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Walk To Westerbork, Escape To Shanghai and Letters From Drancy x 3 VR experiences will be showcased at SXSW2024 this spring in Austin, Texas.

All three VR films that East City Films produced and created with the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center will be exhibited as part of the VR spotlight at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

This is a chance to see:

WalkToWesterbork directed by Mary Matheson, and featuring incredible Holocaust survivor Rodi Glass, and a story set in Holland and France. Walk to Westerbork is a story of luck, defiance and love for family. Showing the capacity of the human spirit to not only survive but thrive.

EscapeToShanghai directed by Charlotte Mikkelborg, is the story of Doris Fogel and her mother’s escape from Nazi Germany to Shanghai, China. Doris sheds light on a lesser-known, but important part of the Holocaust never to be forgotten. Escape to Shanghai captures the fierce perseverance of Doris and her family as refugees fighting for survival.

LettersFromDrancy directed by Darren Emerson, is the story of Marion Deichmann as she recounts her daring childhood journey across the borders of Northern Europe during WW2 with her mother Alice, her painful separation from her mother, her escape from the Nazis with the help of the French Resistance in Paris, and her survival of D-Day in Normandy.

#SXSWpanel!  Rodi Glass and Marion Deichmann, two of the Holocaust survivors featured in the film, will be taking part in a special panel alongside East City Films and the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center talking about the journey of making these films, and the importance of using new technologies to secure these stories are told to generations to come.

David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies VR series nominated for the Motion Picture Sound Editors 71st Annual Golden Reel Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing

Very excited to share that David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies 3-part VR series has just been nominated for the Motion Picture Sound Editors 71st Annual Golden Reel Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing, in the Non-Theatrical Documentary Category. https://www.mpse.org/

Discover how insects, reptiles and birds escape the grips of gravity and take to the skies in this immersive series. The series will take you on a journey through the astonishing 300-million-year dynasty of flight in exceptional 3D 180 VR shot in 8k at 60fps and spatial sound. Available now on Meta Quest.

 

Our Head of Audio Experience Oliver Kadel at the DOK Leipzig Exchange XR Conference in Germany doing a keynote presentation on Spatial Audio for Augmented Reality

We’ll cover the general approach to sound design for AR. We’ll look at the case study, the recent Apple Design Awards finalist: covering the authoring for hardware device playback vs binaural audio on headphones, balancing the sense of realism and authenticity with the entertainment factor and mitigating the differences in scale between the visuals and sound, and we’ll touch on how AI machine learning starting to shape the personalised listening experience.

“DOK Exchange is DOK Leipzig’s networking and inspiration programme on interactive and immersive storytelling with a focus on XR works and the community’s sustainable development.”

Please come to say hello if you’re attending and interested in these topics.

For more information visit -> https://www.dok-leipzig.de/en/dok-exchange-xr

David Attenborough’s Conquest VR series wins the International Sound Awards 2023

We are excited to share that David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies 3-part VR series just won the International Sound Awards 2023.

Congratulations to the incredible teams at Alchemy Immersive, Atlantic Productions. Lewis Ball, Lou Doye, Iona McEwan, Richard Lester, Bhaumik Patel, Anna Taylor, Emma Rees and many more! Shout out to Hyunkook Lee at Applied Psychoacoustics Lab (APL). Produced in collaboration with Meta, Zoo VFX and 1.618 DIGITAL.

https://www.international-sound-awards.com/david-attenboroughs-conquest-of-the-skies/

Discover how insects, reptiles and birds escape the grips of gravity and take to the skies in this immersive series. The series will take you on a journey through the astonishing 300-million-year dynasty of flight in exceptional 3D 180 VR shot in 8k at 60fps and spatial sound.

Available now on Meta Quest -> https://creator.oculus.com/community/2319730815002569/

We’ve just published a paper on Audio for Extended Realities for the Convergence in The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, SAGE Publication.

Creative and technical development of immersive audio is often a function of evolving toolsets and distribution platforms, and the associated workflow is far from standardised. This paper forms the context for such audio workflow – one that draws from precursor technologies such as audio for games and virtual reality and develops this into an outline taxonomy that is representative of the state of the art, and forward facing towards the evolution of the technology.

The paper features a series of case studies based on multiple documentary series as the virtual reality and mixed reality experiences by Sir David Attenborough: Museum Alive, Micro Monsters, First Life VR, Museum Alive AR and Kingdom of Plants produced by Alchemy Immersive, Atlantic Productions and Zoo VFX – the body of works I’ve been proudly involved with as a supervising 3D Sound Designer and Mixer over the past several years as part of 1.618 DIGITAL.

We want to say a big thanks to my co-author and principal editor Professor Justin Paterson for his immense contribution to this publication. Special mention to an incredible team at Alchemy: Elliot Graves, Richard Lester, Lou Doye, Iona McEwan, Bhaumik Patel, Ceri Passmore and many more…

Audio for extended realities: A case study informed exposition -> https://shorturl.at/bovw8

All of the mentioned VR content is available to watch on Meta Quest -> https://www.meta.com/en-gb/experiences/?utm_source=lnkd.in&utm_medium=oculusredirect

Immersive Audio Podcast Episode 59 – Hyunkook Lee (A Conceptual Model of Immersive Experience in Extended Reality)

Summary

In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel and Monica Bolles are joined by the director of the Applied Psychoacoustics Laboratory at the University of Huddersfield – Hyunkook Lee.

Dr Hyunkook Lee is a Reader (i.e., Associate Professor) in Music Technology and the Director of the Applied Psychoacoustics Laboratory, University of Huddersfield, U.K. His research over the last 10 years contributed to advancing the understanding of three-dimensional (3D) audio perception and developing new 3D capture and reproduction techniques. He has invented various psychoacoustics-based 3D microphone arrays including PCMA-3D and ESMA-3D, whose principle for height microphone configuration has been adopted for Schoep’s award-winning ORTF-3D array. Recently, he has been focusing on researching and developing perceptually optimised techniques of 6DoF audio rendering for extended reality applications. He is also currently leading a multidisciplinary project that connects immersive arts and technologies. From 2006 to 2010, he was a Senior Research Engineer in audio R&D with LG Electronics, South Korea, where he participated in the standardisations of MPEG audio codecs and developed spatial audio algorithms for mobile devices. He is an Associate Technical Editor of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (AES). He co-edited a recently published book “3D Audio” (Routledge). Hyunkook is a Fellow of the AES, Vice-Chair of the AES High-Resolution Audio Technical Committee, and has recently been elected as a Governor of the AES for 2022-2023.   Dr Lee received a B. Mus (Hons) degree in music and sound recording (Tonmeister) from the University of Surrey, U.K., in 2002 and a PhD in spatial audio psychoacoustics from the Institute of Sound Recording (IoSR), the University of Surrey in 2006.

In this episode, we discuss Hyunkook’s recent research on “A Conceptual Model of Immersive Experience in Extended Reality” and its influence on spatial audio.

Listen to Podcast

Show Notes

Hyunkook Lee – https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/persons/hyunkook-lee

360 Reality Audio Creative Suite – https://360ra.com/

IMERSA – https://www.imersa.org/item/immersive-audio

University of Surrey, Music & Sound Recording (Tonmeister) – https://www.surrey.ac.uk/undergraduate/music-and-sound-recording-tonmeister

University of Huddersfield, Music Technology – https://www.hud.ac.uk/inspire/musictechnology/

University of Huddersfield, Applied Psychoacoustics Lab – www.hud.ac.uk/apl

Applied Psychoacoustics Lab on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/applied.psychoacoustics.lab/

A Conceptual Model of Immersive Experience in Extended Reality Paper – https://psyarxiv.com/sefkh/

Conceptual Model of Immersive Experience in Extended Reality Online Lecture – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoSTV-WVeeI

Our Patreon

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to show your support please consider becoming a Patreon. Not only are you supporting us, but you will also get special access to bonus content and much more.

