Convincing Sound Required for VR to be Truly Immersive – The Oculus Rift DK2 VR system demonstrated at the Las Vegas CES had a RealSpace 3D Audio engine, and tricked users into thinking they were really in a VR space. A professor of computer science said “If the sound is consistent with geometry, you’ll know automatically where things are even if they’re not in your view field.” Without the right audio cues to match the visuals in VR, the brain won’t buy into the illusion. The immersive graphics need equally immersive 3D audio that replicates the natural listening experience. One way is to use binaural recordings made with a dummy head. Live-actiona 360-video creators have been toying with ambisonics – the technique that uses a spherical mic to sapture a sound field in all directions, including above and below the listener. And object-based audio technique similar to Dolby’s Atmos 3D uses soaftware to assign audible cues to thing and characters in 3D space. Atmos 3D is not tied down to fixed speakers and channels, and it is also scalable, wich makes it a natural fit for VR.
Ettore Scola Dies – A leading director of films in Italy died last week at the age of 84. Scola’s film A Special Day, with Mastroianni and Loren, was Oscar-nominated in 1977. One critic said he was one of the most limber filmmakers of Italian cinema, switching visual and narrative styles not just between films but even within them.
Facebook Adds New Video Encoding Technique – The social media site now shares immersive video content filmed in 360 degrees, as well as VR. Their engineers worked on ways to render immersive content more efficiently, Their technique reduces film size and eliminates image distortion at the top and bottom of the image by “remapping equirectangular layouts to cube maps.” The method is called “Transform.”
Classical News – A 300-year-old Domenicelli cello was found stored in the trunk of a 2007 Acura that was stolen from a hotel parking lot in Glendale. The terrible snowstorm in the Northeast caused cancellation of both Saturday performances at Carnegie Hall and The Metropolitan Opera. The audience at the opera matinee was already seated when the announcement was made. The English National Opera is looking for ways to cut back on its in-house chorus. Pink slips for members may ensue, according to the Musicians Union in the UK. The musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony have had seven months’ worth of negotiations on their contract and may soon strike. The Castleton Festival, on the estate of the late Lorin Maazel in Virginia, will go on hiatus during this summer, as the group tries to regain financial footing.
