Sony’s 360 Reality Audio now supports live-streams and live concerts
The first concert to support real-time distribution of spatial audio by songstress Hikaru Utada, happening in early 2023.
Sony's proprietary spatial audio technology now supports real-time distribution, which basically means you can watch live concerts virtually with spatial audio enabled from the source.
Sony has improved its proprietary spatial audio technology further by enabling real-time distribution of 360 Reality Audio, said the Japanese electronics giant in an official statement.
360 Reality Audio works just like spatial audio, where audio playback feels positional and distance-based. But, Sony’s version came a good two years before Apple’s version arrived on Apple Music.
Sony’s self-proclaimed “real-time live distribution technology with full object-based spatial sound” refers to additional live-streaming and live concert support for 360 Reality Audio, making it possible for spatial audio to be broadcasted simultaneously time as a real-life concert happens. To that end, the Japanese makers have called this variant “360 Reality Audio Live”.
To achieve this, Sony’s 360 Reality Audio production tools were upgraded with a new sound-processing algorithm that’s effective at compressing audio data as it’s transmitted from venue to server to user. Additionally, Sony worked with Streamsoft Inc. to add other features like real-time communication between concert artists and viewers, and viewer-to-viewer.
Hikaru Utada. Credit: Sony Music.
Sony chose to flex this new capability by picking Hikaru Utada’s online concert, 40 Dai-wa Iroiro, scheduled for 19 January 2023. The event is free to online goers, but up to the first 10,000 attendees only.
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