Sony announced an expansion of its 360 Reality Audio platform, bringing the 360-degree music format to more devices and media, as well as offering new creative tools. 360 Reality Audio uses object-based spatial audio technology to place instruments or vocals around the listener’s head in a virtual sound field.
Sony is now expanding audio to video technology. The company says it is working with record companies and service providers to start streaming video content with 360 Reality Audio later this year, and the first example will be a live performance by Sony-signed artist Zara Larsson next week. You will be able to watch through Sony’s Artist Connection mobile app at 5 pm ET on 11 January.
Sony is launching two new 360 Reality Audio-compatible speakers this spring, the SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000, although there are not many details beyond support for Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. Sony has also developed a new 3D audio plugin called 360 Reality Audio Creative Suite, which is compatible with DAWs like Pro Tools and will be released later this month.
There are currently about 4,000 songs available on 360 Reality Audio on services like Tidal and Deezer, says Sony. The format works with most regular headphones or compatible speakers, such as Amazon Echo Studio.