Summary In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel is joined by Dan Johnston via Skype from his home in York, UK. Dan Johnston is a third-year PhD researcher in the Audio Lab at the University of York. His research is focused on using spatial audio and virtual reality to help children with autism spectrum disorder cope with common everyday sounds that can often cause them stress and anxiety. He has developed a VR application that combines computer game mechanics, exposure therapy techniques and spatial audio rendering of problematic sounds to create a fun and engaging accessible therapy environment. In this episode, they discuss Dan’s research project SoundFields covering audio, game design, and the importance of virtual reality therapy as an essential part of intervention and aid for mental disorders and learning difficulties in the clinical setting.
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Show Notes
SoundFields is an interactive immersive experience developed to address auditory hypersensitivities in autistic children. It creates realistic and dynamic representations of problematic auditory stimuli using virtual 3D audio and incorporates them into a computer game platform. Therefore, creating a fun and engaging environment for exposure therapy. By using this technology therapy could become more accessible, improving the quality of life for the child and their family.
Johnston, D., Egermann, H., & Kearney, G. (2018, October). SoundFields: A Mixed Reality Spatial Audio Game for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In Audio Engineering Society Convention 145. Audio Engineering Society.
Measuring the Behavioral Response to Spatial Audio within a Multi-Modal Virtual Reality Environment in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. By Daniel Johnston 1, Hauke Egermann 2 and Gavin Kearney 1.
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Credits
This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Michelle Chan with the help of Emma Rees and included music by Knobs Bergamo..
This episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast is brought to you in partnership with our friends at Sonic Presence, the New York City-based wearable microphone start-up with a mission to democratize how immersive audio is recorded on the go. Whether you’re a regular concert-goer or a Youtube content creator, it’s time to take mobile audio recording to the next level. Immersive Audio Podcast sat down with the Sonic Presence team to share the brand story and the product they created as well as hear from early adopters sharing their experience of using this technology. In this episode, we’ll explore what goes into building a 3D microphone, how to make recording immersive audio more accessible, and the future of audio content creation.
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Guest Speakers
Russ Hamm, Co-Founder & President at Sonic Presence
Russ Hamm co-founded Sonic Presence in 2015 with the vision to improve the mobile sound recording, especially when paired with 4K mobile video. Russ has more than 40 years of experience with media technology, recording top musical artists, producing sound for films and developing leading-edge technology solutions. Russ founded Qmedia, a milestone provider that leveraged broadband opportunities for media customers using the newly built national fibre infrastructure, establishing network technology that is currently used by ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN and FOX. Prior to that, he collaborated with Bell Labs on large-scale digital systems for music and film and was president of Gotham Audio Corporation and G Prime Limited, a leading distributor of professional audio products. Hamm has led media industry engineering and technical organizations and twice received the Audio Engineering Society Board of Governors award for outstanding service. He is a member of the Recording Academy, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Chris Van Deusen, Co-Founder & Creative Director at Sonic Presence
Chris Van Deusen co-founded Sonic Presence in 2015 bringing 10+ years of graphics and web design experience to the startup. As Creative Director, he manages all company branding, develops print and digital media, ad copy and marketing assets. Van Deusen also contributes to product design and business development. Before Sonic Presence, Van Deusen was the Creative Director for Rainbow Broadband, where he oversaw all of the company’s marketing, PR, social media and website development. Van Deusen holds a degree for Communication Arts & Digital Media from Marymount Manhattan College. On the weekends Van Deusen plays the guitar and performs in the NYC-based rock band Animal Reporters.
Mike Dvorscak, Principal Sound Engineer at Sonic Presence
Mike Dvorscak joined Sonic Presence in late 2018 after a chance encounter at AES NY. As Principal Sound Engineer, Dvorscak plays a critical role in product development, acoustics research and prototype assembly. He also creates and edits video and sound compositions for the company’s online presence. Dvorscak has a degree in Audio Production and Engineering from SUNY Purchase and has performed on and/or produced a number of Indie pop records. In 2019, he founded Beachball Records – an indie record label based out of Brooklyn, NY.
Alex Hernandez, Marketing Consultant at Sonic Presence
Alex is an entrepreneur and designer based in Los Angeles with a background in AR/VR. He has focused on immersive technologies since 2015 and is currently working with Sonic Presence as a consultant for all things media-related.
David Solomon, Chief at Hi-Res Music Evangelist
David Solomon has been in the high-end audio field for three decades spanning almost every aspect. He’s a part-time musician and audio engineer and understands sound on many levels. Currently, David is launching his second Hi-Res streaming service: Qobuz. In 2014, he did the same for Tidal. David’s passion for music is deep and well known throughout the audio industry. David currently holds a board position on CTA’s audio board and consults with several well known audio companies.
David Weiss, Founder & Editor at SonicScoop
David Weiss is Founder and Editor at SonicScoop, a leading online media company reporting on the music, sound and recording industry worldwide. An internationally published journalist, David Weiss has been covering audio production for Audio Media and Mix magazine since 1999. His work has appeared regularly in publications such as Drum!, Time Out New York, Remix and many more online/print outlets on music and technology. He is also co-author of the book Music Supervision: The Complete Guide to Selecting and Licensing Music & Sound Design for Media, published by Music Sales (2nd Edition, 2017). Visit the companion site at www.musicsupervision101.com. He is also the co-founder of www.thesonghunters.com, a song discovery service for music supervisors.
Jim Anderson, Recording Engineer & Producer at Anderson Audio New York
Jim Anderson is an internationally recognized recording engineer and producer of acoustic music for the recording, radio, television, and film industries. His music recordings have received eleven Grammy and Latin Grammy awards and 27 Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations; radio productions have received two George Foster Peabody Awards and television productions have received two Emmy nominations. In 2013 and 2018, Jim won the Grammy for Best Surround Album (Patricia Barber’s “Modern Cool” – 2013 – and Jane Ira Bloom’s “Early Americans” – 2018) and was nominated for Best Surround Album in 2014 with Jane Ira Bloom’s “Sixteen Sunsets.” A graduate of the Duquesne University School of Music in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jim was awarded the music school’s first Alumni Achievement Award in May 2018. He is a professor with the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and was also the President of the Audio Engineering Society (AES).
Ulrike Schwarz, Sound Engineer & Producer at Anderson Audio New York
Ulrike Schwarz is a sound engineer and producer of acoustic music in the radio, television and recording industries. Her recordings have received multiple international nominations and awards: two Echo Klassik Awards, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenindustrie, Ars Acoustica, Diapason d’Or, a Grammy Nomination and many others. In 2015, the BRKlassik production of Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” featuring the choir and symphony orchestra of Bayerischer Rundfunk, conducted by Bernard Haitink, received a Grammy Nomination for “Best Choral Performance.” Ulrike’s production of Gisle Kverndokk’s “Symphonic Dances” has been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Immersive Audio Album category, 2020.
Bob Ludwig, Mastering Engineer
Bob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Queen, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Ocean, Bryan Ferry, Paul McCartney, Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen and Daft Punk resulting in over 3,000 credits. He is the recipient of numerous Grammy and TEC Awards.
We want to hear from you! We really value our community and would appreciate it if you would take our very quick survey and help us make the Immersive Audio Podcast even better: surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3Y9B2MJ Thank you!
Credits
This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel, Alex Bragg and Michelle Chan with the help of Emma Rees and Haley Lerner and included music by Hair Fairlight, Mikey Geiger, Isaac Joel, Yung Koolade Knobs Bergamo.
In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel is joined in the studio by Amelia Kallman, who is a London-based futurist, speaker and author.
As an innovation and technology communicator, Amelia regularly writes, consults, and speaks on the impact of new technologies on the future of business and our lives. She is an expert on the emerging risks of The New Realities (VR-AR-MR) having recently authored a cutting-edge report for Lloyd’s of London. Amelia also specialises in the future of retail, AI and IoT. She’s lectured at Cambridge University, written a multi-award winning book, and directed the first burlesque show in 360° film. Her writing is often featured in WIRED UK, IBC365, and The Big Reveal, her popular monthly innovation newsletter.
Today, Amelia chats with Oliver about how she got into the XR industry, the risks of virtual reality, and how she advises clients trying to navigate the world of immersive technology.
We want to hear from you! We really value our community and would appreciate it if you would take our very quick survey and help us make the Immersive Audio Podcast even better: surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3Y9B2MJ Thank you!
Credits
This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Michelle Chan with the help of Shane O’Hare and included music by Knobs Bergamo.
In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Alex Bragg talks to a variety of guests about the world of public VR centres.
This episode features input from four leading innovators in the VR industry: Mike Bacchus, Director and Co-Founder of Limitless-VR based in Croydon, Anthony Nixon, Director and Co-Founder of Interactive Pro Gaming, a chain of in-pub VR arcades based in London, Alexander Tsyurupa, Director and Co-Founder of DNA VR, London’s first VR entertainment venue known for its multiplayer gaming experiences, Michael Festa, Director of Distribution at Survios, and Cyril Voiron, Executive Producer of Ubisoft Escape Games, the video game developing company behind the recently released virtual reality escape room, ‘Escape the Lost Pyramid.’
