upHear Flexible Rendering belongs to Fraunhofer's upHear range of audio processing technologies that enhance the sound quality of content from voice signals to immersive audio, and provide pristine audio pickup as well as faithful reproduction from classic stereo setups to complex scenarios with multiple devices.
An evolution of Fraunhofer IIS' original upmixing algorithm that converts any stereo source into a fully immersive experience, upHear Flexible Rendering enhances and distributes sound flexibly to all available speakers creating an immersive audio effect at all times, independently of format and channel configurations. This is ideal for wireless speakers, supporting new immersive audio formats as well as providing first-class upmixing for legacy content.
This new technology responds to current industry trends of creating adaptable setups for home audio, as Sony already started exploring in its latest home cinema systems, and multiple TV manufacturers are now exploring since the announcement of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect. With upHear Flexible Rendering, everything is adjustable and adding or removing a speaker from the system is no trouble due to its automatic adaptation to the current playback situation. Its inherent flexibility provides the option for effortless system growth making it very budget-friendly.
"Currently, users can only connect to one smart speaker at a time or to a fixed setup per room. With the upHear technology, you now have the flexibility to conveniently combine any number of speakers into an immersive speaker cluster wherever you want. Party music in the kitchen? Transform your living room into a movie theater? Operas in the bathroom? It is all possible without a fuss,” says Sebastian Meyer, Product Manager upHear, Fraunhofer IIS.
At its suite in the Venetian Hotel (#34-204) during CES 2025, Fraunhofer will demonstrate the possibilities of speaker repositioning with smart speakers in the room playing immersive music, while upHear Flexible Rendering makes it possible to add/remove speakers and to reposition them. Visitors will be able to try out repositioning for themselves. The wireless speaker setup also uses Fraunhofer's LC3plus codec for ultra-low-latency wireless audio transmission.
Check out these impressive upHear online demos: https://comm-demos.iis.fraunhofer.de/upHear_20240808/index.html
Fraunhofer will also demonstrate its upHear Mobile Audio virtualization platform, which opens the door to true spatial playback experiences on headphones. It works from a multitude of sources, from legacy stereo to current immersive formats. Thanks to the minimum resource requirements of the low-complexity rendering, it can run on DSPs for any audio device class, be it headphones, mobile devices, home audio systems, or even a low-power XR devices.
At CES 2025, Fraunhofer is also demonstrating its xHE-AAC stereo codec for broadcast and streaming, LC3plus Lossless codec, and the latest on MPEG-H Audio, Next Generation Audio system for broadcast and streaming applications with advanced personalization and accessibility options.
www.uphear.com
www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm
