大象传媒

We鈥檙e really excited that in the latest series of , will be available on the 大象传媒 iPlayer. It gives an immersive spatial sound experience for headphone listeners. This version was remixed using the at 大象传媒 Wales in Cardiff. This post is for those wishing to understand a little more about the technology behind it and our vision for developing it in the future.

Here at 大象传媒 R&D we have been . We believe it can offer 大象传媒 audiences a more immersive and engaging experience. We are developing the technology for spatial audio over both loudspeakers and headphones, but for headphones the opportunity to improve things seems particularly strong right now. Our listening habits have changed dramatically in recent years and now many more people are listening to 大象传媒 programmes with headphones. The traditional stereo format is designed to create a frontal sound stage on a pair of loudspeakers, but when listened to on headphones it gives a very different image, often inside the listener鈥檚 head. This is where binaural techniques come into play. Sounds are processed so that when listened to on headphones they seem to come from a point in space outside of the head. So we can create a virtual acoustic scene around the listener, immersing them in the world of the programme.

What is binaural sound?

So how does binaural sound actually work? Rather than the simple left-right amplitude panning of stereo, we accurately simulate the acoustic transmission from a point in space to the two ears of the listener. The sounds we hear are affected by the shape of our head and ears, and the effect varies with the position of the sound source. Our auditory systems can recognise these patterns to localise sounds, particularly frequency-dependent time and level differences between the ears. By modelling these effects that allow sound engineers to freely position sounds in a 3D scene. This is not a new concept, it was heavily developed by researchers in the 1990s when virtual reality technology was a hot topic (of course there has been ). We developed these tools at 大象传媒 R&D so that we could study and improve the quality of the signal processing techniques and also to work out the best way to fit the technology into the tools and workflows of our production teams, which is an ongoing process.

Now onto The Doctor. It鈥檚 so great that we can show you the potential of binaural sound with one of the 大象传媒鈥檚 biggest and most loved programmes, which has a long history of innovative sound. We鈥檝e come a long way with the project to get to this point and have already used the tools on , some of which are linked to from our . In the last year we have established facilities in Cardiff for spatial audio production, working with the brilliant Cathy Robinson, who did the sound for the binaural audio drama Ring in 2015. Having an expert on the ground in Cardiff we were able to show the Doctor Who team the potential of binaural sound and were thrilled when they decided to try it out for Knock Knock in this series. I don鈥檛 want to ruin the suspense, but this episode is great for using spatial audio. I think it adds a lot to the spooky atmosphere and really draws you into the scene with Bill and her friends...

Immersive Audio Training and Skills from the 大象传媒 Academy including:

Sound Bites - An Immersive Masterclass

Sounds Amazing - audio gurus share tips