Find out more on our official Patreon page – https://www.patreon.com/immersiveaudiopodcast

We thank you kindly in advance!

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: surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3Y9B2MJ Thank you!

Credits

This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Emma Rees and included music by Rhythm Scott.

Immersive Audio Podcast Episode 57 – Hugo Larin (Flux:: Immersive – SPAT Revolution)

Summary

In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel and Monica Bolles are joined by the ambassador and key collaborator of the FLUX:: Immersive – SPAT Revolution audio engine project Hugo Larin from Montreal, Canada.

Hugo Larin has deep roots in audio mixing, design, and operation as well as in networked control and data distribution.  He launched his career in production equipment rentals and in-studio recording. His passion for technology and for the entertainment production environment quickly drove him toward the live production sphere. His activities in this realm include a number of mixing, operation, and technical director roles on a variety of high-profile productions and events.

In this episode, Hugo discusses the technical capabilities of the SPAT Revolution engine along with the entire fleet of FLUX:: Immersive tools and we talk about the newly launched ADM OSC initiative.

For our podcast listeners, Flux:: Immersive are giving special access to extended licenses for -> Spat Revolution Software

Listen to Podcast

Show Notes

Flux:: – https://www.flux.audio/

Flux:: Immersive – https://www.flux.audio/immersive/

Spat Revolution – https://www.flux.audio/project/spat-revolution/

Ircam HEar  – https://www.flux.audio/project/ircam-hear-v3/

LANDR – https://www.landr.com

Ircam – https://www.ircam.fr/

ADM-OSC – https://doc.flux.audio/en_US/spat_revolution_doc/Ecosystem_&_integration_ADM_OSC.html

ADM-OSC GitHub – https://github.com/immersive-audio-live/ADM-OSC

FLUX:: Immersive User Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/fluximmersive.usergroup

Our Patreon

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to show your support please consider becoming a Patreon. Not only are you supporting us, but you will also get special access to bonus content and much more.

Find out more on our official Patreon page – https://www.patreon.com/immersiveaudiopodcast

We thank you kindly in advance!

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: surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3Y9B2MJ Thank you!

Credits

This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Emma Rees and included music by Rhythm Scott.

Double Emmy Awards nomination for Micro Monsters with David Attenborough

We’re incredibly proud to announce that Micro Monsters with David Attenborough has been nominated for two Emmy awards! With nominations for Outstanding Interactive Media and Outstanding Sound. Very grateful for this recognition at the highest level! Huge congratulations to all nominees and the entire amazing team at Alchemy Immersive, Atlantic Productions, and Oculus VR for bringing this project to life.

1.618 Digital Team

Immersive Audio Podcast Episode 55 – Varun Nair (Two Big Ears & Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation)

Summary

In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel is joined by Varun Nair from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Varun has spent the past 15 years building technologies, products, teams, and companies in Silicon Valley, UK, and India. Most recently he was head of AR/VR audio software at Facebook. Prior to that, he co-founded Two Big Ears, an immersive audio technology company, which was acquired by Facebook in 2016.

In this episode, Varun shares the story of the creation of the Two Big Ears start-up and the subsequent journey. We dive into spatial audio tech and the future opportunities it presents.

Listen to Podcast

Show Notes

Varun Nair LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/varun-nair-tech/?originalSubdomain=uk

Two Big Ears –  https://www.facebook.com/TwoBigEars/

The Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation – https://facebook360.fb.com/spatial-workstation/

Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation Public group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/audio360support/permalink/2314771132087082/?comment_id=2314999128730949&reply_comment_id=2319634628267399

Our Patreon

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to show your support please consider becoming a Patreon. Not only are you supporting us, but you will also get special access to bonus content and much more.

Find out more on our official Patreon page – https://www.patreon.com/immersiveaudiopodcast

We thank you kindly in advance!

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: surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3Y9B2MJ Thank you!

Credits

This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Emma Rees and included music by Rhythm Scott.