Dirac Joins Forces with Google Open Media and Vaudeville Sound at the 2024 AES Conference on Automotive Audio to Showcase World’s First Automotive Use Case for Immersive Audio Model and Format (IAMF)
June 26, 2024
Dirac will co-exhibit with Google Open Media and Vaudeville Sound to demonstrate the emerging possibilities unlocked by leveraging the IAMF inside vehicle cabins.
UPPSALA, Sweden, June 26, 2024 — Swedish digital audio pioneer Dirac today announced a collaboration with Google Open Media and leading sound designer and mixer Vaudeville Sound to produce the world’s first in-car demo leveraging the new Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF), a new spatial audio container format for immersive audio experiences ranging from User Generated Content (UGC) to professional audio such as music and films.
A demo car featuring a combination of IAMF, Dirac’s industry-leading automotive software solutions, and a Vaudeville Sound audio mix will be on display at the AES Automotive Audio Conference 2024, June 26-28, in Gothenburg, Sweden.
According to Hendrik Hermann, Vice President Automotive at Dirac, the AES demo showcases the incredible sound opportunities afforded by the IAMF when leveraged inside vehicle cabins and paired with Dirac’s award-winning sound optimization solutions.
“The car can be an excellent environment for experiencing immersive audio, with high end automotive sound systems often featuring 20 or more loudspeakers for highly optimized sound quality. However, no matter how sophisticated the system, there are certain acoustic challenges that hardware alone cannot overcome,” Hermann said.
Hermann continued, “By enabling all the speakers in a car to work intelligently together and co-correct each other’s impulse response, Dirac provides the best possible canvas for drivers and passengers to experience an engrossing spatial audio experience that will redefine the driving journey. We encourage all AES attendees to check out our demo and experience the world’s first taste of what the IAMF can do for cars around the globe.”
First published by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) in November 2023 and jointly developed by AOMedia IAMF Working Group members, IAMF enables the storage and delivery of multi-channel and ambisonic audio in an IAMF file, which can then be mixed into an MP4 file with video.
This combination of multi-channel audio and ambisonics is intended to power the creation of truly immersive, spatial audio experiences in consumer products.
IAMF is open source, so any manufacturer can begin implementing the technology in their devices, allowing for the playback of ambisonics and multi-channel IAMF audio files in cars, TVs, speakers, soundbars, mobile phones and more. It’s the first open-source audio specification published by the AOM.
Given their expertise in immersive sound design and mixing, Vaudeville Sound was tasked with creating a combined multi-channel and ambisonic IAMF audio mix, specifically for AES, to showcase the new audio experiences the IAMF can deliver in a car.
Dirac then leverages MIMO mixed phase impulse response correction and other patented technologies to ensure Vaudeville’s mix sounds its best.
Vehicle speakers often interfere with each other to cause distortion and reduce audio clarity – and systems with more speakers create greater interference. A car cabin’s shape and materials can also lead to unwanted sound coloration, resulting in muddy, booming sound that makes it difficult to discern where sound is coming from.
Dirac software removes these unwanted cabin effects to envelope drivers and passengers in a high-quality, IAMF-defined, immersive audio experience.
“As vehicles continue evolving to become quieter, more autonomous, and interconnected, new opportunities are emerging for automakers to craft audio experiences that forge deeper connections between vehicles, drivers, passengers, and their surroundings,” said Jani Huoponen, IAMF product lead at Google. “By collaborating with Dirac on this world-first IAMF automotive demo, we’ve created the ideal foundation for AES attendees to experience the wonder of multichannel and ambisonic content just as it was intended from respected creators like Vaudeville Sound.”
Dirac’s automotive audio solutions are currently used by leading automotive brands Volvo, Polestar, Genesis, NIO, BYD, and Hongqi among many others.
For more information on Dirac, click here. For more information on Vaudeville Sound, click here. For more information on IAMF, click here. For high-res images, click here.
About Dirac:
Dirac develops digital software solutions that deliver enhanced audio experiences for every sound system, in any environment. Primarily focused on the automotive and home audio sectors, Dirac collaborates with both manufacturers and consumers. Headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden, Dirac is a global enterprise that is supported by R&D centers in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Bangalore, India and a strong representation in Greater China, Germany, Japan, Korea, and the USA.