WORLD PREMIERE; FIRST-EVER LIVE PERFORMANCE STREAMED IN HIGH-QUALITY IMMERSIVE AUDIO WITH HD PICTURE OVER IP

November 13, 2020

On Wednesday 28th October,  AURO Technologies in conjunction with WOWOW conducted an Advanced Audio Distribution Experiment from Hakuju Hall in Tomigaya with great success. This was the world’s first attempt to hold a piano and drum duo concert by Mayo Nakano and Takanobu Baba, and to live-stream the video and sound using the AURO-3D high-quality immersive audio coding technology AURO-Codec.

This event is another milestone AURO-3D can add to its impressive list of “first-ever” achievements, it is also another milestone in the history of the audio industry.  The world famous Japanese journalist Reiji Asakura wrote in Yahoo Japan; “This experiment is groundbreaking in that it can capture a place and bring the concert hall itself into the home, and I think it is a revolution in the way Edison’s ‘Mary’s Sheep’ was recorded on a gramophone”.

Reiji Asakura also said, “Today’s distribution experiment has become very meaningful because I’m watching it in Belgium, far away.  AURO-3D has excellent resolution and clarity and has a musical resolution. It reproduces the space being played and delivers the atmosphere of the concert hall to the home.”

With more than 1 million homes already with AURO-3D compatible receivers by more than 60 different AV Receiver models in the market means there is no need for any software or hardware upgrade, this solution is backwards compatible with even the first-ever AV Receivers sold with AURO-3D.  Due to updated regulations around the Covid-19 outbreak, measures were taken meaning attendance was by invite only with very limited numbers possible.

The recording and mixing carried out by renowned Japanese sound engineer and executive creator at WOWOW, Hideo Irimajiri brought the whole experience together receiving incredibly positive feedback from those who experienced the live concert in the hall as well as the playback in the foyer that provided such a “remarkably natural immersive sound experience”.  Reiji Asakura wrote in the Japanese magazine Stereo Sound ONLINE: “I experienced the sound of streaming in the foyer before I heard the live performance in the hall, and I could feel the softly enveloping sound field, the sharp piano sound and the powerful drum bass. It felt as if I was in the hall. The Hakuju Hall has a very high ceiling, and the sound can spread unhindered, but I could even perceive this “height” in the playback”.

Kimio Hamasaki Director Business Affairs and Business Development Japan; Standardisation Officer said of the event “I remember the launch of AURO-3D at the AES Spatial Conference that I organized in October 2010 in Tokyo, it is amazing that 10 years later, this natural immersive experience and its audio quality can now be streamed over IP to everyone, even if they don’t have an AURO-3D setup because then the 5.1 or Stereo version will be heard in the way it was intended by the creators. Wilfried presented his ideas of AURO-3D in my workshop ‘Surround Sound with Height’ at AES Paris and San Francisco Conventions in 2006 and he introduced the end-to-end solution of Immersive Sound by AURO-3D at the AES 40th International Conference on Spatial Audio in 2010 chaired by myself.”