Recently, I had to sound design and mix a commercial. But this time it wasn't my usual stereo mix for broadcast. It was for Igloo's 360 projection system. Basically, it was a spatial audio mix, utilising 5 speakers of surround sound system, to make the sound move around and follow the video motion in 360 degrees.
How did I do it, you wonder? Inside Igloo there're 5 screens, each screen has a speaker assigned to it. Screen 1 is Left, Screen 2 is Centre etc. Depending on which screen the action happened, the sounds was sent to that particular speaker. During the mixing process, I made sure the transitions of sounds from one screen to another are smooth and seamless.
Because Igloo's are speaker based systems, there was no need to create binaural or ambisonics mixes. However, we played it on Sony VR headset from YouTube and the 5.0 mix translated very well and gave a fully immersive 360 audio-visual experience.
Next time, when in The Nest, remind me to play it for you, I think you'll be impressed.
In future, I'm looking to have more projects like this. Spatial sound is one of the most exciting and challenging areas in audio post production at the moment, and although it's been around for few years now, it's still in early stages. The technology is developing and gradually people are starting to embrace it.
If you have a project coming up and you are looking for an audio post production, let me know your plans and drop me an email, I'll be happy to help.