Invision UK partners reveal the secrets of immersive audio

Invision UK’s Immersive Audio seminar at Dolby's European HQ was rich full of useful tips and professional advice. The day was headlined by Trinnov Audio, with a very in-depth presentation by Tom Garrett that that set the day up brilliantly. Garrett covered all the bases for the optimal home cinema design to achieve true immersive audio using different speaker layouts depending on the room size, hight and the number of seats. He also demonstrated the recently released Altitude 16 system.

At the end of the presentation, Trinnov CEO Arnaud Laborie thanked Dolby for the collaboration the two companies have engaged over the years. Garrett pointed out that Trinnov is one of the few companies that has a double license from Dolby, as both a vendor and a developer

Jan Anderson (pictured below), product manager at Procella Audio, walked attendees through the company’s history. Interestingly enough, the very first Procella Audio loudspeaker was designed in 2005 by Anders Uggelberg and Gerben Van Duyl, for a new DTS Theatre located at the DTS Europe headquarters in Twyford.

There were high expectations from the 30 seat DTS cinema. Superior audio and video capabilities from both cinema and home entertainment sources were a must. It also had to work in every existing DTS surround sound format. Adding to this, the room had to be capable of taking in new technologies, as they would come along, such as the then expected Digital Cinema (DCI) standard and new optical disc formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

“These were the first speakers designed to do reference level,” explained Anderson, who has a film, music and sound design background, and was a Procella client before joining the company two years ago. “Today, Procella-designed constant directivity waveguides deliver controlled dispersion at all frequencies for excellent sound on every seat,” he added.

Next up was an inspiring presentation by Artnovion founder, Jorge Castro (pictured below). Artnovion started only three years ago, in 2015 in Paços de Ferreira, the furniture capital of Portugal. This rich industrial area of Portugal also produces footwear, metal, fashion, and agriculture. Artnovion designs its products with a mixture of artisanal hand as well as the latest machinery.

Castro shared how he started designing acoustic solutions: “I  first tried my hand at being a musician, but I wasn’t brilliant,“ confessed Castro “Then I tried to be a sound engineer… didn’t get great results. Finally, I decided to become a scientist studying about acoustics,” he said and on the company’s products, there is a clear scientific approach to design, installation and performance.

Talking about acoustics, Castro commented, “Speakers are like race cars and rooms are like race tracks. If the track is not optimal, the performance of the car will not be either.”

Having the right acoustics in a room can improve a speaker performance by 20 per cent. Artnovion uses advanced and manufacturing technology as well as professional installation solutions to facilitate the installation of its acoustic solutions. It even has an app, Impulso pro, to help with the room design.

“One of the most difficult sounds to control are those that are low frequency, which is usually a consequence of a faulty room design or room dimension,” said Castro. “This is why we created the Bass Trap, a low-frequency absorber, usually strategically placed around the room to target what each room might need.”

Besides the Bass Trap, Artnovion’s also has the Sub-trap, which allows installers to tune the unit to exactly what is needed. It includes a panel that can completely negate frequencies from as low as 40Hz. The Sub-trap can either be installed in corners or feature as a stand-alone unit.

Castro also introduced Artnovion’s Avalon Flow, a new line of multi-design hybrid panels - combining a high-performance acoustic core with a carefully calibrated diffuser design. This dual functionality breaks away from the old-school parameters of acoustic design, creating new paths to solve excessive reverberation and uneven sound fields. They're worth checking out.

Most of the presentations of the day were pointing at how all of the rooms and immersive sound design can come together using The Cinema Designer Software (TCD). TCD’s founder Guy Singleton (leading photo), showed live how a quotation with 3D CAD graphics, products specification, and visualisation can be created in a matter of minutes.

“The fact that you can almost instantly see how it all comes together can help you to predict a room and anticipate what you might encounter. By using the software you have the sabine reverberation equation, finding out what the RT values are; you can use D-Tools and select from a plethora of manufacturer’s products. Thirty seconds to build a 3D model and then you go into pillow puffing,” said Singleton.

TCD is available to users all over the world and currently has 2.5 thousand users. The software annual rental comes in three flavours: Silver, Gold or Platinum - or Media Room, Cinema Room and Cinema Room Pro as it is described on the website.

What will the future bring for TCD software users? Mobile-enabled VR, to allow you to look around a room without needing funny glasses, and a performance facts report at is being developed in collaboration with CEDIA.

The day passed very quickly, it was full of interesting content and participants had a chance to ask all relevant questions to the presenters. Next up is Invision’s May 1 Smart Home Innovation day, surely not to be missed.