Today, they discuss how VR is changing the way we socialize while gaming, reinventing the escape room experience, and being implemented in sectors far beyond gaming, in health, art, and education.
Survey We want to hear from you! We really value our community and would appreciate it if you would take our very quick survey and help us make the Immersive Audio Podcast even better: https://surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3Y9B2MJ Thank you!
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Guest Speakers
Alex Bragg, Immersive Audio Podcast Guest Presenter Alex Bragg is a multimedia producer and journalist based in London, and a graduate of City, University of London. As well as producing podcasts, he has also produced video news content for London Live. When not writing, editing and presenting content for 1.618 Digital, he also makes his own news and politics podcast – the IntrePod.
Limitless-VR – Mike Bacchus, Director and Co-Founder
Established in 2017. The Limitless-VR entertainment centre is only one of a few in London and the South East of England. Our venue hosts 6 HTC Vive stations, driving simulator, retro consoles, table-footie and is available for private hire. Our hidden ‘V’ basement bar and events space (open Thurs-Sat) also has sofa areas each with a PS3/4 console which is free to use. We are quickly becoming known for our eclectic events, visual projections, theme parties and a host of DJ talent!
Interactive Pro Gaming – Anthony Nixon, Director and Co-Founder
IPG® are the global specialists in PubVR entertainment services, events and consulting. Launching in 2016, IPG® run the first and only independent Virtual Reality Arcade chain operating permanently in bars and pubs across the UK. Having served over 50,000 customers IPG® currently make up almost half of all VR arcades operating inside London and operate as one of the largest independent VR chains in the UK. IPG® has multiple locations from Central London to Brighton with plans to open additional locations across the UK by the end of 2019.
DNA VR – Alexander Tsyurupa, Director and Co-Founder
DNA VR is London’s First Virtual Reality Centre. The 3 co-founders started with their own funds as an experiment in a basement in North London, however, it rapidly grew into a mainstream attraction for both families and corporate clients. DNA VR is going to open at least one other venue in London in 2019. It began with an idea of bringing a more immersive Escape Room to the London scene, however, they later pivoted into a pure VR centre with VR Escape Rooms as one of the elements. At DNA VR visitors are completely immersed into another world where only their own imagination is the limit.
Survios – Michael Festa, Director of Distribution
Founded in 2013, Survios is an industry-leading virtual reality (VR) studio dedicated to premium software development, game publishing, and location-based entertainment (LBE) initiatives. At Survios, we build connected, immersive VR experiences with emergent interactivity and visceral play designed to expand the human experience and unlock our creative potential. Survios reaches a global audience through its critically-acclaimed games, the world’s largest VR arcade partner network, its flagship Survios Virtual Reality Arcade, and full-stack VR attractions and amusements.
Ubisoft Blue Byte GmbH – Cyril Voiron, Executive Producer Ubisoft Escape Games
Ubisoft Düsseldorf is home to diverse teams dedicated to delivering AAA excellence and innovation across a wide portfolio of games and technologies. The studio is the leading developer behind beloved games like The Settlers and the innovative VR escape room experience Beyond Medusa’s Gate. As renowned co-developers within the Ubisoft group, Ubisoft Düsseldorf contributes to high-profile projects such as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and Uplay.
This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel, Alex Bragg, Felix Thompson and Michelle Chan with the help of Abbigayle Bircham and Shane O’Hare and included music by Hair Fairlight, Mikey Geiger, Yung Koolade and Knobs Bergamo.
In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel is joined by John Kyle Varley on Skype from Halifax, Canada.
John Kyle is a musician/music producer and founder of Frameworks Productions, a production company that specializes in creating musical scores for virtual reality and 360º film. At the end of 2017, Frameworks worked with the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity to develop generative music processes using spatial audio. He recently gave a talk on spatialized 3D audio and generative music at VRTO2019, the annual Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo in Toronto, Canada.
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Music Theory and Composition from St. Francis Xavier University in 2006, he cultivated years of experience as a touring, recording, and teaching musician and switched to music production later on in his career.
Today, Oliver and John Kyle discuss the influence of sound and music in virtual reality and the creation of Frameworks Productions.
