Media Hubs

Broadcast 

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/features/media-hubs/5056877.article

Along the banks of Glasgow’s River Clyde, in an area once dominated by ship-building, is a thriving cultural quarter bustling with digital media, hot-housed innovators and inward investment.

At least that’s the vision of Creative Clyde, one of a string of attempts around the world to build mediacentric zones to help shift economies away from heavy manufacturing and financial services, and into creative, technology and science industries.

“Media is ripe for change because it is the point of convergence for so many industries, from games and broadcasting to big data analysis and even biotech. But many media cities use the term without really defining it,” says Michael Joroff, senior lecturer at MIT and consultant to the world’s first purpose-built media city in Seoul, as well as Abu Dhabi’s Twofour54 and MediaCityUK in Salford.

“Some clusters aggregate media companies in the hope that they will work by serendipity,” he says. “The other way is to think about creating a whole ecosystem that recognises how media works.”

Joroff classifies iCity at London’s Olympic Park and London’s Tech City in the first category, and cites Twofour54 as the most focused example. “Often the ideas behind media cities are flawed,” says Niall Duffy, chief executive of Mediasmiths, which consulted for MediaCityUK.

“A successful hub or cluster has to be more than a property deal offering cost-effective office space and network connectivity. There need to be compelling services on top of the infrastructure to attract SMEs and promote innovation based on a deep understanding of how digital media firms operate. A ‘build it and they will come’ approach will not work.”

Most planned media cities have an anchor tenant, such as the BBC at MediaCityUK. Pinewood Shepperton has evolved to house 300 suppliers on site but its plans for new complexes in Atlanta and Malaysia rely on attracting multiple smaller companies onsite or in the vicinity.

Twofour54 chief operating officer Wayne Borg lists four components of a successful media city strategy: developing talent, supporting entrepreneurship, providing infrastructure to enable production, and connecting with the industry to ensure a sustainable model.

One component, though, trumps even these. Media folk, perhaps more than those in other sectors, prefer social environments to sterile business parks.

“You can create a cultural centre from scratch on green or brownfield sites, but media itself is not viable without the support of transport networks, hotels, shops, bars and restaurants,” says David Phillips, chief executive of systems integrator TSL.

Social engagement is encouraged at Twofour54, both in campus café society and at formal quarterly meetings for all tenants, explains Borg: “It’s important that companies in the zone are aware of each other and the projects on which they could potentially partner.”

While essential to a buzzing work/life environment, such infrastructure is not something that can be birthed overnight. Pointing to the intellectual hubs around the MIT campus and Silicon Valley that emerged in the 1960s, Joroff says it takes 10-15 years for clusters to take hold, and 30-40 to fully mature.

“Clusters develop because of access to peers who like to socialise, even if they don’t work together,” says Nigel Walley, managing director of media consultant Decipher.

“Clusters aid the flow of deal-making, in which proximity to the broadcaster or platform makes business sense. Another reason is jobs. It’s no surprise that people move around Soho because everyone knows everyone. Working remotely, you don’t get that.”

Soho may be the archetypal media cluster, but as Duffy observes: “W1 is the last place you’d build one today because of its cost and limited space to expand.”

Cheaper option

Even without an industry focus, Chiswick Park has attracted a significant number of media companies, including

Disney and Discovery, in part because operational costs are cheaper than in central London. Satellite firms have gravitated to the location too. “Companies such as ours allow multinationals to grow and breathe,” says Loft London co-founder Davide Maglio. “At some point, broadcasters hit capacity and outsource things like special projects or archive services.”

The symbiotic relationship between large enterprises or anchor tenants and smaller suppliers is seen as essential to breeding a vibrant cluster of innovative media. “Companies are attracted to being part of a group that shares services and collaborates,” says Stephen Brennan, chief strategy officer at Dublin’s Digital Hub.

“A second attraction is access to talent. Once you have a collection of companies with access to human resources, training and skills, you have a pool of capability to tap into.”

