The majority of virtual reality (VR) news this week has come from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2016) in San Francisco, California. But the South by Southwest (SXSW) 2016 festival is also taking place this week in Austin, Texas, featuring a bunch of VR experiences and exhibitors. Visualise an award-winning, UK-based production company that specialises in VR filmmaking and immersive experiences, has partnered with audio specialists Sennheiser to showcase a prototype VR mic at the event.
For SXSW 2016 Sennheiser has unveiled a strategic focus on 3D immersive audio, with the prototype mic being one of the first products to be revealed. Visualise was given access to the first working model and used it in both client work and their own R&D projects, including its ongoing Spitalfields Life project.
The mic captures high quality audio in four quadrants, creating an omnidirectional sound field that translates the positions of any sound sources around the viewer in VR.
Henrik Oppermann, Head of Sound at Visualise, said: “Spatial sound has always played a significant role at Visualise. Being approached by Sennheiser to test their new equipment in the field is a fantastic opportunity to be part of the early pioneers providing audio solution in the world of VR. Sharing our skills and experience to help progress an already great product is very exciting for us and we are looking forward to be part of establishing an audio-post workflow for VR.”
Daniel Sennheiser and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser, co-CEOs at Sennheiser added: “3D immersive audio is the new frontier of excellence, set to revolutionise the listening experience for users across a broad range of applications, from virtual reality gaming to audio recording and broadcasting,” added Daniel Sennheiser and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser, co-CEOs at Sennheiser.
Equipment like the VR microphone will likely become a staple tool in any live action VR production, and Sennheiser is planning to launch the device in Q3 2016, followed in 2017 by a bundle with the same mic and a software plug-in for post-production of VR content.
VRFocus will continue to follow the progress of Sennheiser’s VR developments, reporting back any new updates.
