Pro audio giants d&b audiotechnik and DiGiCo recently entered a new partnership to ‘advance the accessibility and ease of use’ of the former’s immersive audio Soundscape system. Headliner hears from d&b product manager Georg Stummer to find out what this new partnership means for audiences and FOH engineers.
The new partnership will see a dedicated Soundscape User Interface fully integrated into the surface of all DiGiCo SD and Quantum consoles, offering FOH engineers the ability to control Soundscape object parameters on the DS100 on the consoles.
“At d&b, we work in constant collaboration and consultation with our users and partners in the industry,” said Stummer. “Because of the fast adoption of Soundscape by the creative community, we have seen tremendous growth across all areas of live entertainment and corporate events.
“Seeing the ways that the systems are used in the field, it has become quite clear to us that with immersive applications in particular, the established boundaries between different workflows, assigned responsibilities, and the operation of individual devices along the audio signal chain are blurring. That means that intuitive operation and flexible, easy access to parameters of the entire audio system are becoming essential for engineers and creatives.
“This collaboration with DiGiCo has allowed us to develop a new kind of user interface that provides the front of house engineer with direct and intuitive access, including the operation of positioning the parameters of Soundscape's sound objects within the DiGiCo SD and Quantum consoles workflow.”
The partnership has made it possible to replace the generic OSC control for the DS100 on DiGiCo consoles with a Soundscape control interface, integrating new features such as free assignment of DS100 sound objects and different mapping areas for each channel strip of the console. All parameters and assignments of the Soundscape User Interface can be stored and recalled with the console Snapshot memory.
Furthermore, this integration can be expanded for bi-directional communication between the console and DS100, via the d&b software bridge (Remote Protocol Bridge) while also supporting setup with two DS100s by controlling two DS100s in sync within a redundancy setup or up to 128 sound objects on two different DS100 from one console.
“This partnership makes the advanced immersive capabilities of Soundscape more accessible and enables FOH engineers to work in their preferred mixing and automation environment,” Stummer continued, highlighting the key benefits now available to customers. “Through this console integration, Soundscape can become an intuitive part of their creative work and design repertoire, and can be operated and automated in the DiGiCo workflow in the same way that channel-based application parameters can.”
He also elaborated on the new opportunities the partnership will open up in the market.
“It is important to us at d&b to make the transition between the different system concepts channel-based and object-based, as smooth and simple as possible. This integration makes it even easier for existing productions to take advantage of the creative opportunities that Soundscape offers and to integrate Soundscape into the production setup.”
So what does the coming together of these two pro audio giants say about the increased demand for immersive technologies in live events?
“We are seeing a shift in technology and system concepts to an extent that could not have been imagined a short time ago,” said Stummer. ”I don't just mean the change from L/R to five arrays in front - but the paradigm shift that is taking place: the focus is now firmly on creating meaningful experiences instead of just broadcasting/transmitting sound.
“This shift is being powered by new algorithm-based processing, network-based system topology, software-forced workstreams, etc. This evolution of expectations is not just about high-end productions, which have already embraced the new technology, adapted ways of working and expect exceptional sound. We see the trend that Soundscape is becoming increasingly relevant for everyone else. We are quite confident that in the near future immersive will not just be a standard application for top end productions, but will become a focus for all types and sizes of events and venues. We see the adoption of immersive systems as the new standard.”
“At DiGiCo we recognize that immersive sound technology is gaining rapid industry acceptance and represents an exciting future for our industry. We want to ensure that FoH engineers and sound designers can access this technology at their fingertips as a normal part of their workflow,” commented Austin Freshwater, MD at DiGiCo. “We are proud to partner with d&b to provide a seamless and efficient way to integrate Soundscape into show programming and operation with our consoles.”