Live Design has awarded its coveted Sound Product of the Year award to Astro Spatial Audio’s SARA II Premium Rendering Engine.
The milestone news marks the first time that a major prize has been presented to the world’s leading independent object-based immersive audio solution. All of the award winners, including lighting and video manufacturers, will be honoured at the forthcoming Live Design International exhibition in Las Vegas.
Widely respected as a leading accolade within the US audio industry, the Live Design Products of the Year awards are both nominated and voted for by working members of the sound community, meaning winners are chosen based on real-world experience.
Astro Spatial Audio’s win follows a number of high profile successes for the object-based 3D sound solution, including its place at the heart of the ground-breaking sound design for the hit Broadway show, The Band’s Visit, for which Kai Harada recently won the Tony Award for Best Sound Design in a Musical.
In addition, Astro Spatial Audio is setting audiences alight on London’s West End as part of Tina: The Musical, and electrifying a new generation of rock fans in the new US production of The Who’s Tommy. Other key projects include the State Opera in Berlin and Moscow’s Maly Theatre.
“We are delighted and grateful to receive this award, particularly as the initial nomination came from a sound designer working in the field – someone who really understands the difference that Astro Spatial Audio represents,” enthused Bjorn Van Munster, Director of Astro Spatial Audio. “The best compliment we can receive is hearing that our customers are using our technology to achieve more than they initially realised was possible, so it means a great deal to win an award which is voted for by those same professionals.”
The core of the Astro Spatial Audio solution, the SARA II Premium Rendering Engine facilitates the conversion of audio signals into audio objects. A 3U road- and rack-ready processor offering up to 128 MADI or 128 Dante configurable network pathways at 48kHz/24-bit resolution, it utilises extensive metadata attached to each audio object.
The result is a precise calculation, updated 40 times per second, of that object’s position within virtual 3D space, as well as that object’s acoustic effect on the virtual space around it. The outcome is a truly three-dimensional audio canvas with which engineers can unleash the potential of their show.