In conventional audio systems individually recorded or “miked” sounds are mixed down into one channel for mono, two channels for stereo, or up to eight for a surround system. To move a sound in the listening space the sound has to jump from one channel to another. With professional mixing techniques the results can be quite good, even perfect – but only for a small section of the audience, the so-called sweet spot. 5.1, 7.2, or 10.2 play out systems all strive to enhance the sweet spot. Adding more and more channels has been the response to the increasing demand of the audience to have a more realistic listening experience.

In an IOSONO environment, by contrast, the entire room is filled with sound – immersing the entire audience into a specific sound atmosphere with discreet sound events moving right up to their ears, flying through their heads and throughout the room – even beyond the walls.

IOSONO’s innovation is that it recreates natural sound waves while traditional audio systems merely amplify sound. This process, called Wave Field Synthesis, is based on the principle that sound waves can be reproduced using secondary sources at the perimeter of the sound field.

Speaker arrays ring the listening space and operate in a coordinated, phased fashion to re-create each individual sound wave. For example, a helicopter can slowly approach the audience, fly through the middle of the theatre, and disappear off into the distance. The audience hears the sound waves the helicopter would generate if it were actually flying this path.