HIGH-RESOLUTION 3D AUDIO AND VIDEO STREAMING DEMONSTRATION EXPERIMENT

December 23, 2021

On December 20th 2021, Auro Technologies announced its participation in a High-Resolution 3D audio and video streaming demonstration experiment in Japan. This event is made possible by a cooperation between Auro Technologies, the Japanese Broadcaster Wowow and its partner NTT Smart Connect.

In recent years, customers have shown increased interest in high-quality video and audio with the expectation to get an experience as close as possible to ‘real life’. For audio, high-resolution 3D audio comes in the picture but is not available yet as a streaming service  the market. No end-to-end solutions have been brought to the market yet that supports a distribution model for  highest quality 3D audio.

WOWOW has decided to develop a player with AURO-3D playback functions and VOD distribution of Auro-Codec encoded content. Bringing this highest level of experience to the end-customer’s homes is now possible for playback on smartphones and PC. Also, the flexible 3D audio rendering solutions from AURO allow 3D listening experiences on different play-back systems: on headphones with Binaural Rendering (Auro-HeadPhones), 2 speakers with Speaker Virtualization (Auro-Scene), multiple speakers (AURO- 3D formats) using a multi-channel audio interface and HDMI output to AURO-3D enabled AVRs.

The experiment is conducted from December 15th, 2021 till February 10th, 2022 in Japan.

“We are thrilled to see AURO-3D technology been used in this never seen high-resolution streaming event.  Our high-resolution lossless codec and flexible rendering technology demonstrates that AURO is ready for cutting-edge solutions in the 3D-audio world. This announcement from WOWOW signifies another major milestone for further expansion of AURO-3D technology into more homes and WOWOW’s commitment to AURO-3D solutions,” said Rudy Van Duppen, CEO of Auro Technologies. “AURO-3D brings to customers again the truest to real-life immersive experiences possible for the Home.”

“In order for 3D audio to become widespread, it is important that it can be delivered over the IP in high quality sound. I have been examining other commercial 3D audio formats, but I was not satisfied with the sound quality. 6 years ago, I came across AURO-3D and had high expectations for its sound quality. Therefore, in developing the OMEGA player for the POC, I decided to use AURO-3D, which is capable of transmitting high-resolution 3D audio with 96 kHz sampling,” said Dr. Hideo Irimajiri, Executive Creator of WOWOW. “In this POC, I plan to have many people experience the high-quality 3D audio works I have produced so far using AURO-3D.”

This experiment of WOWOW and NTT Smart Connect introducing a high-resolution 3D audio Streaming Service demonstrates again AURO’s capabilities and intention to aim for most natural and immersive 3D sound experiences for the listener.

About WOWOW

WOWOW commenced Japan’s first pay TV satellite broadcasting service since April 1, 1991 in Japan. WOWOW has been delivering an array of entertainment since, it has managed to mark the 30th anniversary of the station launch. From January 2021, WOWOW made application for subscription available online via Internet access alone, without BS viewing settings. With “WOWOW On-Demand” (WOD), even must-see sports and original drama series will be readily available for viewing. Furthermore, a 4K channel “WOWOW4K” started from March 1, 2021 for those who wish to enjoy watching on large-screen TVs with high resolution.

About Auro Technologies

Auro Technologies is a spin-off of the privately-owned Galaxy Studios Group, renowned worldwide for its state-of-the-art leadership in audio innovation for music and sound for film. Wilfried Van Baelen (Chairman & MD, Auro Technologies and CEO, Galaxy Studios) revolutionized sound by bringing “Immersive Sound” (Sound in 3D) as an end-to-end solution with AURO’s ground-breaking technologies providing a natural immersive sound experience unlike anything you’ve heard before, creating a totally new emotional level of entertainment in music, movies, games, events etc. The AURO-3D® Technology Suite offers easy-to-use and unprecedented levels of sound reproduction capabilities to the Home, Broadcast & OTT, Digital Cinema, Mobile, Gaming, and Automotive markets. To learn more about AURO, follow us: Instagram.com/auro3d | facebook.com/Auro3D