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SRS Demos 3D Sound For 3D Movies, TV

LAS VEGAS —

SRS Labs has finished developing
Circle Cinema 3D (CC3D) post-processing technology
and plans an International CES demonstration
of the technology’s ability to make sound leap
out from a 3D TV screen in sync with the 3D image
appearing on screen.

The technology, which the company is marketing
to CE chipmakers, could appear in 3D TVs, soundbars
and A/V receivers in 2012, the company said.

Separately, SRS is demonstrating a proof-ofconcept
version of Multi-Dimensional Audio (MDA)
technology that would put mixing studios in control
of how sound would follow the onscreen 3D action.
It would require MDA technology to be installed
in broadcast infrastructure as well as in consumer
devices. As with CC3D, the technology could be
used in TV-speaker systems, two-channel speaker
systems and multi-speaker home-theater systems.

Both technologies could also be used to add 3D
sound effects to 2D video sources.

In the two-channel and multichannel CC3D demonstrations,
the CC3D technology “unburies” 3D
spatial cues in a soundtrack to correlate audio-image
depth with the depth of the onscreen 3D action.
If an objects or people leap out from the screen, the
sounds they make will also move toward the listener,
a spokesman explained.

“What the technology does in terms of depth correlation
with the onscreen picture is based on the
accuracy of the actual audio mix,” he explained. “If
the audio is accurately mixed to correlate with the
3D picture, then our 3D rendering technology will
use the buried cues to accurately estimate the 3D
spatiality of various effects while at the same time
producing a very enveloping ambient environment.”

In two-channel applications, the technology delivers
depth through front speakers with no need for
separate surround speakers, he added.

Different versions of CC3D technology are available
for licensing for 2.0-, 2.1-, 5.1- and 7.1-channel
applications.

CC3D is part of a suite of SRS technologies
called Studio Sound 3D, which replaces the company’s
Studio Sound HD suite to add next-generation
TruBass bass-enhancement technology and
add improved equalization across the entire frequency
range.

Other technologies carried over from the previous
suite include TruVolume, a volume-leveling technology
that eliminates abrupt changes in volume when
sources are switched, commercials interrupt a TV
program, and a program transitions from soft to loud
passages.

SRS is demonstrating at the Trump hotel, where
the company is also demonstrating the proof-ofconcept
version of MDA, which enables studios to
“mix for a 3D space,” the spokesman said. Studios
will embed metadata in a soundtrack to define the
XYZ coordinates of various sounds, and a consumer
“rendering” device will read the metadata to
“accurately place the audio in a 3D space” through
two-channel and multichannel sound systems, he
continued.

The object-based audio standard generates positional
metadata associated with each sound, describing
each sound’s position in three-dimensional space, the company further explained. The metadata
is transmitted to an MDA-capable playback device,
which uses the metadata to place the sound
exactly where it needs to be, the company said.

When a playback system receives the metadata,
it uses the information to place each sound knowing
what speaker configuration is available and
where the speakers are located, SRS said.

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