The limitation of one or two speakers at the front was first addressed by the film industry and Pyramix has always tracked the trends of that industry. What is new is that the demands for a more involving sound experience has spread to public buildings, arenas, live events, broadcast, games and recorded music. In the process, significant variations in the number and configuration of speaker systems has superseded any format like 5.1. There has never been more of a requirement for large channel counts and multiple output busses; both of which can be easily managed in Pyramix and Ovation.

Once you start arranging speakers in virtual rooms, you need 3D panning to move the sounds within that space. This has been a feature of our products for some years now and we work with an increasing number of plug-in manufacturers to address the specific needs of the sound designer.

Immersive audio experiences cannot always take advantage of many speakers. The requirements of emerging technologies such as VR and AR are very different from a large museum. The need to provide this experience may well depend on encoding the signal to suit headphones or a broadcast standard, so just having a 3D panning engine is not enough. Merging products need to be part of specific workflows that address these applications.

This is a fast-moving field but we have already demonstrated the generation of master files with OBA (Object-Based Audio) metadata according to the Audio Definition Model (ADM) or MPEG-H 3D Audio. Working with powerful partners such as Fraunhofer IIS and IRCAM, Merging is leading the way with these workflows. Other techniques like Higher Order Ambisonics are needed for applications like VR, and there are plug-ins available to ensure that efficient post production speeds can be maintained. If you are involved with any immersive sound project, there is likely to be a Merging solution already or one under development.

Merging has played a central role in immersive sound for decades.

With the emergence of new formats such as Dolby Atmos and amazing renderers such as Flux SPAT, Merging decided to continue with its promise to deliver the most versatile tools for immersive and carefully studied how to best provide Pyramix 25th and Ovation functionalities to support content creators working with Dolby Atmos and Flux Spat.

For example, we participated to a joint effort with FLUX to standardize some OSC vocabulary so that panning of objects in SPAT can be streamlined and made easy.

We have also developed a unique way to bridge the 7.1.2 bed bus limitation of the Dolby Atmos renderer to help those mixing natively in 7.1.4, 9.1.6, etc…

Partnership with industry leaders and pioneers is at the heart of our activity.