The model works best when smaller ‘connector’ companies work closely with larger fi rms, “with the connectors focused on new ideas, new markets and new technologies – something that is hard to build inside a more corporate environment,” says Duffy.

Mediasmiths’ The Landing at Media CityUK is one example. Another is research lab iBurbia Studios, run by Decipher from Chiswick and designed to sit within media clusters.

Brennan says multinationals approach innovation by sourcing niche expertise across different disciplines: “I’m not saying we incubate lots of joint ventures, but clusters do encourage lots of informal connections that lead to JV business developments or partnerships.”

Modern media cities might be devised in CAD software and spreadsheets, but clusters have emerged more naturally in Soho and Hollywood. There are also organic groupings in Paris, Berlin and Cologne.

In the UK, there is a loose triangle between Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith and Osterley in which can be found Chiswick Park’s media collective, TV and telecoms firms

TalkTalk, Sky and Virgin, plus the BBC, playout farm Red Bee, and a host of digital specialists including Perform, Shazam and Showcaster. Sky Studios, Ealing and Teddington Studios add traditional TV and film expertise that stretches to Wembley’s Fountain Studios and on to Pinewood.

Networking group TV Triangle has been formed “to attempt co-ordination so we can extract the benefits of being a cluster,” explains Walley, a co-founder.

“There is a general sense that we should be attracting start-up media tech companies to work closer to established companies in the triangle. This can encourage innovation, provide access to mentoring, links to potential big client companies, and create a focus for funding activity. This is happening without co-ordination, but we feel we can super-charge it.”

Initially slow to respond, broadcasters are now taking note. Sky and UKTV are hosting networking events with TV Triangle this summer.

Walley would like to tap government support, particularly in light of its backing of Tech City, which promotes Silicon Roundabout’s (Old Street/Shoreditch) mix of digital boutiques and major players like Cisco, Google and Amazon.

“The government should broaden its horizons to include central and west London for a world-beating Tech City,” argues Walley. “There is clearly a growing outbound level of international activity happening here that people want to publicise, and also a sense that we need to keep reminding the world why west London is a great place for inward investment from international media companies.”

The jury is still out on the success of MediaCity UK, but it’s been operational for barely three years. Critics say the area has yet to unify the digital start-ups embedded in Manchester’s Northern Quarter with Salford’s monolithic new builds.

Joroff says its “purpose remains undefined”. Others think there is sufficient weight being thrown behind Media CityUK that success is inevitable.

Phillips notes “the new buzz generated by students from Salford University”, while Duffy thinks Media- CityUK will come into its own once fellow BBC hubs in Glasgow and Wales are more closely integrated by fibre. On-site facility Dock10 harbours ambitions to extend its cloud-based production pipeline globally.

“The first target of a media city is to establish itself as a domestic centre of excellence,” says Duffy. “International enterprises will follow because it offers the best route into the local market.”

Media zones are mushrooming in the Asia Pacific region. “Demand for content in that region, both domestic and international, is pretty much off the scale,” says Andrew Smith, strategy director at Pinewood Shepperton.

Chinese venture

Chinawood, Pinewood’s joint venture with Seven Stars Entertainment, will be based in Tianjin, near Beijing International Airport. The 800,000 sq m base for film and media production is part of a wider Chinese taxfree ‘culture zone’, modelled after the special economic zones that made the country a manufacturing superpower.

In Korea, the opening of the world’s second tallest building next year will complete construction of Seoul’s digital metro polis, while the Malaysian government has proposed a media city (advised by TSL) in Kuala Lumpur around the new home of national broadcaster Radio Televisyen Malaysia.

Arguably the most ambitious scheme, though, is Singapore’s 200-hectare One North project, which comprises not one but three clusters devoted to media, science and technology.

Joroff says: “These spaces are designed as much to fuse content creation with digital technology as they are to test environments for how we will all live and work in future surrounded by digital media.”

