04/27/2007 — IRT demonstrates Binaural Sky™ at the AES 2007 in Vienna

The Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT) is presenting new developments and trends of audio and broadcast technologies at the AES Pro Audio Expo & Convention in Vienna, May 5 – 8, 2007, Hall Y, Booth 2742.

This year’s highlight is the demonstration of Binaural Sky™, a completely new reproduction system for 3D sound, developed by IRT. The Binaural Sky™ consists of a circular WFS (Wave Field Synthesis) array setup suspended above listener’s head which generates “focused sources” close at the ears. It can be enjoyed without wearing a headphone, without loudspeakers in the field of vision, and without compromises in small rooms or other inappropriate environments. A broad range of consumer applications are envisaged, for example computer game or automotive audio.

The Binaural Sky™ technique is combining WFS with advantages of Binaural Room Synthesis (BRS). Due to headtracking control, the locations of the focused sources are kept constant relative to the ears regardless of head movement. They are designed to form a virtual headphone which is used for BRS reproduction. Overall, stable and accurate room-related localization of loudspeakers in the virtual studio is achieved while the location of the real array loudspeakers above the listener is not perceivable. High-quality surround sound monitoring is possible for standard or advanced multi-channel loudspeaker setups, including additional height loudspeakers.

Detailed information: Wave Field Synthesis and BRS

Moreover, IRT informs about the AUVIS technology offering realistic spatial perception in synthesized surround sound control rooms by means of BRS processing. In the section Mobile Broadcast IRT demonstrates the DAB data inserter “TripleMUX”, the universal data analyser DAB-/DMB-Scout Server and TMC and TPEG traffic information.