IMMERSIVE AUDIO IN GAMING

Immersive audio is not just for TV and movies. Many other applications take advantage of using 3D or immersive audio formats to deliver content to end users. Here, David Meyerowitz, Technical Sales Manager of Trinnov Audio, looks at immersive audio within gaming.

The gaming industry is estimated at $160 billion worldwide and set to increase to more than $250 billion by 2025. This presents a huge opportunity for integrators to add immersive gaming systems to their installation options, especially as leading gaming consoles, like Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S, already support Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. Although there is some debate whether Sony’s Playstation5 will get these features.

Regardless, these mainstream consoles allow users to game and watch content from Blu-rays or streaming platforms in one box, making them a real content hub within the entertainment system. Also, they are currently the only form of content that takes advantage of the higher frame rates of up to 120hz that we see being introduced by the HDMI 2.1 specification. But that’s a discussion for another day.

The beauty of immersive audio in gaming is the size of the budgets available to create these outstanding games. The reason that some films are more active with immersive audio objects than others, usually comes down to budget. When audio designers have to create the theatrical mix for the cinema release then a number of fold down mixes for consumer Atmos, 7.1, 5.1, stereo etc., you can see how much longer this takes. With gaming, this is not the case and means sound design for games is one of the most active in terms of the use of audio objects available.

If you have a games console in your demo room, you should absolutely make it part of your demos as you can view this action in real time on the Altitude 16 and 32 processors via our unique Dolby Atmos Object Viewer. This allows for full view of just how many audio objects are being used in these games and is why the Dolby Atmos Demo Disc always contains some form of gaming content to really show off what is possible.

Taking gaming away from a TV in a bedroom to a large screen projection system or modular Micro LED display is growing in demand. After all, why should Mum and Dad have the cinema or media room to themselves when the whole family can get involved with gaming in these high-performance spaces?

After playing Forza Horizon on Samsung The Wall in their Monaco showroom with the immersive audio solution provided by Trinnov and K-array, I rediscovered how captivating gaming can be, having not picked up a controller for several years. It took it to another level and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Micro LED displays come with their challenges. Namely where to put the centre speaker? As the surface is not acoustically transparent, like a regular perforated or woven projection screen, alternative methods need to be considered when delivering audio solutions for these types of display. As a result, we recently worked with Samsung and HTE to write an article on this subject looking at installation, acoustic design and audio processing requirements for these types of installs.

Furthermore, at Trinnov Audio our passion is immersive audio, and gaming provides a real opportunity for integrators to offer solutions to customers that truly embrace immersive audio technologies to broaden their appeal. Trinnov Audio is uniquely positioned to provide multichannel optimisation solutions with our range of Hi-End Residential, Commercial Cinema, and Professional Audio processors. Our Optimiser technology is shared across our entire platform and provides the performance, and crucially, the flexibility of tuning options required to deal with anything these challenging installations will throw up.

Trinnov’s software-based platform means we can offer far more possibilities in terms of configuration options than DSP chip-based competitors. Our output structure is not fixed, so any output can be assigned to any speaker channel. The benefit of this is in installations where you have multiple speaker layouts or the requirement to change layout on the fly, it can be done by simply creating a preset for any given layout.

This makes you think about channel count in an entirely different way. Left is no longer just left, and right is no longer just right. As an example, you could flip the room 180° and these outputs then become left and right rear surround speakers. With up to 64 channels of audio optimisation, you have the option to use these channels in any way the specification requires.

David playing Forza Horizon at Samsung’s Monaco showroom