MEDIA HUBS: AT A GLANCE

Mediapolis (Singapore)

• Vision ‘Live-Work-Learn-Play’ area comprising residential, parks, entertainment and lifestyle precincts with a focus on digital media content and technologies.
• Reality 19 hectares under construction.
• Facilities Soundstage, green screen and motion-capture complex Infinite Studios; adjacent to tech park Fusionopolis, the location of LucasFilm Singapore, and Biopolis.
• Tenants MediaCorp, Globecast, Discovery and Namco Bandai. Double Negative is a neighbour.
• Future Completed by 2020.

Twofour54 (Abu Dhabi)

• Vision “A centre of excellence for Arabic content creation, to develop the national identify and diversify the economy away from energy,” according to chief operating offi cer Wayne Borg.
• Reality Houses 200 companies and has trained more than 6,000 people. Production output of 13,000+ hours since 2008.
• Companies Ubisoft, Cartoon Network, CNN, Sky News Arabia, Fox, Apple.
• Facilities Studios, post and playout centre, training academies and traineeships.
• Future A focus on digital and locally produced content. “The ultimate sign of success is to develop original IP and export it to the world,” says Borg. “We aren’t too far away from that happening.”

Digital Media Hub (Dublin)

• Vision To build a sustainable digital media sector for Ireland.
• Reality After losing anchor tenant MediaLab Europe, Dublin’s hub “has blossomed, containing 20-30% of digital media companies in the country,” says chief strategy officer Stephen Brennan.
• Tenants E-commerce site Etsy; digital agencies Mashup Media and Twelve Horses; streaming outfit Liveonevery screen.
• Facilities Managed property service with training, research schemes and community links.
• Future To grow from 70 to 100 companies. Hosts a forum of European media clusters this month to exchange learning.

Chiswick Park (London)

• Vision An environment that encourages employees to work through provision of lifestyle services. Managed by Enjoy Work, owned by private equity fi rm Blackstone.
• Reality Established a healthy work/life community among 45+ companies and 8,000 employees since 2001.
• Tenants Walt Disney, Ericsson, Discovery, Viasat, QVC, CBS.
• Facilities Lunchtime team sports; landscaped gardens.
• Future After a twelfth building opens in 2014, Blackstone will put the estate up for sale.

Dutch Media Hub (Amsterdam)

• Vision European gateway for digital content, capitalising on Amsterdam’s global internet exchange, subsidised by government.
• Reality The individual agendas of the 40 participants proved stronger than a desire to invest in a joint service.
• Participants Civolution, Jetstream, Technicolor, Team, 24iMedia, Filmmore.
• Future The project was discontinued in March.

Creative Clyde (Glasgow)

• Vision Regenerate Glasgow as an international media centre.
• Reality The focus of Scotland’s traditional media capital remains BBC Scotland’s £130m HQ (launched 2006).
• Facilities Access to funding; offi ce space at The Hub; neighbours Glasgow Science Centre and Digital Design Studio.
• Members 1,400, including STV, Iso Design, Raise the Roof Productions and Axis Animation.
• Future Further capacity being developed. Studio complex under consideration.

Dubai Media City (Dubai)

• Vision To establish Dubai as a regional centre for commun ication.
• Reality Launched in 2001 and run by state-owned Tecom
• Investments. A highly successful regional playout hub with more than 1,400 companies that fi lled capacity by 2005, promptingTecom to launch Dubai Studio City (DSC), a similar model with a focus on production.
• Tenants CNBC, MBC, Endemol, CNN, OSN, Sony Pictures.
• Facilities Tax free zone offering ‘premium commercial real estate’. Linked to neighbouring DSC.
• Future With the number of freelancers and production output expected to double in fi ve years, three new sound stages are being built at DSC. A 15,000 sq ft space has opened. Two 25,000 sq ft spaces are due in late 2013 with workshops and backlots.

