d&b audiotechnik Updates Soundscape

d&b audiotechnik has announced new advanced features for its Soundscape immersive audio system, further developing the capability of the high-performance, multichannel toolkit for venues and events of all sizes.

Fueled by a dedication to customer experience as well as ensuring preparedness for events post lockdown, these latest software updates are optimised to further enhance users’ ability to deliver extraordinary acoustic experiences with the comprehensive Soundscape toolkit.

“At d&b we are planning ahead and ensuring the Soundscape platform is not only easy to deploy and accessible, but significantly advanced for when it’s possible to have events again,” said Georg Stummer, product manager, d&b audiotechnik.

“The features released today not only significantly increase the predictability and flexibility of Soundscape, but also the ease of implementation from small theatre productions to large, complex applications. We are constantly driven by customer feedback and these updates reflect the markets leading requests, ensuring we can further embed Soundscape as the industry standard in immersive sound and deliver further capabilities to our customers creative endeavors.”

A Soundscape system encompasses the DS100 Signal Engine, with comprehensive system configuration and matrix functionality that can operate in a standalone mode or be combined with one or both of two software modules, the En-Scene object-based positioning software, and the En-Space room-emulation software. The latest feature update includes significant developments for the En-Scene and En-Space tools.

The En-Scene software module is an object-based positioning tool for the 64 audio inputs on the DS100 Signal engine. The sound object routing control brings individual level adjustment and mute for each sound object within each section (Function Group) of a loudspeaker system, such as mains, front fill and outfill.

This control option offers a new level of flexibility for a diverse range of acoustic settings and multiple audience areas. Sound object routing ensures that a sound designer or mixer has ultimate control over the imaging and sound object performance as they relate to each Function Group in a distributed or immersive system.

In addition to sound object routing, the update delivers two new function group modes for En-Scene. Function groups are one of the primary features that elevate the flexibility of a d&b Soundscape system.

The new function group modes – ‘Delay line embedded’ and ‘Outfill embedded’ – support advanced 360° loudspeaker configurations.

This function group update addresses the increasing number of installations that use delay lines for the audience areas within a surround (360) Soundscape setup. These 360 setups use these delay lines either to distribute a higher number of small loudspeakers, or to enable immersive sound for larger audience areas.

En-Space room emulation software provides simple setup and operation to access premium quality acoustic emulations in an extremely cost-effective way. Suitable for a range of applications from advanced orchestral room treatments to virtual acoustic environments and theatrical effects, En-Space utilises the sonic signatures of some of the world's most acoustically renowned performance spaces and provides individual adjustment parameters to make acoustic dreams a reality, both indoors and outdoors.

With this update, En-Space now fully supports delay lines delivering room emulation on all loudspeaker function groups in a Soundscape loudspeaker system. The impulse response (IR) assignment has also been optimised for the simultaneous use of multiple instances of the same function group mode [e.g. Delay line] within one loudspeaker system.

This development makes it even easier to use En-Space in a wider range of applications with multiple delay lines, from theaters with several balconies to large open-air events.

“These latest Soundscape software updates are a significant step forward for designing and installing Soundscape systems,” concluded Stummer. “They ensure this immersive technology is designed to cater to the large variety of applications and audiences we expect to see at socially-distanced events this summer season and well into the future.”