without hardware upgrades, powered by Dirac’s magnitude response correction technology.
Automotive engineers can use the available toolsets in Dirac’s IAP to meet a variety of design goals, including cabin sound optimization, center image optimization, bass enhancement, soundstage widening, sound field control, surround-sound integration, and more.
The guided process fully supports the engineer, and prototype cars are only required for measurement and final tuning. All computer-assisted tuning is handled virtually and predictably, reducing tuning time by as much as 70 percent. With Dirac IAP, engineers can visualize their target sound performance on-screen and experience every adjustment immediately.
www.dirac.com