Seoul Digital Media City (Seoul)

• Vision To expand South Korea’s IT, human resources and entertainment industries, and regenerate a former landfi ll district of the capital.
• Reality Launched in 2002, government-funded DMC is twice the size of Canary Wharf. Linked to World Cup stadia and IT universities and, so far, predominantly domestic businesses.
• Tenants SBSl MBC; CJ Corp; LG; Korean Film Museum.
• Facilities High-tech offices; free wi-fi ; production complex Digital Magic Space; Digital Media Street for test of intelligent streetlights, Info-Booths and signage.
• Future Construction will be completed in 2015.

Galvanising to save 16mm

British Cinematographer 

Following the recent publication by the Digital Production Partnership (DPP) of the technical standards expected for UK TV programming, the production community is preparing to gather at BAFTA for one last attempt to persuade broadcasters of the creative value of Super16mm.

http://www.britishcinematographer.co.uk/articles/125-the-great-debate-16mm-film-p2.html

'The Great Gatsby' in 3D: What to Watch for

The Hollywood Reporter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/great-gatsby-3d-what-watch-520873

The use of 3D in some movies has been widely lauded -- including the recent Life of Pi -- while its use in others has been harshly criticized, notably Clash of the Titans, which prompted many to dismiss the format as a gimmick.

A couple of years ago, we decided to examine the creative potential of 3D, co-authoringExploring 3D: The New Grammar Stereoscopic Filmmaking (Focal Press 2012), which examines this topic through interviews with filmmakers and case studies.Color and sound were also considered gimmicks when they were first introduced and before they became accepted and understood as a tool --not unlike lighting or production design -- that can be used in the service of the story.

During the period of our research, we examined projects ranging from fantasy films to documentaries to live event coverage -- but at that point, drama had been among the least explored uses. Still, when interviewing filmmakers who had used 3D for dramatic intent, there was a common thread in that they identified the power in a close-up.

“A close-up with 3D volume and detail is incredible, as it heightens the viewer’s access to the actor’s emotion. You can read the subtlest of expression and look straight into their eyes,” related The Great Gatsby's director of photography Simon Duggan in Exploring 3D.

We’re grateful to the filmmakers who shared their views and experiences, Among them were the Gatsby team, including director Baz Luhrmann, executive producer Barrie M. Osborne and Duggan -- who at the time were still in production on the movie.

It’s been widely publicized as Gatsby’s release approached that seeing Alfred Hitchcock’sDial M for Murder in its intended 3D form helped convince Luhrmann to use the format on his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel.

“It wasn’t things coming at me that was interesting to me -- what was interesting was to seeGrace Kelly just moving around in a room in 3D,” Luhrmann said more recently. “I mean, I just wanted to reach out and touch her. And the camera’s not moving, she’s just moving and acting. So, it struck me how much 3D is like the theatre, how powerful it is in 3D when an actor moves toward the camera as opposed to moving the camera toward an actor.”

The film was lensed with Red cameras using 3Ality Technica 3D rigs, but before making that decision, the potential to create emotional impact using 3D was tested at Sony’s 3D technology center (which is now part of Sony’s Digital Motion Picture Center). The filmmakers’ conclusion was that the production could use volume to bring the viewers closer to the humanity in the actors' performances.

As explained in Exploring 3D: “Extreme close-ups were selected for intense moments, while mid-shots with two or three characters in frame at varying distances from the lens conveyed ‘not only the interaction between the characters in frame but additional detail and volume, so that the viewer can find their own close-up on any character within the frame,’ says Duggan. ‘An actor’s body language is amplified in 3D. The shot is easier to read because you are a lot more aware of detail.’ ”

In Exploring 3D, Luhrmann cited a climatic dialogue-driven scene set at the Plaza Hotel, saying " As I approached Gatsby I had the idea already in my head that the big special effects finale for us would not be what we might do that is visually rich in 3D, but what a one-of-a-kind ensemble of actors might do in a single room in the Plaza Hotel, tearing at each others' hearts and feelings during a ten-page scene."

Ultra-HD: A Chance to Innovate TV Sound Systems

IBC

http://www.ibc.org/page.cfm/action=library/libID=2/libEntryID=176/listID=4

It is generally acknowledged that the better the quality of audio experience, the more enjoyable the pictures and the more likely viewers are to enjoy watching a programme.

With momentum building toward Ultra HD TV broadcasting, attention is turning to how audio can keep pace with significantly greater resolutions screened on increasingly large living room displays. While the specifications for broadcasting Ultra-HD at 4K and at 8K resolutions are in place, there is no agreement on an international standard for U-HD audio. That may be about to change as the body which drafted the original U-HD specs meets this month to discuss whether consensus is possible.

“As more consumers buy 80-100 inch screens then it becomes valuable to have sound localised vertically as well as horizontally,” explains David Wood, Chairman of ITU-R Working Party 6C. “It is this combination of lateral and vertical which is the focus of discussion in the ITU and other bodies, but there are several different approaches to achieving it.”

Candidates include using 22 discrete channels plus subwoofers in the 8K Super Hi-Vision system favoured by Japanese broadcaster NHK, an extension of the traditional audio reproduction for speakers. Up for debate is whether such a rigid system of speaker layout is suitable in an age of increasing audio-visual consumption on tablets and smartphones.

There are two other options on the table. Scene-based audio, of which the chief example is Higher Order Ambisonics, attempts to reproduce a sound-field at a single point in space and provides for flexibility in speaker configuration.  An alternative is object-based coding which treats sound sources as independent  objects along with metadata (parameters like elevation and distance) needed to reproduce them on playback. 

Aside from allowing listening devices to become independent of the mix, a benefit of this approach is that it could be rendered differently for different people, such as affording a different balance between foreground and background sounds for those hard of hearing. Dolby Atmos is the first commercial approach using object-based audio. Designed for cinema theatres, it has been introduced into a handful of cinemas and used to produce sound mixes for films like The Hobbit and Brave. Although intended to draw punters away from their TVs and back to theatres, there's no reason why the object-based principal can't be applied to the home. Dolby doesn't rule it out.

At the SMPTE Technology Summit on Digital Cinema earlier this month, John Kellogg, Senior Director at audio technology developer DTS, urged the creation of an open standard for immersive audio, warning that without one, the industry faces “potential chaos - format wars, cost and confusion.”

He argued that with the arrival of numerous immersive and object-based sound systems, “mixing a film seven different ways isn’t really sustainable.”
SMPTE's technology committee on digital sound systems has in fact begun laying the ground work for a new audio standard aimed at creating a consistent sound experience in cinema theatres.

A parallel project to incorporate immersive audio content into the new standard will start this July.

As 4K content proliferates the focus on the audio part of an upgraded audio-visual experience for TV will surely grow. Alongside broadcast bodies like the EBU, SMPTE and DVB the industry may need to seek consensus from a wider sphere of consumer electronics companies and even OTT providers.

Can the industry create something that is more immersive, more interactive while still addressing the masses? There are a lot of questions still unanswered about what the total 4K experience means and IBC2013 will be the place to tackle them.

4K Sony F55 Cameras Heading to Brazil for World Cup Test Run

The Hollywood Reporter

Sony’s F55 digital cinematography cameras, which were originally built for uses such as independent features and TV series production, are being tested in a 4K production of the FIFA Confederations Cup this summer in Brazil with potentially dramatic ramifications for the style of live Ultra-HD TV sports.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/4k-sony-f55-cameras-heading-451120

Sony plans to shoot three matches from the soccer tournament starting June 15 using six F55 cameras, which feature single Super 35mm-sized sensors instead of cameras fitted with three 2/3-inch sensors used in conventional outside broadcasts.

The larger sensor produces a shallow depth of field which yields a “filmic” look compared to the “video-style” achieved with smaller sensor cameras. “Under examination is whether the F55's sensor is appropriate for live sport,” explained Mark Grinyer, Sony’s program manager for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. “If it works well in the test and people like the price point [$34,000 per unit] and the director likes the images it creates, then do we need another camera? The cost of building a new 4K 3-chip camera is a serious discussion point.”

The F55 is a recent addition to Sony's 4K camera line that also includes the flagship F65, which has been used on features such as Oblivion and After Earth, as well as some TV series work. The F55, which was released earlier this year and was used to lens at least three pilots for Sony Pictures Television, includes support for high speed shooting up to 120 frames per second in 4K and the ability to shoot both 4K and HD simultaneously. It also has a dynamic range of up to 14 stops.

“In tests we've conducted to date, it is noticeable that in some instances the shot [depth of field] becomes quite narrow, so it's a matter of finding the right balance between lens and camera and focus,” said Grinyer. “It's also a question for whether sports producers like the look.”

At the Confederations Cup a number of lenses will be tested including a prototype lens convertor which permits standard 2/3 box lenses to be used with the F55's 35mm sensor, and a new 4K Fujinon Cabrio lens.

“Just repeating HD match coverage in a higher resolution may not be what gets the consumer excited,” Grinyer said. “What might though, is using 4K in a different style--using the extra light [dynamic range], or higher frame rates, or new depth of field for certain shots.”

Grinyer cited as an example the lowdown diagonal shots typical of tennis coverage—something that Sony will be testing in 4K at Wimbledon this year.

Sony will also experiment with placing 4K cameras in traditional broadcast positions and how pictures from 4K cameras can be slotted into existing HD camera coverage.

“Given the higher resolution and viewing on larger screens, could a director use fewer 4K cameras for a 4K production?” asked Grinyer. “Could we augment 4K with HD cameras and upscale those to 4K? Could we place two F55's side by side in the ‘camera one’ (high gantry) position and stitch their pictures together into 4K and produce HD feeds from that?”

The majority of the crew for the test will come from the UK’s Telegenic, which is supplying its new 4K broadcast van built by Sony's system integration division.

Additional gear being used as part of the test is Sony’s MVS-8000X Vision mixer, Miranda’s 4K-enhanced 8500 series routers, three Sony PVM-300 4K LCD monitors, and a Calrec Apollo 5.1 console.

Sony will be working alongside FIFA and Host Broadcast Services at the Confederations Cup. The tests will be used to inform the extent of 4K production and possible broadcast from Brazil at next year's World Cup.

Still, Sony's hands are tied between broadcasters willing to take 4K content and the development of core pieces of equipment necessary for it to be transmitted.

FIFA is assessing demand among its rights holders for both a 3D and a 4K feed from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Interested parties include broadcasters in South Korea, Japan and in the U.S. where Univision and ESPN hold rights. 

Technically, however, the live 4K signal would need to be compressed for satellite delivery in the Higher Efficiency Video Coding scheme, something which is not yet practical, said Sony. 

Sony also related that new silicon chipsets would have to be developed and then incorporated into new set top boxes for rendering the HEVC signal in the home. In addition a new HDMI interface capable of transferring uncompressed 4K between devices needs to be agreed. Expected for release at the end of 2012, the new HDMI 2.0 specification is still not ratified, though expected soon.

At Wimbledon, a two-day 4K trial is planned. This will be a non-live shoot, with content being prepared for the Sony experience and retail stores. 

Sony does not rule out 4K transmission of matches from the 2014 World Cup to cinemas.

Immersive surround sound technology for filmmakers

Televisual 

http://www.televisual.com/read-online/Film-40---Sound_rid-47.html

Audio has always been an emotive part of the cinema experience. For George Lucas, a movie is 50% composed of audio; for Danny Boyle sound is 70%. Either way, a film soundtrack is hugely important to telling the story, yet too often audio plays second fiddle to the visual.

That could be about to change with the emergence of new audio technologies designed to match the immersive experience of higher resolution 4K projection and stereo 3D pictures.

The front runner is Dolby Atmos, used to mix over 40 features including Oblivion, Man of Steel, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Hobbit and Gravity since debuting for Disney Pixar’s Brave last summer.

The system uses up to 64 loudspeaker tracks, introduces a ceiling array to the traditional surround speaker configuration, and allows object-based sound design for the first time.

While the basis of the mix is a 9.1 bed – familiar territory to sound engineers and mixers – there are up to 128 additional audio objects (sounds) which can be flown anywhere around the speaker set-up. Unlike channel systems (stereo, 5.1, 9.1 etc) this approach gives audio mixers precise spatial control resulting in what they describe as a more natural and immersive soundfield.

“It creates a pure quality of sound so that you can really feel where you are within the film,  putting the audience deeper into a situation than before,” describes Sound 24’s Glenn Freemantle, sound designer and supervising sound editor on Trance and Gravity. “Where sounds felt degraded or effects cheated in 5.1, now we can create moments – rain overhead, a forest, the movement of thunder, a spaceship landing – that have a beauty and richness.”

“It’s a much bigger leap than from 5.1 to 7.1,” confirms LA-based Erik Aadahl, supervising sound editor on Argo and sound designer on Tree of Life. “Atmos means working in more of a hemisphere. You have height from ceiling speakers and much more resolution on the walls, plus it’s expandable.Channel systems are one size fits all, yet every room has different dimensions, with different speaker layouts. With Atmos you can have a room with 30 or 60 speakers and whatever the mix is, Atmos will automatically scale it to the room. Dolby calls it adaptive rendering.”

Aadahl, who mixed Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 7.1, is helping prepare Michael Bay’s latest sequel in Atmos: “In 7.1 we could fake an overhead sensation of a missile by starting in one of the rear surround speakers and wrapping it around the side of the room. Now, I can slice like a scalpel, from rear overhead to successive ceiling speakers to screen with much more articulation.”

The elimination of crude surround pans is the distinction drawn by Ian Tapp, sound re-recording mixer at Pinewood, where, along with Niv Adiri, he mixed Trance – the first British movie to be entirely mixed in Atmos.

“The big difference is that when you bring sounds off-screen and into the room it all feels part of the same track, whereas in 5.1 and 7.1 audiences were really conscious of that movement. You could feel the hand of the filmmaker manipulating things.”
Tapp continues: “Although you are adding more information with Atmos, you can do it so it’s perceived subtly by the audience. They accept it much more as part of the movie as opposed to being a tricksy add-on. Not only does it deliver a wow factor, it genuinely seems to generate heightened emotion.”

So far, Atmos has mainly been used for action movies such as A Good Day to Die Hard, but sound artists are itching to use it on less bombastic productions.

“The obvious thought is that Atmos is applicable to 3D, sci-fi and action films where you can start throwing gun shots and helicopters around the room,” says PDSoundDesign’s Paul Davies, whose work includes The American, Hunger and Lynn Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin. “Techniques like this provide a new way of working with atmospheres to create subtle textures, ambience and spatialisation, which was not possible before.”

Davies is collecting atmospheres for Hossein Amini’s Two Faces of January on location in Greece and Turkey, and believes that, with Atmos, the use of surround mics in the field to record effects will become more common. 
“It’s getting to the point where anything sounds better in it [Atmos] even if we’re not being conspicuous about doing it,” says Tapp. “It just raises the quality threshold of whatever your movie is.”

While the approach to recording audio on location hasn’t substantially changed, what has changed – perhaps fundamentally – is that immersive sound systems are altering the way directors think about mixing movies. “One of things we are playing with in Transformers 4 is the idea of psychoacoustics [sound perception] in which we can use the ceiling array to spin a room in a 360-degree arc that is just impossible with one plane of speakers in 7.1,” explains Aadahl.

“Michael [Bay, the director] is getting visual ideas based on this new ability we have with sound,” he adds. “Usually it’s the opposite way around; the director starts with the image. The technology allows for a lot more cross-pollination between picture and sound.”

