The Battle for the Immersive Sound(Atmos vs Auro)

Immersive or 3D Sound Overview

3D sound formats not only include the traditional 5.1 surround sound setup, they also add more channels for 3D sound effects, the sounds has to be reproduced in all the three dimension according to the picture in the screen XYZ.

Auro 3D

The Auro-3D system by Belgian developers Van Baelen includes a total of 11.1 channels. In addition to the original 5.1 channels, Auro adds another 5.0 system on top - as well as a 'Voice of God' channel embedded in the ceiling.

Theater owners praise the economy and practicality of Auro-3D® sound systems. Auro-3D®'s unique usage of height channels (combined with conventional speaker layouts) adds significant value for filmmakers, cinema owners and audiences worldwide.

In order to reach full market potential, Auro Technologies has teamed up with Barco as exclusive partner for cinema. Auro 11.1 by Barco has already been installed in over 50 cinemas worldwide .

Auro 3D: 11.1 channels

Main Layer	Upper Layer
Left	Left
Center	Center
Right	Right
Surround Left	Surround Left
Surround Right	Surround Right
LFE	Voice of God (VOG)

Dolby Atmos

 

Dolby® Atmos™ is a revolutionary new audio platform. It allows for more powerful storytelling by giving content creators unprecedented control of the placement and movement of sound within the movie theatre. Combining products, services, and technologies, Dolby Atmos represents a complete end-to-end audio platform for movies now and well into the future.

 

Dolby Atmos enables a new level of artistic expression for content creators and at the same time simplifies audio postproduction. With Dolby Atmos, it’s finally possible to match sound precisely to the action onscreen and to do so easily. The result: more powerful storytelling.

 

Dolby Atmos adds the flexibility of dynamic audio objects to the traditional channel-based workflows used to create movie soundtracks. These audio objects allow content creators to control discrete sound elements in the theatre, no matter the speaker configuration. Objects can be static or can move, and they are controlled by metadata.

 

Dolby Atmos also brings new efficiencies to the audio postproduction process. It allows sound mixers to efficiently capture the director’s vision and then monitor or automatically generate 5.1- and 7.1-channel versions in real time.

 

Distribution is simplified, too. With Dolby Atmos, all the artistic intent is embedded in a file within the Digital Cinema Package (DCP), which can then be faithfully played back in a broad range of theatre configurations.

Atmos allows you address the speakers in both ways.

There is a 9 channel bed (L C R Ls Rs Lsb Rsb and OHL/OHR) which functions in the same way a channel based system always has... for the speakers not behind the screen, they can be panned to as an array.

Dolby Atmos has also brought back the Left and Right Extra channels behind the screen, so in reality you actually have an 11.1 channel based system with Atmos that functions just as traditional 5.1/7.1 did.

AURO 3D	DOLBY ATMOS
Offer the immersive 3D audio experience  (due to usage of 3 layers XYZ)	Offer the most immersive audio experience  because of 64 individual Speakers
Deliver a Channel based solution	Deliver a Object based solution
Provides 3 Dimensional Surround (XYZ)	Provides Full Range Immersive Surround
Create an Wide sweet spot	Creates an Enlarged Sweet spot
Supply uncompressed audio (PCM)	Supply uncompressed audio (PCM)
Backwards compatible with 5.1 standard	Backwards compatible with 5.1 standard
Compatibility between ALL AURO Formats	Upgradable to ALL DOLBY Formats
Compatibility across all platforms: Cinema, Home AV systems, Automotive, Headphones	Compatibility across all platforms: Cinema only…
Existing 5.1 setup can easily be upgraded to Auro-3D with the minimum number of speakers & amplifiers	Existing 5.1 setup can easily be upgraded to Dolby Atmos with the maximum number of speakers & amplifiers
A simple install on top of existing 5.1 systems	A typical installation needed with the existing 5.1 or 7.1 system

All in all, it was an interesting adventure to compare Barco Auro 11.1, which retains a channel-based orientation with a single overhead channel, and Dolby Atmos, which implements an object-oriented approach pan through array with each speaker—including those overhead—being addressed individually. In my view, Both Atmos and Auro are the winners, in terms of cost, customization and rendering Auro outruns Atmos, and both the formats are in the developing stage. It's all in the hands of content creators, sound designers and exhibitors to decide which format provides the immersive sound, of course the AUDIENCE too....

SOURCE:

auro-3d

dolby