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THX® Reinventing Entertainment Experiences At AES NY 2018
THX PRESENTS NEW RESEARCH ON PERCEPTION AND HOSTS PANEL DISCUSSION WITH AUDIO INDUSTRY HEAVYWEIGHTS
THX was founded in 1983 by George Lucas with a simple charter: Raise the bar for the audio and visual fidelity of entertainment experiences in the cinema. Through its cinema certification program, THX set out to help filmmakers deliver their truest vision to audiences, ensuring vivid, memorable experiences for moviegoers and drawing them deeper into the story. Since then, THX has expanded its certification categories beyond studios and cinemas to consumer electronics, mobile, PC, content, and automotive systems.
Today, THX continues to innovate and redefine entertainment, providing exciting new technologies that enable the delivery of high fidelity audio and video experiences to consumers. THX scientists have spent countless hours researching, evaluating, and developing technologies that advance audio and visual entertainment. This mission is the core of our heritage, and continues to be the principal tenet moving our company forward.
THX Sr. Audio Architect, Patrick Flanagan, has been studying the future of audio for 8 years and leads the THX team in conducting research on solutions for immersive entertainment. In order to further validate the need for an optimal immersive audio solution, THX initiated a project for measuring consumer perception of 3D audio rendering solutions. To conduct consumer research, THX partnered with New York University’s (NYU) Music Audio Research Labs (MARL) in 2017.
The goal of this research was to conduct a sound quality and perception assessment of various third-party binaural renderers with consumers. The team, supervised by Flanagan and Dr. Agnieszka Roginska of NYU, brought in students and faculty from NYU to test their subjective perception of both the quality and localization ability of different 3D audio rendering engines. Based on this research, THX and NYU published several papers through the Audio Engineering Society. These papers are available for download from the NYU website here.
Flanagan and team will present new research on perception as well as host a panel discussion on Delivering Interactive Experiences Using HOA through MPEG-H on October 17th at AES NY 2018. Panelists include Stephen Barton, Film and Game Composer (Afterlite Inc.), Nick Laviers, Audio Director (Respawn Entertainment), Aaron McLeran, Lead Audio Programmer (Epic Games/Unreal), Simon Calle, Audio Researcher (THX Ltd.), and Ferdinando Olivieri, Senior Research Engineer 3D-Audio (Qualcomm).
THX continues our commitment to Lucas’ founding mission through thought leadership in immersive audio and participation in Audio Engineering Society events. We’re looking forward to AES NY 2018 and hope to see you there!
— David “Prz” Przygoda, Technology Lead, Product Marketing