Immersive Tech, a leading innovator of advanced location based VR experiences, and DTS, a global leader in next-generation audio, imaging, and sensing technology, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xperi Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: XPER) (“Xperi”), today announced collaboration to create a customized, innovative, high impact, spatial audio experience for UNCONTAINED; Immersive Tech’s hyper-immersive VR attraction.
Immersive Tech is a leader and innovator in the Location-Based Entertainment (LBE) Escape Games industry over the past 4 years with 64+ executions and currently expanding to meet the growing demand for multiplayer Virtual Reality Free-roam Attractions.
The direct combination of DTS’s custom “open air” speaker-based audio coupled with 3D spatial audio, and Immersive Tech’s hyper-immersive simulation environment, UNCONTAINED, allows Immersive Tech to innovate on a headphone-free, ultra-realistic VR experience like never before. This custom audio experience built for Immersive Tech’s specific UNCONTAINED hyper-immersive attraction sets the experience well ahead of any of its competition and pushes the industry to new levels of innovation. “Sound is a critical component to bring you to the suspension of disbelief in a VR experience and keep you completely in it. We are excited to innovate with Immersive Tech’s engineers to create compelling and high-impact experiences for Uncontained utilizing DTS audio technologies and techniques,” said John Kellogg, Vice President - Advanced Strategic Solutions, Pro Audio Production Services, Cinema & VR/XR.
DTSX is a fully immersive sound format. In addition to the horizontal plane, it covers sound sources above and below the listener presenting an experience that, unlike conventional stereo and surround sound, captures the full directivity information for every sound source in the immersive audio mix, including height information. This is ideal for immersive audio applications in which participants are suspended in a world their mind quickly interprets as real. This is further made possible through the innovation of building the free roam VR experience within a soundproof container, ideal for blocking out all external noises and leaving an ambient sound mix free of outside distractions.
Unlike headphone audio, which transmits limited signals and experience, DTS Audio delivers a sound field, which is decoded to an array of speakers throughout the UNCONTAINED interior, including subwoofers for maximum 3D sound effect. This allows Immersive Tech’s sound engineers and composers to control the audio source directions which provide a more compelling, real-life ambient audio experience than headphones alone could provide. “We are innovating all aspects of location-based VR with UNCONTAINED including a complete re-think of the audio experience inside hyper-immersive VR experiences. We believe that by going beyond headphones for a full 3D spatial ambient audio solution we can bring players deeper into the experience giving them a level of mind-blowing realism they have never experienced before in VR.” Said Tim Bieber, CEO of Immersive Tech.
Bob DeMaa is a key figure from DTS that has joined Immersive Tech full-time and is working with their engineering and game development team. Bob has 20+ years of experience in Audio Post-Production Mixing, Mastering, and Sound Design & Composition with a focus on Immersive audio for Channel and Binaural systems. He has worked at DTS for eight years as a senior Audio Content Creator and in Audio Quality Testing. He played a key role in the team behind the audio design and execution of the award-winning Hero VR installation which pioneered this innovation in immersive audio within VR free roam experiences. He was part of the team that developed specifically, the sound of DTS Headphone X (as implemented in Windows and Xbox). Bob’s reputation precedes him and will be a resourceful team member at Immersive Tech. "I’m ecstatic to be part of the team that will deliver a truly AAA immersive cinematic experience to VR gaming with an experience that brings us one huge step closer to the childhood dream of being part of a crew aboard a spaceship exploring new worlds and working together." Said Bob DeMaa, Immersive Audio & Sound Design Specialist, Immersive Tech.
The customized 3D Spatial audio experience, developed by Immersive Tech and Xperi’s DTS production services team, is part of the UNCONTAINED hyper-immersive VR product suite launching August 2021.
About Immersive Tech
As an industry leader in blending amusement park engineering and video game development, Immersive Tech has established strong working relationships with top organizations including: Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Intel, Allegiant Airlines, Capital One, Scotia Bank, and the US Food and Drug Administration among others for brand activations at events including X-Games, Boston Hub Week among others. Over the past four years. Immersive Tech has built highly sought after escape room experiences for some of the largest Family Entertainment groups globally including APEX Entertainment and Kalahari Resorts. Immersive Tech also operates their newly launched mid-scale attraction product “UNCONTAINED”. UNCONTAINED is the world’s first VR “portal to the metaverse”. UNCONTAINED is a modular, hyper-immersive, multiplayer VR attraction built within a shipping container.
