Dirac Research to Debut Its Breakthrough Second-Generation 3D Audio Solution to the US Virtual Reality Market at VRLA 2018

An all-new, never-before-released Dirac VR demo experience will showcase the second-generation solution’s unique ability to pinpoint dynamically-moving sound sources in an audio sphere that surrounds users.

UPPSALA, SWEDEN, April 23, 2018 — Following its initial introduction to the mobile market at MWC 2018, Dirac Research, the global leader in digitally optimized sound solutions, today announced that it will showcase its second-generation Dirac VR 3D audio solution to the US market at VRLA 2018 from May 4-5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center at Dirac Booth 332.

Dirac VR represents the industry’s most innovative and complete 3D audio platform. The solution is rooted in a proprietary method of dynamic head-related transfer function (HRTF) measurement, which no longer requires individualized measurements of one’s head size, ear shape, and more, in order to create realistic soundscapes tailored to each user’s cranial dimensions.

The solution also possesses the industry’s most sophisticated 3D audio engine, which produces low-latency audio, smooth sound renderings, and highly-accurate audio localization in the virtual X-Y-X plane.

Despite boasting one-degree of resolution, the second-generation Dirac VR has increased its overall processing efficiency through the further optimization of CPU and memory usage, thereby making it an ideal solution for power-constrained devices.

“Enormous potential across nearly all industries will be unlocked with the advent of truly immersive virtual reality; however, this potential and promise will forever ring empty without a perfected 3D audio solution that produces soundscapes that are 100% true-to-life,” stated Nadeem Firasta, Dirac’s VP of Product Management & Business Development, North America.

“After over a decade pioneering digital audio technologies for the automotive, headphone, mobile, and home theatre markets, we now possess this 3D audio solution and we look forward to demonstrating to manufacturers, content creators, and end-users the worlds that can now be created and experienced with Dirac VR,” continued Firasta.

While the company’s 3D audio capabilities may only be one year old, and the second-generation Dirac VR just now launching, the solution’s underlying technology is more than 10 years in the making.

Dirac’s 3D reverb engine, for example, is built upon a Dirac Unison solution used in high-end automobiles, such as the Volvo XC90, to perfectly reproduce in-vehicle acoustics that mirror, say, the Gothenburg Concert Hall. What’s more, Dirac VR’s ultra-low CPU and memory usage is achieved by leveraging the company’s years of experience creating digital audio solutions for other low-bandwidth devices such as smartphones and smart speakers.

According to Lars Isaksson, Dirac’s General Manager & Business Director of AR/ VR, Dirac VR offers Unity developers a tool to produce increasingly-sophisticated virtual reality experiences – ones that involve dynamically-moving audio sources positioned around the user on the X-Y-Z plane, separated from one another by as little as one-degree.

“Dirac VR equips developers with the 3D audio platform to create the acoustics of any world that exists within their imagination – regardless of complexity and sophistication,” stated Isaksson. “Users can walk through a jungle teaming with wildlife and be immersed in the aural experience of monkeys howling as they swing above, frogs croaking as they hop below, and toucans squawking as they fly in the distance. We look forward to watching, and listening, to what the world will create with Dirac VR!”

Concluded Firasta, “The most exciting aspect of working in virtual and augmented reality is that we, as both a company with Dirac VR and as an industry in general, have just begun to scratch the surface of this technology’s potential. As new 3D audio breakthroughs inevitably occur in the months and years to come, Dirac VR will continuously evolve to ensure that our solution remains the go-to platform for our growing network of manufacturers and content developers.”