In this episode of Immersive Audio Podcast, Felix Thompson, with the help of insightful guest speakers, will look at Audio for Augmented Reality, and how it’s changing peoples’ lives today.
Augmented reality, or AR for short, is an industry that’s been silently booming over the last couple of years. Unlike virtual reality which totally immerses the user, AR offers a blend of the physical and the virtual worlds.
With the huge success of Pokemon Go, which allows people all across the world to see Pokemon floating around in real life via their mobile devices, augmented reality developers want to take the next step in revolutionising how we hear the world too, making augmented reality experiences for tourism, education, music – and even reinventing hearing aids.
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Guest Speakers
Elliot Graves, Atlantic Productions
Elliot leads Atlantic Productions’ Immersive and Digital content. As an immersive experience Director, he works across all XR technologies including augmented reality, virtual reality and AI empowered experiences. Prior to Atlantic, he worked in the agency space, creating immersive projects across the world for Nike, Google, Ford, Unicef and UEFA. Elliot started his career in factual production, working with The Royal Geographical Society, the United Nations and the BBC across a range of different initiatives.
Jean-Marc Jot, Magic Leap
Dr. Jean-Marc Jot joined Magic Leap to start up its audio algorithms team. Prior to this, Jot led DTS audio processing R&D and innovation. He had also led the development of SoundBlaster audio processing algorithms and architectures, including EAX and OpenAL technologies for game 3D audio authoring and rendering. Before relocating to California in the late 90s, he conducted research at IRCAM in Paris, where he designed the Spat software suite for spatial audio creation, performance and virtual reality.
Immersive Audio Podcast – Episode 22 Audio Design For Mixed Reality Panel at GDC feat. Jean-Marc Jot
Sofia Brazzola, Sennheiser
Sofia Brazzola is the User Experience Manager with the AMBEO team based at Sennheiser, where she leads user-centric research to validate and develop new solutions for a range of 3D audio applications. As part of the R&D team who developed the “AMBEO VR Mic”, she launched Sennheiser’s first early-adopters program by engaging with a community of beta-testers and content creators. She is currently leading Sennheiser’s Augmented Audio Developers Program, where early-adopters engagement, user-centric innovation and strategic marketing play another important role in AMBEO’s thought-leadership in AR audio.
Immersive Audio Podcast Episode 23 Sofia Brazzola
Kedar Shashidhar, Magic Leap
Kedar Shashidhar is an audio generalist focused on new realities. With a focus in creative research and development, he has worked to help develop new tools, create content ,and explore the boundaries of audio in new realities. Most notably he has contributed to the development of various audio toolsets including Magic Leap, Steam Audio, and Ossic. He also formed an indie game studio, Blackout VR, focused on developing audio only games. Kedar is also an active voice for audio in new realities having previously spoken at AES, Game Sound Con, Indiecade, and more. Currently at Magic Leap, Kedar works on bringing the newest innovations in mixed reality audio to content creators in order to continue pushing the boundaries of what is possible for audio in new realities. You can find his latest work in Magic Leaps Soundfield Audio toolset and a number of experiences on the Magic Leap platform.
Luis Marcelino, Evollu
Luis Marcelino is CTO at Evollu and an adjunct professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria. Evollu aims to help companies in the field of hearing rehabilitation increase their sales and expand their business. They use hearing tests and adaptive listening to support people in the process of improving their hearing. They have developed an augmented audio app that gives people “enhanced hearing.” This “enhanced hearing “ will allow users to selectively improve the quality of sound from different sources. This app was made for people with mild and moderate hearing loss, or for environments where it’s difficult to hear.
Per Beck Hansen, AWE
Per Beck Hansen is co-founder and CEO of AWE, a Danish startup working with audio development and design for interactive VR/AR. They have created projects from international VR installations to music driven health care solutions to augmented audio games for tourism. As part of the Ambeo development programme, AWE created the app 1807 for tourists in Copenhagen. Spatialized audio for visitors to Copenhagen – alternative to a tour guide. Users get to experience Copenhagen as it was 200 years ago, while under siege from the British. Expect guns and grenades.
Marc Green, University of York Audio Lab
Marc Green is a third-year PhD student at the University of York AudioLab. His research is focused on environmental soundscapes, with a view to utilising techniques from machine listening and spatial audio in their analysis. Using Sennheiser AMBEO technology, he has developed an AR app that could assist urban planners, researchers and architects in creating more positive acoustic environments for people to live and work in.
