Is Sony "360 Reality Audio" a new tide of "three -dimensional music"?

360 Reality Audio is a new music experience that realizes a three -dimensional sound field

According to the announcement of the other day, the 360 Reality Audio, which had already started abroad, was fully expanded in Japan, to fill the room with high-quality music.However, it was released in April, and I was asking for a request that this speaker was my favorite.

I actually experienced the demonstration, and I knew it was a speaker that could hear the sound with a spread, but it didn't seem to be all of the 360 Reality Audio.To put it more, these two speakers are one of the simple techniques to experience 360 Reality Audio, and in fact it seems to be even deeper and more likely.

4月16日より発売される、360 Reality Audio対応ワイヤレススピーカー(写真左がSRS-RA5000、右がSRS-RS3000)ワイヤレススピーカーのデモを体験する筆者

そこについては、ヘッドフォンでの再生によって、その世界観を感じることができたのだが、そもそも360 Reality Audioとは一体何なのか。ソニー ホームエンタテインメント&サウンドプロダクツ事業本部 V&S事業開発部の横山達也氏、そしてライセンスビジネス推進室の澤志聡彦氏の二人に話を聞いた。

ソニー株式会社 ホームエンタテインメント&サウンドプロダクツ事業本部 ライセンスビジネス推進室 澤志聡彦氏(写真左)、V&S事業開発部 横山達也氏(右)

--- First, please tell us about the outline of 360 Reality Audio.

Yokoyama (hereafter abbreviation): 360 Reality Audio is a new music experience that uses Sony's three -dimensional sound technology.The sound source is placed on all balls that spread to 360 degrees, and it is possible to move them in a spherical shape, and the creators are free to express the creativity.From the stereo speaker that expresses the sound field, 5.It has evolved into something that is expressed in surround 1ch, but this time it can be expressed freely 360 degrees this time.This can be experienced with a speaker, or you can experience it with headphones.

--- As a so -called imagive audio, AURO 3D, Dolby Atmos, and NHK 22.There are various standards such as 2ch, but are they different from them?

Mr. Sawashi (hereinafter abbreviation): Unlike the existing one, it is a system that allows you to listen to the sound in the center of the spherical, so it is a big difference from others that you can hear sound from the downward direction.。In the production environment, the reference system is a full -range speaker of five speakers at the top, five speakers horizontally, and three speakers on the bottom.The sound source produced in this environment, for example, is to provide an unprecedented sense of reality by reproducing the creator as the creator's intentions in a playback environment such as speakers and headphones.

Yokoyama: We would like to use 360 Reality Audio technology as a new format after monaural and stereo.

--- This time, many content will be distributed, but do you all mean that the three -dimensional sound using 360 Reality Audio?

Yokoyama: That's right.I have been launching overseas since last year, but this time I will distribute more than 4,000 songs including Japanese music in Japan.The distribution will be started as a streaming service on three distribution platforms.

Yokoyama: "Amazon Music HD" can be used without an additional charge in addition to the previous distribution content, as well as 360 Reality Audio compatible data.This Amazon Music HD is for playback with speakers."DEEZER" is a famous service in Europe and the United States, but started services in Japan on April 16.Supports playback with speakers, headphones and smartphones.The content distributed from the two companies will be almost the same.On the other hand, the content that is completely different from the two companies is "NUGS".Net ".This is an original content because it is a live -only distribution in Western music and English.This can also be used with speakers, headphones, and smartphones.

--- What is the definition of that speaker, headphones and smartphones?

Yokoyama: There are two speakers: "SRS-RA5000" and "SRS-RA3000" scheduled to be released on April 16.In addition, a total of three models, including "Amazon Echo Studio", are currently 360 Reality Audio certified speakers.The headphones are for 33 models, including wireless models and wired models.

Yokoyama: The smartphone is for Android and iPhone.In addition, the NW-A100 series and the NW-ZX500 series are also supported.Regeneration through smartphones is possible with any headphone, but because the processing using a head transmission function is performed, the certified headphones can reproduce the sound field more accurately.Specifically, it is an optimized person after shooting both ears with a smartphone.In the case of a Walkman, there is no camera function, so a smartphone is put in an application called "360 Spatial Sound Personalizer", and the data obtained there is poured into the Walkman.

360 Reality Audioは、全てのヘッドフォンで再現可能360度音場の高度な再現には“最適化”(両耳の形を撮影)が欠かせないアプリ「360 Spatial Sound Personalizer」を使った最適化の様子画面の指示に従って、頭の向きを変え耳を自撮りしていく

--- I hear that the sound of the sound is quite different depending on the shape of the ear, depending on the shape of the head.This application "360 Spatial Sound Personalizer" is not just a three -dimensional photo, but just taking a picture from the left and right of the face? Also, in this case, the result is not calculated with a smartphone, but the cloud.Is it done by?

Sawashi: Yes, there are many people's heads and ears and measurements, so they are compared with these based on the photos and estimated.For this reason, the smartphone alone cannot be collated, so it is processed in the cloud.

--- When you actually try it, the process itself is very smooth and you can do it in a short time.The 360 Reality Audio, which you can experience with the headphones, is certainly three -dimensional, and was surprised to hear the sound from above, from behind and from below.

Yokoyama: We have improved sound quality according to domestic launch.As a result of eliminating the unnatural sound of virtualization, improving the point that the vocals are no longer clear, and improving the portions of the bass, the sound quality has been finished so far.