Object-based Audio for Televison Production

Abstract

Object-Based Audio (OBA) is the next exciting breakthrough in television production. It will provide personalization and an enhanced listening experience as revolutionary as sound was to motion pictures. The age of personalization has arrived and TV consumers can view any program, at any time and on virtually any media device. The next generation of audio encoders will have the capabilities to create OBA in television production and post-production. The beneficial features of OBA include audio personalization for language selection, dialogue enhancements and options for the hearing impaired. OBA provides the viewer with the ability to customize their viewing for any type of program in any viewing setting. The future audio codec technologies will enable audio production mixers, producers and broadcasters to produce customized audio for the viewer. This process begins at the original mix location and continues through the broadcast chain to delivery on any consumer device. These encoders will have the capability to emit surround sound and immersive sound with over 100 channels with objects either separately or in combination with each other. Scene based audio will also be a feature of the next generation codecs enabling the mixer to represent the sound image instead of channels. This paper will describe the evolution from current channel based TV production to the next generation of multi-featured audio encoders with OBA and the potential benefits they will offer to all types of TV viewers.