When a vision turns into stunningly realistic sound

Press Release /

»Bringing music of the future into people’s everyday lives« - that is the vision of Stefan Zaradić, the CEO of Zaraproduction, a renowned recording studio located in Munich. To turn this vision into reality, Stefan Zaradić has equipped his studio with the necessary technical infrastructure: with the help of Fraunhofer IDMT and Georg Neumann GmbH (a subsidiary of Sennheiser Group), Zaraproduction has installed “SpatialSound Wave“, the 3D sound system developed by Fraunhofer IDMT.

Stefan Zaradić has been working as a composer, producer, and sound designer for more than twenty years. During his professional career he has worked on multi-channel sound production and true-to-life, dynamic reproduction of sound.
"I have always been looking for ways to  reproduce sound as perfectly as possible", Zaradić says. "SpatialSound Wave is really a powerful tool that can be used for a broad range of applications. It is a milestone in the development of audio technology – for me as a professional sound engineer and for the listeners."

Together with experts from Fraunhofer IDMT, Zaradić initiated in summer 2014 his first sound installation with SpatialSound Wave. Visitors of the Trsteno Arboretum, a famous botanical garden near Dubrovnik (Croatia), had the opportunity to immerse into a 3D sound world made of music and natural sound effekts. "This whole experience, the sound we produced and the enthusiastic response of the audience, has made it clear to me that I wanted to continue to work with SpatialSound Wave in the future", Zaradić recalls.

Easy installation for mobile use
SpatialSound Wave is based on Fraunhofer IDMT’s long-standing experience with spatial sound reproduction technology, such as Wave Field Synthesis. The system can easily be integrated in existing setups as an add-on component. Instead of traditional channel based sound engineering, the system is object oriented, creating an entirely new quality of true-to-life spatial sound reproduction – regardless of the listener’s position and the loudspeaker arrangement. "This is really a unique feature, which offers me an entirely new approach to working as a sound engineer. And the listener gets to enjoy a much more natural and emotional sound experience", Zaradić says.

One of the main advantages of SpatialSound Wave is that the system can be installed and integrated nearly anywhere, quickly and without much effort. In the case of zaraproduction, 16 new loudspeakers had to be installed and configured for the 3D setup, and the SpatialSound Wave software had to be adapted in order to be able to edit and control the sound objects and scenes. The existing 5.1 and 7.1 setup could easily be integrated.

SpatialSound Wave, together with the required loudspeakers, can be installed flexibly, considering the given spatial conditions. The system is freely scalable, and the number of loudspeakers only depends on the desired intensity of the sound scene to be created. Due to its great setup flexibility, the system is ideal for being used for public events.

Great sound thanks to Neumann KH 120
zaraproduction uses SpatialSound Wave in combination with KH120 A studio monitors by Neumann.Berlin, a renowned manufacturer of high-end loudspeaker and microphone systems for professional use. Due to their compact design, the speakers are ideal for mobile installation, e.g. for on-site multimedia presentations.

zaraproduction is the second recording studio in Germany that uses SpatialSound Wave. In December of 2013, Hamburg based Primetime Studio was also equipped with 3D Sound by Fraunhofer IDMT.

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