By CEDIA - Thu, Jan 2, 2025 - Blog
As smart home technology continues to make use of all the senses, we see the terms ‘immersive audio’ or ‘immersive audio visual’ come into play. But what is immersive audio? It’s important to differentiate here between true audio immersion and surround sound.
Truly immersive sound uses an ‘x.y.z’ syntax to help integrators design sound systems. As highlighted in our 2023 whitepaper on immersive formats, these systems are intended to better convey the artistic intent of content creators. Imagine following a sound and the effects the audio experiences can have on the whole body. This improves realism and audience engagement, and it’s becoming an essential part of modern-day sound systems.
In the early days of immersive playback, these systems would use a 5.1 speaker setup, wherein speaker channels would have a front left, front right, centre, surround left, surround right and subwoofer speakers. This is also known as an x.y setup.
These developed into 7.1 setups, with the addition of surround back left and right speakers. The latest format, used by brands such as Dolby Atmos® and Auro-3D®, adds an additional layer, known as an x.y.z. format. This helps to add height to sound distribution, creating a superior listening experience.
Essentially, the x.y.z. syntax is a simple representation of a system’s spatial resolution capability. This spatial audio setup creates an immersive experience, making listeners feel like they are part of the media.
With this ‘third layer’ (the z syntax), we have three height channels that complement the acoustics of any home theater or other listening environments. The sound design is split into three components:
With this spatial sound technology, there is clear communication and compatibility across all systems. Users can feel the sound panning around the room and may even notice ‘hovering’ or ‘spinning’.
It’s important that sound engineers interpret this syntax accurately, allowing all systems to communicate and distribute sound harmoniously.
When using these audio formats, integrators need to think about three key factors:
This concerns spatial imaging, ensuring a sound is localised at the correct point in a space. Systems with more discrete channels offer better sound localisation.
With channel-based audio, sounds are allocated to predefined channels and reproduced through channels in prescribed locations. A better alternative is object-based, which describes the locations of separate audio elements (like loudspeakers) using coordinates.
If there are fewer content channels than there are speakers, upmixing will improve the audio quality. This is thanks to advanced processors that can upmix to a higher number of speakers.
Above all, each design must be user-friendly. Advancements in 3D audio have made this possible, but integrators can take this one step further by adhering to CEDIA/CTA-RP22 guidelines.
For the best spatial resolution, installers should balance channel count, speaker placement and processor capability.
This incredible multichannel audio technology allows for an immersive sound field, making the whole experience human-centric. But it does not come at the expense of technical competency. Integrators can add XYZ syntax into their workflow to create superior sound and music production, ideal for home entertainment.
Best practices for using immersive audio include: