All those hi-res screens need hi-res sound, says Darragh Ballesty, director of mobile biz dev at DTS.
Everyone knows that visual technology – from TVs to phones to tablets – is developing at an astonishing rate. Consumers watch video on a huge variety of devices in just about any location.
But this evolution is not just restricted to what we see. Increasingly, broadcasters and device makers realise that great sound is also essential to the full immersive experience.
The demand for smartphones is accelerating this trend. Over one billion smartphones will be shipped worldwide by 2015, and every one of these users will expect a great audio experience. In fact, a survey by Parks Associates found that 60 per cent of mobile consumers want surround sound capabilities on their next mobile phone.
Essentially, the smaller the screen, the more important the role of audio in creating an engaging the ‘in-the-action’ feeling that you get from home theatre on your mobile.
Of course, providers face many challenges. As more people start viewing content outside of the home, poor sound quality caused by environmental noise distraction or poor bandwidth has become one obvious issue.
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Another key issue relates to streaming. Consumers have been listening to pre-loaded and downloadable music content for many years on mobile devices. And consequently they have a high expectation that audio should naturally work, and if it doesn’t, again the visual element suffers.
Users may be forgiving of artifacts in streaming video, but when it comes to audio drop-outs, consumers are much more sensitive. Audio just has to work, and work well.
In order to grow this market and meet consumer demand, broadcasters must be encouraged to allow audio to be scaled and standardised so that it retains the same quality across all consumer devices and platforms.
Regardless of bandwidth or platform, scalable technologies such as our own DTS HD Master Audio now allow the operator to deliver a high-standard HD service to users wherever they are consuming their entertainment and on whichever platform.
There is a world of things that the industry is doing with audio enhancement to make the devices more audio-friendly given different environments. Advances in audio codec systems give a more immersive surround sound experience over both headphones and built-in speakers in a range of environments, as well as ‘boost’ technologies that deliver a bigger sound and avoid distortion.
Such an emphasis on consistent future audio quality is something DTS understands all too well.
We designed our systems to allow for advances in audio technology, rather than using add-ons, and consequently the seasoned technophiles will unanimously agree we have the best sound technology on the market.
We believe that in order to grow this market and meet consumer demand, broadcasters need to standardise and scale the audio they output so that it can be converted for use on devices and platforms other than TV, while retaining the same original quality.
Through standardisation of audio, broadcasters can ensure they offer compelling entertainment in order to retain and build upon subscription service offerings as well as the interactive features that go hand-in-hand with conventional viewing practices.
* DTS is an audio technology specialist. Its tech is now a mandatory audio format in the Blu-ray Disc standard and is used on a wide range network-connected consumer devices.
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