The buzz at the 2019 Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention in New York was immersive audio, as it has been for the last several years. I witnessed developments that may have a big impact on the future of multichannel audio.

First, I listened to Sony's new immersive codec, developed with the cooperation of the research society Fraunhofer IIS: 360 Reality Audio allows the producer to place any individual sound source anywhere in the surround field. While I listened to binaural playback over regular headphones equipped with special decoding software, I was able to watch the placement (and movement) of sources mapped on a screen (below). With 360 Reality Audio, sources of sound are mapped in space, not defined in channels, and the codec firmware distributes them wherever they need to go in the playback system. Because of this mapping approach, the format is platform agnostic, so only one format needs to be distributed. (New Yorkers can visit a 360RA display located in the lobby of the Sony Building at 25 Madison Avenue.)

Next, I attended a session on "Recording and Realizing Immersive Classical Music for, and with, Dolby Atmos," where record producer Jack Vad explained and demonstrated the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra's recording of Henry Brant's spatial composition Ice Field. A stereo recordingor even a 5.1 or 7.1 recordingof the orchestra, organ, and several instrumental groups positioned in locations around Davies Hall would fail to convey the effect Brant demanded.

Using Atmos's facility to place the microphone feeds from each element in spacesee heading imageVad was able to present the whole soundfield and convey the "liveness" of all the instruments. Like Sony's 360RA, an Atmos recording is source-mapped and so can be enjoyed on any suitable end-point player. Although the binaural experience was effective, it paled beside immersive playback via more than a dozen ATC monitors.

What's most important is that, with both systems, a single-format release can be played on any suitably equipped system via device-specific software or firmware. Moreover, both formats can be streamed, allowing anyone to experience surround sound, whether via headphones, a conventional two-channel system, or a multispeaker setup. Amazon Music HD has announced it will start streaming both formats later this year.