Tech Focus: Immersive Audio, Part 2 — Mixing for the Next Generation of Sound

Console manufacturers adjust to the demands for more

Over the decades, mix consoles have adapted to pro audio’s relentless push to accommodate more inputs, driven mostly by music production; when tape’s capacity maxed out at 48 tracks in the 1990s and recording moved to the (theoretically) infinite landscape of virtual tracks, consoles used digital layering to expand inputs while keeping work surfaces accessible.

The arrival of surround monitoring placed the challenge on outputs and bus structure, and immersive’s 7.1.4 format further compounds that. Console manufacturers have adapted to that shift in emphasis.

Internal Console Architecture

Calrec’s Henry Goodman: “One of the main challenges in moving to immersive is the wider bus structure that you need within a console.”

“One of the main challenges in moving to immersive is the wider bus structure that you need within a console,” explains Henry Goodman, director, product management, Calrec. “With our older consoles, it was possible to do, but the operator had to manage the buses in a not particularly ideal way. For example, for height [channel] buses, he had to use other main output buses and find novel ways of panning between them.”

That has been addressed by Calrec’s current generation of broadcast desks — including its Argo, Artemis, Apollo, and Impulse models — for which, he says, the company has designed wider bus structures, accommodating up to a dozen outputs. There were other challenges to accommodating immersive mixing, such as monitoring that reflected to wider bus structures and metering that can displays the full width of the immersive path as well.

Broadcasters are moving cautiously into immersive mixing in general, Goodman says, although some productions have pushed the format harder than most. More broadly, it’s still constrained by downstream infrastructure: most cable systems aren’t equipped to deliver Atmos end to end.

But, he adds, immersive is likely inevitable. “I think, the way it’s being driven, it will become a standard for the industry, but, like 5.1, it will take a long time for that to become the norm for productions.”

Immersive Meets Consumer Expectations

Although timelines are uncertain for various reasons, mixer manufacturers are nonetheless planning for an immersive broadcast-audio future, seeing it both as a natural progression from surround and a reflection of changing consumer culture.

Lawo’s Wolfgang Huber: “Sports broadcasters increasingly recognize the value of delivering soundscapes that place audiences in the stadium, capturing the energy of the crowd, the intensity of the game.”

“Demand for immersive audio is surging,” says Wolfgang Huber, public relations manager, Lawo, “especially for high-profile events where viewers expect to be fully immersed in the action. Sports broadcasters increasingly recognize the value of delivering soundscapes that place audiences in the stadium, capturing the energy of the crowd, the intensity of the game, and even the subtle environmental nuances. The rise of streaming platforms pushing Dolby Atmos content for live sports has [also] set a new benchmark. Traditional broadcasters are following suit, realizing that immersive sound is no longer optional but a competitive necessity.”

Lawo’s mc² consoles, A__UHD cores, and HOME mc² DSP app are designed with immersive audio in mind, natively support channel-based formats like Dolby Atmos and MPEG-H, and have an IP-native infrastructure, supporting SMPTE ST 2110 and AES67.

Anticipating challenges around mixing immersively, the platforms include built-in immersive panning capabilities, which treat height channels as an integral part of the mix. That, says Huber, acknowledges the tasks A1s face with immersive audio.

“Immersive audio adds complexity to live production,” he notes. “One of the main challenges is managing the additional dimensions of sound — height channels, object-based mixing, and spatialization — without overwhelming the engineer. Live sports bring additional challenges: the unpredictability of crowd reactions, rapid transitions between field and studio audio, and the need to highlight specific moments — a goal or a dramatic play — within the immersive mix.” To address those concerns, he adds, the consoles have such tools as built-in monitoring and rendering and integrated height-channel controls.

Even More Immersive

Solid State Logic’s System T broadcast desk, whose immersive features include channel and bus formats with integrated XYZ and rotational 3D panning, as well as 360-degree transcoder with A-B conversion for Sennheiser’s AMBEO VR format (and Dante compatibility with the Voyage Audio SpatialMic), is already anticipating the next iterations of immersive: the latest software update in late 2024 brought its output-channel capability up to 9.1.6.

SSL’s Berny Carpenter: “The higher the quality at the beginning of the chain, the more options there are for everyone down the chain.”

SSL Broadcast Product Manager Berny Carpenter points out that music has been leading the way into immersive in recent years; Apple Music and Dolby have been heavily promoting the combination, and that helps set the stage for further immersive implementation in broadcast.

“All these things are helping gain traction with a wider audience,” he says. “But I hope sports broadcast will be a key part of this journey as well.”

In the meantime, he adds, increasing channel counts also enhances brand visibility. “When there are opportunities for us to innovate, we want to be at the forefront. It’s great to be able to present to our customers new ways of doing things and work together to shape the future.”

He’s not concerned about outstripping A1s’ ability to manage immersive sound for sports. In fact, he expects it to eventually become the primary format, with surround and stereo mixes automatically folded down from there. The workflow, he says, will increase average audio quality for sports even though going through more downmix stages: “The higher the quality at the beginning of the chain, the more options there are for everyone down the chain.”

Rather, he suggests, the personalization capabilities accompanying immersive sound into the next generation of broadcast audio will be more of a challenge to manage.

But that, fortunately, is a challenge that won’t have to be baked into the mix console.