Virgin Atlantic Keeps an Ear Out for 3-D Audio
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APEX Insight: 3-D audio is making waves as it traverses from Virgin America to Virgin Atlantic to crank up the cinematic experience on in-flight entertainment.
Virgin Atlantic is upping the audio ante on in-flight entertainment by bringing 3-D audio, which is similar to surround sound, onboard. Starting this month, passengers on the airline’s flights will be able to watch and experience Furious 7 and Bessie in 3-D audio simply by plugging in their own headphones. In the action-packed Furious 7, startling sounds of cars whizzing by will put passengers in the driver’s seat – while in Bessie, the immersive acoustics will transport the passenger into the smoky lounge where Queen Latifah belts out the blues.
Announced today, Dysonics and Spafax have partnered to collaborate on the technology and production of this latest entertainment feature. “We are always on the lookout for new ways to enhance the passenger experience,” says Tony Taverner, CTO, Spafax. “Dysonics had approached two of our clients, Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines, and I was asked by them to evaluate the technology.”
“We are always on the lookout for new ways to enhance the passenger experience.” – Tony Taverner, Spafax
In-flight 3-D audio launched on Red, Virgin America’s IFE system in June, and since then, word of Dysonics, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in 3-D audio and motion-tracking for headphones, traveled through the grapevine to Virgin Atlantic and then to Spafax. “[We] were immediately impressed,” says Taverner. “The audio is clearly defined and gives an enjoyable, immersive experience.”
“As headphones are now the most widely used form of listening to media, we’re fundamentally changing headphone audio by making it more lifelike and immersive.” – Dysonics
Channelling through passengers’ headphones is 15 years of psychoacoustic and spatial sound research that Dysonics’ technology is steeped in – plus another year to adapt the technology for the aircraft cabin. The process involved testing different content and encoding procedures on the ground and in-flight on several sets of headphones in a simulated cabin environment. And with an increasing number of passengers bringing their own electronic devices and headphones onboard, Robert Dalton, co-founder and CTO of Dysonics says the time was right to start working with airlines:
“It’s a headphone-captive audience. We really feel like we could bring a much more enhanced experience to the media; pull the listener more into the content that they’re watching; take them out of the experience of flying and hopefully, make their flight go a little bit smoother, a little bit easier; make them a little bit happier in the process,” he says.
Looking forward, Dalton says Dysonics will continue to tweak and tune the in-flight audio experience, not only on movies, but for music, ambient soundtracks and live concerts. He also suggests that in-flight audio is headed in the direction of virtual and augmented reality: “What you’re going to see is more and more content using this technology in order to enhance the realism of those experiences,” he says. “This is really just the first step for that.”