ITU achieves major breakthrough in audio standards

The International Telecommunications Union has announced a draft Recommendation for next-generation ‘immersive’ and ‘personalized’ audio systems for television and radio.

A number of new techniques have been developed that will heighten the experience and bring it to a new level, while allowing the audience to personalize their experience. Now, Study Group 6 has developed a system for the next-generation ‘immersive’ and ‘personalized’ audio system, which will allow TV audiences to be ‘‘enveloped’ in the sound as it traces the source of the audio track both laterally and vertically across the screen. Deciding which technique the ITU-R should specify has been one of the hottest subjects of the audio world for many years. In the new approach, the audio landscape that surrounds the viewer is delivered either by supplying more channels of audio that can be ‘rendered’ for use by any additional loudspeakers that may be present, or by delivering audio elements that are ‘dynamically rendered’ into the existing speakers.