Tom Holman with a 10.2 surround-sound system in the Immersive Sound Laboratory of USC’s Integrated Media Systems Center.
Tomlinson Holman is best known as the guy who gave us the THX audio standard used in commercial cinemas and home theaters. THX was developed when Holman worked with Star Wars director George Lucas at Lucasfilm and was created to reproduce sound as the film director intended it to be heard. Holman hasn’t stopped looking for better ways to reproduce audio, though. He now runs THMLabs, which sells professional audio equipment. In addition, he is a professor of film sound at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, the chief scientist with auto equalization company Audyssey, and in his spare time promotes a 10.2 surround-sound system—which, yes, is supposed to be twice as good as 5.1.
Holman’s 10.2 system actually consists of 14 channels (16 with channels for the hearing and visually impaired). To get there, take a standard 5.1 surround-sound setup with three front speakers, two surround speakers and a subwoofer (the .1). Then add wide left and right front channels, upper left and right front channels, two more surrounds, a back surround (like those used in a 6.1 system) and another subwoofer.
Holman demonstrated the 10.2 system at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show, where it met with raves. But it still hasn’t caught on. Is this legendary sound innovator deterred? Not when we talked with him.
What’s the point of 10.2?
The thought is that it would be the top member of the [surround-sound] hierarchy. Our 10.2 is a platform for scaling from one environment to another, but also as the source for 7.1, 5.1 and even stereo reproduction. There are three sensations [in sound]: frequency range, dynamic range and spatial capability. Frequency and dynamic range are already satisfied, so the only direction for us to go in is having more channels. And you want the capability of performing with a picture and without.
What do the additional channels provide?
The left and right wides produce the first reflections in concert halls. The high channels are where you get the first reflections from the ceiling, and your perception of localization is good coming from above at an angle rather than overhead. The center back channel is pretty much accepted. Another thing we do is add dipoles at the same location as the surrounds [for both directional and diffusive surround channels.]
Well, if anyone would like to try Ambisonic sound, its actually freely available from http://www.ambisonia.com.
If you would like to test what Ambisonic sound is like when delivered over a 5.1 setup, and streamed over the Internet, try out http://www.ambisonia.com/tests/streamingAAC
There are some world class recordings of Classical music, sound effects, and general field recordings.
Yes, Ambisonic can be decoded into multiple outputs - the Cube - with a 4 down and 4 up speaker array being the most compatible with domestic tranquility(?), but the channels really need to be full range - no .1 or even .2 “Effects” channels left over from Home Theater, which we all know has NOTHING TO DO WITH HIGH FIDELITY (being a conduit for COMPRESSED CONTENT) !!!
The biggest problem is where do you leave all those speakers in a normal living room. And what about all the cables.
I think that Ambisonics can output to 24 speakers based on the recorded input from a single 4 element soundfield microphone. Ambisonics, moreover, produces soundfields that are less dependent on listner position than the pair-wise mixing used by regular surround systems. People with DTS theatre receivers can sample Ambisonics with just 4 speakers. 10.1 will be a tough sell to the wife.
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I was one of the fortunate attendees at the 2001 CES show that experienced the 10.2 demo provided by Thomlinson Holman. It was indeed stunning...but it wasn’t limited to mixes that provided the “best seat in the house” perspective. The Herbie Hancock track placed the listener amongst the instruments.
As a record label that releases exclusively newly recorded surround music tracks, I have to disagree with Thom’s assessment that listeners prefer “audience” mixes...the results of an anonymous poll. I have demonstrated “audience” vs. “stage” perspective mixes to thousands of listeners and get exactly the opposite results [Iwill do so again in Long Beach at the upcoming EHX 2007 show]. People prefer to be close to the sound and fully immersed in the instrumental space. I include both “audience” and “stage” 5.1 mixes on all of our releases AND a traditional stereo mix...the feedback I have received has been overwhelmingly in favor of the “stage” mixes.
BTW I just returned from an event in Clearwater Beach, Florida where Dolby Labs and AIX Records demonstrated the first public presentation of Dolby TrueHD playing a 9.1 mix of some of our tracks from a custom made BluRay disc. The setup was front LCR, two 90 degree surrounds, two 135 degree rears and two height channels above the LRs. The rears were extracted from the surrounds using Dolby Pro Logic IIx and contained mostly room ambience.
The results were impressive...especially as we were able to show the HD Video of the live recording session.
The future of music is surround...I agree with my friend Thom Holman, but I believe the more immersive the sound field the better.