Immersive audio is not a new concept. For years, Hollywood has loosely thrown the term around to describe the audio soundtracks of its movies and home videos.
Until recently, however, the term was derived more from marketing than from technology. But less than a decade ago, Dolby introduced its Atmos object-based surround format to the commercial cinema industry.
A few years later Dolby introduced a residential version of Atmos for home theater applications.
Today, fueled by the residential market’s rapid adoption of Atmos and other similar formats from DTS and Auro-3D has resulted in consumers wanting immersive audio from more than just movies their movies—they also want to hear immersive audio at concerts, museum exhibits, theme parks and even corporate events.
Immersive Audio Experience Category is Growing
Responding to feed the public’s appetite for better audio in venues beyond commercial cinemas, a growing number of audio and infrastructure manufacturers are developing audio products to meet the demand for these 3D audio formats.
Now an increasing number of loudspeaker companies that include JBL Professional, L-Acoustics, Martin Audio and Meyer Sound are developing immersive audio systems that integrate into a range of environments.
Related: Learn more about the immersive audio opportunity for integrators
Supporting these flexible loudspeaker solutions are a number of companies that are providing the processing for these state-of-the-art audio products. A few of those companies include Astro Spatial Audio, Dolby Laboratories and JBL Professional.
In addition, manufacturers such as TTA are providing infrastructure solutions to enable these systems to roll out on a large scale.
Click here to see the slideshow of nine popular products in the commercial audio market that are helping to deliver an immersive audio experience in a range of commercial environments.