Damian Murphy, University of York
Damian Murphy is a Professor of Sound and Music Computing in the Department of Electronic Engineering at the University of York, where he has been a member of the academic staff since 2000. On top of that, he is the University Research Champion for Creativity. Damian was key in making links between the Sennheiser AMBEO programme and researchers at the University AudioLab to explore the potential for the creative use of augmented audio as part of our wider immersive audio research. One particular area of application is in the use of machine learning to understand and discern more information about our sound environment, and how augmenting this soundscape with additional audio content might change our perception of this soundscape. Damian’s PhD student Marc Green is currently leading on research in the area of spatial audio, machine learning and environmental soundscape and decided to look to how AMBEO technology might feature in his work.
Immersive Audio Podcast Episode 8 Damian Murphy
Eric Tarr, Belmont University
Dr. Eric Tarr is an associate professor of Audio Engineering Technology at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. He teaches classes on digital audio, computer programming, signal processing, and analysis. He received a Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Ohio State University. He received a B.A in Mathematics and a minor in Music from Capital University in Columbus, OH. He released an iOS app as a development partner with Sennheiser Electronic using the Smart AMBEO headset for VR/AR audio. The app simulates multiple types of hearing loss for use in hearing science research. It is called the Impaired Hearing Simulator (IHSIM) and is available for free from the iOS app store. He has developed software with several other audio companies including Apogee Electronics, Skywalker Sound, L.R. Baggs, and Harrison Consoles. His research has spanned across the topics of speech signal processing, musical robotics, sound spatialization, acoustic and electronic system modeling, hearing loss, perception and cognition.
This episode was produced by Felix Thompson and Oliver Kadel with the help of Abbigayle Bircham and Share O’Hare and included music by Knobs Bergamo, Isaac Joel and Yung Koolade.
In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel is joined by Helena McGill and Anna Wozniewicz of Noctvrnal via Skype from their office in LA.
Noctvrnal is an audio post-production studio based in Los Angeles. Co-founders Helena McGill and Anna Wozniewicz are visual storytellers with a background in sound design for narrative film. After noticing a lack of female entrepreneurs in audio and music production, the duo decided to launch Noctvrnal in January 2017 and have since expanded into the XR and immersive tech space. Noctvrnal is bringing an immersive sound design to the forefront of virtual and augmented reality by pushing the boundaries of current techniques to create a more visceral experience. The team is passionate about creating new worlds through sound, and their work has been featured at MIT, USC, and VRLA.
In this episode, they chat about the beginning of Noctvrnal, the advancement of the immersive technology, and talk about the importance of diversity in the creative industries.
In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel sits down with Tom Szirtes, the founder of Mbryonic.
Mbryonic is a London-based digital studio that create cutting edge virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and other digital content. They work with a wide variety of companies from Amazon to Essex Council to Gazelli Art House. Tom founded Mbryonic with a simple mission, to apply his creative and technical skillset to innovate business and artistic applications of technology.
Before Mbryonic, Tom has had years of experience as a lead developer and manager in the AAA gaming and telecommunications industry working for companies like Sega Europe, Square Enix and Orange.
Alongside this career, Szirtes is an established music producer, DJ and label owner. His music output spans over a decade, some fifty records and numerous international performances. This creativity is at the heart of Mbryonic as well. For Szirtes, the technology always serves creativity not the other way around.
On this episode, Oliver and Tom discuss the ways that virtual reality technology could enhance the experience of listening to music.
In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel is joined by Sinan Bökesoy via Skype from Istanbul.
Sinan is a composer, developer and sound installation artist. He has an engineering degree from the Technical University of Istanbul and a PhD in computer music from the University of Paris. His Cosmosƒ stochastic synthesiser is one of the products of his research done during the PhD studies and is one of the rare examples that such research becomes available as an industry tool in the professional music scene.
Today, Sinan talks about composing with digital synthesisers, his work at SonicLab and the creation of Cosmosƒ.
In this episode of The Immersive Audio Podcast, host Oliver is joined by Darren Emerson who is producer, director and co-founder of VR City and East City Films.
Recorded in Christmas 2018, during the production of interactive documentary ‘Common Ground’, which recently had its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival 2019, Darren discusses the challenges of devising engaging and innovated work and what it takes to push the medium forward in a highly competitive industry. He talks to us about his journey into VR, his earlier VR documentaries “Indefinite” and “Witness 360:7/7”, and the challenges of running a business.
We also learn about how funding has developed for creatives and how the availability of financial support is helping to expand and grow the industry, enabling people to use new technology to be able to break rules and to push the boundaries, creating new and exciting ways of storytelling.
