Immersive audio | T E C H N O L O G Y
Wave field synthesis is slowly evolving in terms of technology and market potential. Tim Kridel investigates
how vendors are reducing cost and complexity in a bid to break the audio technology out of its niche.
Catch the wave
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University installed an
immersive cube in its Institute for
Creativity, Arts and Technology
that included a WFS installation in
association with Sonic Emotion
W
ave field synthesis (WFS)
audio technology has been
around for more than a
decade, but for a variety of
Audio is part of nearly every visual display
system in which Barco products are used.
- Brian Claypool, Barco
reasons, it’s languished as a
niche play in the pro AV market. A few developments
over the past year suggest that WFS might be poised
Rebranded as Barco Audio Technologies, the new
for wider adoption.
concertgoers standing in front of the bassist would
business unit will help Barco tap a wider market by
perceive that the sound is coming from his instrument
In June, the Fraunhofer Digital Media Technology
expanding its line-up of immersive products. In 2014,
rather than from, say, a line array 10 metres away.
Institute (IDMT) teamed with Shure Europe on a WFS
Barco completed its 500th Auro 11.1 installation, while
WFS effectively lets the loudspeakers disappear so the
musicians and instruments get all of the focus.
system – branded as Atmosphea – at the Hamburg
films such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “The
planetarium. The installation is noteworthy partly
Amazing Spiderman 2” and “Transformers: Age of
because it uses fewer loudspeakers than previous WFS
Extinction” were mixed in Auro 11.1.
deployments in order to reduce the system’s cost. High
“Audio is part of nearly every visual display system
loudspeaker densities are a major reason for the price
in which Barco products are used,” says Brian Claypool,
premium that’s been a barrier to WFS adoption.
The Hamburg installation also shows that venues
stage and with a consistent impression wherever you
stand in the audience,” says Etienne Corteel, Sonic
Emotion chief science officer.
Barco senior director of strategic business development
for audio. “As such, it is our intent to integrate superior
known mainly for visuals are a potential market for
audio processing capability onto a variety of products
WFS products.
and markets to further enhance the value of the
“Despite planetarium developments focusing on
“You can place sound objects where people are on
solutions that Barco offers.”
Does WFS need an Avatar?
Despite the varied and well-documented benefits, WFS
visual productions, 50% of our perception is sound,”
WFS has several benefits, including the lack of a
Thomas Kraupe, the planetarium’s director, told
sweet spot, thus ensuring a consistent experience for all
remains a niche. No analysts track the WFS market, but
InAVate at the time.
patrons. That includes when they’re moving around a
“As WFS is very small in commercial audio terms, we
that’s the feedback from vendors and integrators.
So maybe it’s no surprise that a few months later,
venue, such as the general admission area at a concert.
do quite honestly not get a lot of interaction with it,”
Barco acquired IOSONO, the Fraunhofer spinoff that
WFS also can create the impression that sound is
says Lars-Olof Janflod, head of marketing at Genelec.
spent the previous decade commercialising WFS.
coming from where the eyes say it should. For example,
“The installs we have seen have primarily been in
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March 2015 | 17
TECHNOLOGY
| Immersive audio
Work behind the scenes for WFS installation in the cube at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University
research applications or applications closely linked to
>
research.”
Sonic Emotion also worked
with the Schauspiel Stuttgart.
Copyright: Matthias Dreher
Another reason is that WFS typically is deployed in
high-end venues because those are the ones that can
applications and reduced cost. This is what we have
been actively pushing towards since 2010.”
The terms “WFS” and “3D sound” often are used
afford it. Cost – a by-product of WFS’ complexity – is a
Sonic Emotion’s Sonic Wave 1 processor aims to
interchangeably in pro AV. The 3D video market got a
major reason why the technology hasn’t found a wider
make WFS viable for a wider variety of applications by
boost when films such as “Avatar” prompted theatres
market.
reducing the system cost and number of loudspeakers,
to upgrade their equipment. Although the Hamburg
“The processing equipment is very expensive, and
planetarium gets about 300,000 visitors annually, it
you do need a lot of loudspeakers, which apart [from]
“We compromised a little in terms of precision, but
would take thousands of comparably trafficked venues
purchasing them will also cost a lot to install,” Janflod
that’s it. That’s really minimal,” Corteel says. “We also
worldwide to drag WFS into the consumer mainstream
says.
both by a factor of 10.
made it possible to use standard speakers: compact,
and thus encourage other organisations to view the
WFS vendors concede that point.
technology as something their patrons would expect
“Classical WFS, with a frame-to-frame speaker
At the Tonmeistertagung conference in November,
or even prefer.
“I think the main reason [why WFS isn’t more
common] is the lack of a commercial push like you
have with the film industry,” Janflod says. “When
low power.”
configuration, is not a low-cost solution as the
Corteel co-presented a paper explaining how Sonic
magnitude of the experience demands a significant
Emotion achieved that feat: “The WFS algorithm
amount of speakers and processing,” Stepputat says.
integrated in the Sonic Wave I processor... [uses] a small
That’s changing. For example, loudspeakers don’t
number of high power/efficiency loudspeakers that are
Spielberg introduced the film ‘Jurassic Park,’ cinemas
who wanted to screen it needed to upgrade their
systems to do the soundtrack of the film justice.
