The ongoing uptake of Dolby Atmos, Auro 3D and related formats has stimulated a public’s appetite for a more involving sound experience – initially in cinema but more recently in broadcasting. In the absence of any defined standard, several broadcasters have already stated that some form of object-based audio would be the preferred option in the future. Canada’s leading multimedia company, Bell Media, has decided that preparing for future possibilities was extremely important.
Establishing what is possible and practical with the introduction of height channels was not something that could be left to chance, so in March 2015, a special mixing room was created to evaluate what could be achieved. The Dolby Atmos workflow is well defined and provides a route to an object-based, multi-speaker end result. The real question was finding a practical solution to record the program and do the postproduction. Bell Media owned CTV has been using Merging Technologies’ Ovation Audio Server for a number of years and the operators were familiar with Pyramix being the preparation tool. The upcoming versions of Pyramix and Ovation were planned to include an effective 3D panning solution that seemed to offer what is needed.
Leading the project is Bell Media Senior Manager for Broadcast Audio & Post Production Operations, Michael Nunan. He believes that the main goal is to understand the aesthetic more than the technology. It is essential to understand how ‘more than 5.1 systems’ with height information can best serve the pictures. If UHD pictures with extended audio is to be part of a premium offering to the public, it must offer clear benefits to the subscriber.
The publication of the ATSC 3.0 standard identifies Dolby’s AC4 as a practical means of delivering immersive audio. Canada is not bound to follow that standard yet, but for practical reasons it would be surprising if that decision is not ratified in the near future. ATSC 3.0 has added a little more urgency to the program since it gives a clear target to aim for.
The room was set up using beta versions of Pyramix and Ovation but it was already clear that Merging was offering a package that was far in advance of other DAW manufacturers. The Pyramix 10/Ovation 6 releases plus the latest refinements and the addition of a 3D mouse is ‘game changing’ according to Nunan: ‘Our experience with plug in solutions on other DAWs had been very disappointing and we were looking for something intuitive and immediate,’ he says.
‘Any increase in production cost needs to be minimised, so clunky technology is not what we need. Merging are offering something robust and consistent already and although we have a number of practical hurdles to overcome before this is a commercially viable solution, this is by far the best system we have seen to date. The fact that we already have had a great experience with Ovation during these past years, gives us the confidence that Merging will continue to develop these tools.’
Another attraction of the Merging solution is that it is format agnostic in the sense that the speaker configuration is flexible. This means that it not only copes with any existing delivery format, but it can also adapt to any future changes. It is already clear that Bell Media will need to export programmes in MPEG-H and in other formats for Japan, for example. Further, Bell Media has invested heavily in Lawo consoles for its major facilities, so Merging’s adoption of the Ravenna/AES67 Audio-over-IP technology fits perfectly into the studio infrastructure.
This experiment is not confined to the lab and has already been used for parallel recordings of some prestigious sporting events and awards ceremonies, where very high track counts were used as well as the 3D elements. This has already proven that it not only works, but also there was no major budget overhead with this mode of operation. Practical experience gained in real production environments will be a hugely valuable step in getting a fast and smooth start when UHD kicks off.
‘We know we have some way to go to make this a completely practical everyday solution, but having this panner now makes it feasible for us to make a meaningful evaluation,’ says Nunan. ‘We need to trust what we are hearing and Merging has already delivered the tool that achieves that. There is another plus in that we enjoy working with the Merging team and the guys from HHB Canada. They listen rather than just try to sell you things.’
