6
7
8
9 6. Auro-3D mic rig: Different sizes of 3D microphones rigged for native Auro-3D recordings on set. Auro Technologies Creative Tool Suite: 7. Auro-Panner™: Panning in all three dimensions X, Y, and Z. A sophisticated internal audio connection technology bypasses the eight-channel bus limitation found in most current DAWs. The Auro-Panner effectively replaces the DAW’s panner and can be controlled from any hardware controller. 8-9. Auro-Codec® Encoder: Creating an Auro-encoded distribution master with either static or dynamic downmix coefficients. By using Auro’s advanced PCM-based codec technology, Auro-3D can be made available on all PCM-based media like DCPs for d-cinema or Blu-rays for home entertainment 10. Auro-Codec® Decoder: Decoding of any Auro-encoded content for playback and quality control.
40
winter 2015
CAS QUARTERLY
ing. When you add the fact that most people in this town are working in Pro Tools, it allows anybody with a small investment in speakers wired up into the format, monitor capability to listen in the format, and the plug-in the Auro3D Creative Tool Suite to create within Pro Tools. It’s a combination that any studio can go ahead and do. I’m an owner/operator so it’s me making all the decisions, and I saw the immersive opportunity to be an extension of the direction I’ve always liked working in—which is in surround. I did my first surround mix in 1982. And when I say surround, I don’t want that to be confused with some of the ‘younger’ people who say ‘you mixed 5.1 in 1982?’ No, it was Lt/Rt in ’82, and I’ve been really in love with surround as a format since. “After listening to Wilfried Van Baelen’s comments and observations, and looking at the toolset and his thought process, I was immediately won over. Passion was the reason we went ahead and became the first immersive dub stage in Los Angeles that also happened to be the first dub stage with the Auro-3D studio system in Hollywood. I foresaw it as being something we could use in storytelling to create a sonic atmosphere that would allow us to get more sound elements in the storytelling and be able to manage it within our normal workflow. For me, my studio, my workflow, and my fellow co-worker Chris Jacobson, CAS, it’s the best way, the best format, the easiest way to be creative carrying on The Dub Stage tradition.” The Auro-3D speaker layouts also include a height layer in the screen channels, bringing the total to six speakers behind the screen. Wilfried 10 explains that the reason behind this is that “more than 80% of the sound energy is coming from the screen, typically from only three screen channels (Left, Center, Right). So, many hundreds of sounds are coming in those three channels and it is not easy to bring the richness of