“It is interesting to see what is happening in cinema
3D sound from the likes of Auro Technologies and
Dolby with their Atmos system. Both are soon ready
to release processors affordable in price for the normal
consumer and thus there is a much broader foundation
The processing equipment is very
expensive, and you do need a lot of
loudspeakers, which apart [from] purchasing
them will also cost a lot to install.
- Lars-Olof Janflod, Genelec
for commercial success than with WFS.
“Genelec does not make systems for the actual
cinema theatre but for the production houses of the
have to be as densely packed as they once were.
content. We get enormous interest for the demos we
“With the latest algorithms from Fraunhofer, it is
the stage) for homogeneous level range distribution
do at trade shows and other events with Auro 3D and
now possible to do a wider [spacing]: 1.5 metre or
and spatial sound reproduction keeping all benefits of
Dolby Atmos technology.”
so between,” says Torsten Haack, Shure Distribution
WFS.
system group director.
Fewer speakers also should help WFS expand into
A high-end experience
At least for now, WFS is synonymous with “high-end”
18 | March 2015
often distributed over two levels (above and on/below
the large-venue market.
“The loudspeakers located on or below stage can be
considered as a ‘spatial’ front fill array. The loudspeaker
ensemble typically spans the entire stage width using
“WFS is limited in its sound reinforcement capabilities
eight to 16 wide dispersion speakers (5 to 8 inches
in large venues as WFS is best achieved in smaller and
coaxial or asymmetric directivity speakers with wide
horizontal dispersion). Three to seven loudspeakers
for several reasons. One is that the immersive experience
mid-sized venues – like cinema, for example – using
is different than what most people are accustomed to.
appropriately sized individual speakers,” Stepputat
are commonly used above the stage targeting
“In most cases, when somebody is experiencing WFS
says. “Once you extend this approach to work with
homogeneous level coverage further back in the room.
in a reasonable application, they will give a positive
more sparsely populated speaker configurations and
evaluation as it is a very high-end technology,” says
speakers that will fulfil certain sound reinforcement
loudspeakers
Olaf Stepputat, Barco Audio Technologies director.
requirements, you will find a broader range of useful
horizontal dispersion, directive behaviour along the
“Loudspeakers should either be point source
with
asymmetric
directivity
(wide
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TECHNOLOGY
| Immersive audio
Atmosphea also bundles multiple applications onto
With the latest algorithms from Fraunhofer,
it is now possible to do a wider [spacing]: 1.5
metre or so between [speakers].
a single platform, with WFS residing in one core of a
quad-core DSP.
“The WFS circuits coexist with EQs and all the other
audio components on the system, and the system
incorporates more applications at a time than just
- Torsten Haack, Shure Distribution
WFS,” Haack says. “This is one of the big benefits of
vertical dimension) or line arrays with preferably wide
into a single platform. That strategy could make sales
horizontal dispersion. Typical LCR configurations are
among customers that otherwise would balk at the
applicable with two large line arrays on either side of
standalone cost of WFS.
>
the stage and a central cluster.”
“You get WFS almost free [of charge] considering
Sonic Emotion also bundles WFS with multiple other
systems, such as EQ and loudspeaker management,
that you can get rid of all that equipment,” Corteel
Atmosphea.”
More flexibility and less
complexity
says.
Corteel’s Tonmeistertagung paper also showed how
Wave 1 could be integrated with Studer digital mixing
consoles. In this setup, sound engineers can control the
audio source placement in the 3D field directly from a
Studer Vista’s source channel strip. The placement can
City library Genk runs on AUDAC
be done directly from the source channel’s Vistonics
surround-pan rotaries or with the console’s joystick.
Finally, WFS also benefits from the way that
computing power keeps increasing. That enables
multiple wave fields for reconfigurable rooms, and
allows WFS systems to accommodate a wider variety
of room shapes.
“Up to now, it was not possible to do this because
of processing power, which was never there as we have
today,” says Shure’s Haack. “We can put loudspeakers
in any shape of building. It can be cubic. It can be
[cylindrical].”
Increasing computing power also eventually could
make WFS systems easier to design and install.
“I can image that someday that where will be some
measuring tools and training so a wider variety of our
partners are able to do this,” Haack says.
For now, integrators and other AV pros can turn
to WFS vendors for help. In the meantime, those that
have experience with WFS are using it for more than
permanent installations. For example, Sonic Wave 1
was used for the Paris Jazz Festival and Classique au
Vert festivals, which featured an open-air concert stage
MTX series
Web-based multizone audio matrix
and 1,400 seats in a fan-shaped configuration, with
another 2,000 standing behind them.
The WFS system consisted of a standard LCR line
array configuration with five D&B Q1 for the left
and right clusters, and for D&B Q1 for the centre
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cluster. On stage, 10 L-Acoustics 108P are used as a
WFS front fill. More than 60 shows – ranging from
solo piano to classical orchestra and jazz ensembles –
used the system, with no adjustments to the speaker
positions. That’s important because Sonic Emotion’s
goal was to make WFS viable for touring rather than
limiting the addressable market to permanent live
installations.
Hall 8.0 Stand nr F21
20 | March 2015
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