True Spherical Surround: When?

[JediJoker]

At present, consumer "immersive" surround formats are limited to hemispherical—that is, sounds can be panned 360° in the horizontal plane, but only 180° in the vertical plane, i.e. upwards. Generally speaking, as far as realism goes, this is probably sufficient: we spend most of our time on the ground, with sounds generally only reaching us from this hemisphere. With audio and visual media, though, realism is not always the goal. Even if it is the goal, there are certain situations—especially in gaming—where sounds would realistically reach our ears from below us. For example, think of a game like one from the Halo series, where you can fly an open-air vehicle like the Banshee.

Now, there are obvious practical considerations in both the consumer and the professional space that make vertical "depth" channels difficult to implement, though not entirely impossible. The easiest implementations would be in movie theatres, where there is sufficient space to add channels in the lower corners of the walls. New dedicated mix rooms with acoustically transparent floors (like those found in anechoic chambers) could be built by those with the means. That just leaves the home, where similar to in-ceiling speakers, in-floor speakers could be used. And, of course, binaural versions of mixes with objects panned downward are already possible.

So, do you think we'll ever see spherical immersive audio? If so, when?

 

[CINERAMAX]

You can build a theater with a Zeppelin catwalk like grated floor and stick speakers underneath. Somehow it seems like an uphill battle to promote, but it would work on some positions.

 

[Electric Moo]

I pity the soul who has to clean up all the popcorn & drink spillage down there!

Not to mention keeping the speakers clear of debris