Adding spatial audio features in new designs is now a focus for most audio companies, and the announcement of the partnership with DSP Concepts also benefits THX by putting its latest technologies in front of the many leading brands already using the platform - Audio Weaver is central to the audio experience of more than 50 million devices for many of the world’s best consumer and automotive brands
THX is the company originally founded in 1983 by George Lucas to define high fidelity audio/visual reproduction standards for movie theaters and screening rooms. That initial mission gradually expanded into home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, car audio systems, and video games as the company was acquired by sound card manufacturer Creative Technology, in 2002, and more recently, with the acquisition by Razer, the gaming hardware company.
With the THX Spatial Audio announcement, the Californian company expands its activities to licensing actual audio technologies for speakers and headphones. And there is no better way to promote the adoption of such technologies as making sure they can be easily implemented by developers. The agreement with DSP Concepts allows brands building on the Audio Weaver platform to bring new products to market that deliver THX Spatial Audio.
Originally announced in 2018, the THX Spatial Audio Platform is comprised of components for content creation and a robust set of features to optimize audio playback experiences over a wide range of consumer devices. To ensure maximum flexibility and accessibility, THX created components that make up the THX Spatial Audio Platform available independently, or as a complete end-to-end audio solution. The THX Spatial Audio platform supports stereo, multi-channel, ambisonics, and object-based content, and is based on open standards such as MPEG-H, while also adopting general HRTF profiles custom-designed by THX for binaural rendering to headphones.
In wide terms, the goal of THX Spatial Audio is to enhance immersive sound for home entertainment experiences. Through this partnership, Audio Weaver now includes three THX Spatial Audio process blocks: two different variants of acoustic crosstalk cancellation and a stereo widener (aka aural exciter).
Acoustic crosstalk occurs in a stereo speaker playback environment when energy from the left speaker enters the right ear of the listener and energy from the right speaker enters the left ear of the listener. THX Crosstalk Cancellation removes this unwanted energy to create an environment where sound energy from the left speaker arrives only at the left ear of the listener and sound energy from the right speaker arrives only at the right ear of the listener; akin to a binaural listening environment that THX has already been exploring. According to THX, this provides "a more detailed, nuanced listening experience, imitating how content sounds in a natural environment. THX Crosstalk Cancellation is designed to minimize coloration of sound outside of the ‘sweet spot’ and deliver maximal acoustic performance for every member of the audience."
Chin Beckmann, CEO of DSP Concepts, notes how bringing THX Spatial Audio to Audio Weaver will help brands meet the pandemic-driven demand for new home entertainment experiences. "The pandemic has caused all of us to spend more time at home, which has increased demand for products that can provide a truly immersive home entertainment experience. As the leader in empowering high-fidelity home entertainment technologies, we are pleased to partner with THX to integrate THX Spatial Audio technology with Audio Weaver. This will further empower product developers to push the boundaries of immersive sound across a broad range of devices and applications. THX Spatial Audio represents incredibly sophisticated innovation - the kind of immersive sound experience that takes years to develop. Giving consumer electronics developers the ability to integrate that level of functionality to any design instantly through Audio Weaver will further empower product designers. It unlocks a tremendous amount of potential not only for new and innovative products, but for the proliferation of amazing THX experiences.”
THX Spatial Audio joins Audio Weaver’s library of more than 500 market-proven modules from leading audio designers available through its low-code framework. The fact that Audio Weaver is hardware agnostic, allows developers to design new projects without target hardware. When they’re ready, users can deploy their designs on the hardware that’s right for them without redesigning or refactoring.
DSP Concepts also works with almost every major semiconductor manufacturer in the world to ensure efficient deployment regardless of the processor used. Audio Weaver also provides an abstraction layer to streamline audio product development for the entire technology supply chain. This allows faster arrival of new technologies to market.
"THX Spatial Audio brings depth and width to music, games, and movies, revealing detail and immersive quality. Providing this capability in Audio Weaver enables product makers to design 2-channel speaker systems that can produce room-filling sound in seamless combination with other sound enhancement and voice processing modules. Already optimized for multiple chipsets, Audio Weaver designs are uniquely portable, giving speaker system OEMs unprecedented platform flexibility," Chin Beckmann added.
Jason Fiber, COO of THX, notes the value of bringing THX Spatial Audio to the developers already building on Audio Weaver. “Audio Weaver is a preferred platform for many product design teams because it allows for seamless real-time collaboration and an agile approach to audio product development. We know how powerful the THX Spatial Audio solution is and look forward to seeing how the product makers building with Audio Weaver will leverage it to deliver captivating listening experiences to consumers across the globe.”
More information about THX Spatial Audio development with Audio Weaver.
www.dspconcepts.com
www.thx.com/thx-spatial-audio-for-pros