Aadahl is also experimenting with director Gareth Edwards for Warner Bros’ 2014 reboot of Godzilla. “When Gareth comes into the theatre the sound is sparking discussions and ideas about what he can do in the script to heighten the emotional feel of the film,” he says. “Gareth is coming up with sequences while listening to sound. That is the ideal scenario.” Atmos would appear to add a dimensionality to the filmmakers’ ability to tell their story within the cinema. “Danny [Boyle] says Atmos makes him think about the spaces he is shooting,” says Freemantle. “Directors will begin to think about how they use the space around an audience – think of camera angles that they can now cover with sound.”

Although intended to draw punters away from their home entertainment systems and back to theatres, there’s no reason why object-based techniques can’t be applied to packaged media like Blu-ray 
or even broadcast, down the line.

James Caselton, head of product marketing, Dolby: “While we are not talking today about Atmos for the home, the implication for the future is toward much more placement and customisation of sound for the consumer.”

Pinewood is the lone UK Atmos mixing stage, but Halo Post is in discussions with Dolby about investing and De Lane Lea is understood to 
be likely to upgrade at least one of its theatres 
to the format.

Currently a handful of flagship cinemas worldwide, including the Empire Leicester Square, can replay Atmos, though Dolby says it has signed further UK chains pending announcement.

“It’s a Catch 22,” says Tapp. “Distributors may like to use Atmos but they want to see more content before exhibitors will make the investment. Producers may like to do it but there’s only a few screens able to play it.” 

The 5.1 and 7.1 formats are likely to be superceded by this new generation of immersive audio. Bit rates are likely to advance, from the current 48khz standard to nearer 96khz and 192khz, providing higher fidelity. “The big limitation now is the picture,” says Aadahl. “We truly have 3D sound yet the picture only fills 45 degrees of your vision. To me that is holding us back. The picture needs to evolve as much as the sound.”

The corollary to that comes from Mark Herbert, producer of This Is England and The Stone Roses: Made of Stone [post produced at Halo]. “The only fear I have with new technologies is that probably only 15-20% of the audience for our films see it in the cinema as opposed to streamed on Netflix, on TV, or DVD. Before [director Shane Meadows and I] sign off a film we sit and watch it on a cheap telly to make sure it translates for everyone.”

Rival immersive audio solutions include Auro 11.1 from projector manufacturer Barco, which uses 11 channels plus a subwoofer; the Swiss-developed Illusonic 3D distributed by French group DMS; and Iosono from German research outfit Fraunhofer, which employs wavefield synthesis. A fourth option, Immsound, was acquired by Dolby last year for incorporation into Atmos.

Of these, Auro 11.1 has gained most traction, largely because DreamWorks Animation has vowed to release all its titles – from George Lucas’ Red Tails to animated features Rise of the Guardians and The Croods – in the format.

Barco reports 70 cinema installations worldwide, Dolby has around 100 and while some films such as Oz The Great and The Powerful are being mixed in both formats, there are fears of a format war. “Potential chaos, cost and confusion,” loom for the industry without a new open standard, warned John Kellogg, senior director at consumer audio tech developer DTS which is pushing its own standard, MDA (Multi Dimensional Audio), supported by Barco.

While Atmos and Auro can be distributed as part of the Digital Cinema Package (DCP), producers don’t want the expense of mixing multiple DCPs and exhibitors need the assurance that they can playback any movie regardless of the investment they make in new speakers and amplifiers – a cost that can range from £20k to over £100k.

Standards authority SMPTE is laying the groundwork for a fresh audio standard aimed at creating a consistent sound experience in theatres. It’s also evaluating immersive audio content but to what extent rival vendors will participate is open to question. The winner could potentially dominate big screen audio for a generation, making millions of pounds from studios, exhibitors and ultimately home video licensing.

“There has to be a suitable balance between what the market is choosing to be a successful format and of time spent on standards setting which ultimately could stifle innovation,” says Julian Pinn, Dolby’s European director 
of cinema marketing.