Three main features

Spectacularly Immersive

Listening with different orientations

IAP Calibration 6.0

The Spring 2018 IAP Firmware/Software updates all IAP models to the latest state. Below are highlights and a detailed list of changes.

The update is available here.

Spectacularly Immersive

Depth/Immersion now more spectacular and more clean.

Amazing how sound becomes more spacious, even with only two loudspeakers. Not to mention the immersion which is generated with multi-loudspeaker setups.

We have put months of effort into revising IAPs’ Depth/Immersion algorithms. A goal has been to make their effect more balanced across different music. Ideally a single Depth/Immersion setting should work well for all types of music. We have come closer to that goal, by introducing new mechanisms which automatically adapt Depth/Immersion levels to the source – like a couple of little sound engineers hidden within IAP, actively mixing Depth/Immersion.

Additionally, we have improved the de-reverb algorithms on Depth/Immersion inputs, to “un-cloud” the signals before generating early and diffuse reverberation. This makes sound cleaner in general and prevents unpleasant “reverb cascade” effect.

Listening with Different Orientations

Orientation is a new feature, apply to any loudspeaker setup with surround channels.

By the touch of a button, you can change the orientation of the sound:

frontal: default listening, sound stage is in front

rear: sound stage is reproduced by surround loudspeakers

side: sound stage is on left or right side

party: sound is reproduced from everywhere

Why would one want to do this?

Well, why not once listening with an orientation towards the window? Or have a joint-audiophile and movies setup, where frontal orientation is used for movies and rear orientation for music?

Orientation works by the touch of a button! All is automatic, all is always optimal. Immersive keeps working. Calibration and crossovers remain optimal.

You can define an orientation in each sound settings preset.

IAP Calibration 6.0

A number of installers and sound engineers have been using IAP Calibration and have enjoyed its real-time operation (as you move controls, sound reacts instantly, like on a mixing console) and numerous AB comparison options.

We have enhanced and improved IAP Calibration based on pro user’s feedback:

faster real-time operation, AB now always instant, before/after also instant (this required also changes in IAP’s firmware)

new current eq (and linked eqs) enable/disable to quickly AB listen to one eq

new eq overal gain, for improved AB comparison eq versus eq bypass

new improved subwoofer/crossover features, aiding time alignment, bass cancellation calibration, etc.

Detailed List of Additions and Improvements

Below is a detailed list of changes of this latest update, compared to the previous major update version (Winter 2018 Update).

Firmware IAP 2/4/8/16

upmix 6.1: depth/immersion improvements

extended output gain trim range to +-12dB, added channel mute option

new features eq gain and orientation

improved timing smoothness, less display/communications blocking when changing params

IAP 2/4/8: increased max preset name to 14 characters (full display width, before 12 char)

fixed bug in update script, which would fail update of HDMI 2.0b chipsets

IAP 16: fixed bug, SUB (ch 16) can not be channel copy destination

fixed bug, where when Immersive was off, it was not entirely switched off

fixed bug, where new LP/HP types were disabled when eq was set to off (now all LP/HP always on, to keep crossovers always on)

IAP Controller Software

added warning when .iap file is from different version

added warning when .iap file is from different version

loudspeaker setup dialog: -disable sub as copy location for channel copy (not supported)

support new features: eq gain (outputs) and orientation (presets)

support extended IAP gain trim range and new channel mute

improved forward/backwards compatiblity between IAP firmwares

accelerated communication with IAP

IAP Calibration Software

improved audio handling

improved audio handling

new measurement gain for each loudspeaker, this is useful in special cases when gains highly vary

workflow improvements

new disable selected eq function (great for AB listening)

there there is a button “Apply BMGT XO” to apply bass management crossovers’ on all plots where applicable

now one can include only subwoofers in plots

spk include now respects channel linking, if on that is whole ch link group is added/removed

phantom sub is now only shown for included subs -so one can investigate performance of any subs combinations

waterfall plot: added time-range parameter

time plot added filter option, aiding crossover phase alignment

accelerated communication with IAP, especially noticable when using revert and before/after functions

add individual loudspeaker gains for measurement (expert feature)

support extended IAP gain trim range and new channel mute

many small improvements & bug fixes

The Winter 2018 IAP Firmware/Software updates all IAP models to the latest state. Below some highlights and a detailed list of changes.

The update is available here.

Center

While the Winter 2017 release brought major improvements to the Depth and Immersion, this release incorporates a major improvement to the Center center, released after more than 5 years of development.

While we thought that our previous center channel worked very well,  it has only been now, in comparison to the new algorithm, what additional potential there was!

The new algorithm works in 97 frequency bands – more than the number of keys of a piano! This allows separation of simultaneous tonal instruments, such as a soloist center violin, while other off center strings are playing.

Also, the new algorithm works with stereo phase and delay differences, preventing any timbral coloration when left-right delays occur in a recording. At higher frequencies, similar to the human hearing system, delay differences between the frequency-band temporal-envelopes are considered. Thus, even left-right uncorrelated signal is now routed to center when needed. The result is a center channel which sounds brilliant and full band.

Softwares

IAP Calibration has been improved in many ways. Here a few new features:

Automatic detection of bad levels during measurement, and notification to user

Auralization improvements, enabling yet better Illusonic Calibration Service (new auralizaton presets, improved signal processing)

IAP Controller has been updated to support the new upmix/center feature.

Detailed List of Additions and Improvements

Below is a detailed list of changes of this latest update, compared to the previous major update version (Spring 2017 Update).

Firmware IAP 2/4/8

added Illusonic upmix 6 (new center + improvements)

center on/off/on mutes sound to prevent switching artifact due to center’s new C=>LR crossover

fixed bug in firmware versions 5.x, where input delay was not always changed when switching inputs

improved dsp muting

update HDMI 1.4 firmware, version 0B-27-06

added support for future HDMI 2.0b boards

added more characters for strings (+, :, !, *)

added new dsp info menu (real-time info) and removed corresponding secret menus

Firmware IAP 16

added Illusonic upmix 6 (new center + improvements)

center on/off/on mutes sound to prevent switching artifact due to center’s new C=>LR crossover

fixed bug in firmware versions 5.x, where input delay was not always changed when switching inputs

improved dsp muting

update HDMI 1.4 firmware, version 0B-27-06

added support for future HDMI 2.0b boards

added more characters for strings (+, :, !, *)

added new dsp info menu (real-time info) and removed corresponding secret menus

IAP Controller Software

modifications for upmix v6 (hide matrix option)

added more characters for strings (+, :, !, *)

IAP Calibration Software

added measurement levels safeguard

now measurement is interrupted when mic level is not reasonable, user is notified

Current IAP owners can upgrade their IAP to HDMI 2.0 for CHF 800.00 (Swiss Francs) plus shipping.

Technical Details:
Supports 4K @ 24/30/50/60 Hz on all inputs with HDCP 1.x support. HDCP 2.2 on HDMI 4 input for high value (4K) HDMI 2.0 content

Firmware update of IAP retains all settings. Without any further work, IAP will function as before. Also, the latest IAP softwares can open files from previous software versions.

For given settings, the sound does not change. Only if for example the new equalisers are explicitly used, will sound change, over previous IAP firmwares.

The update is available here.

New Equalizer Types

Previously six parametric equaliser types were supported (Bell, low/high shelving, low/high pass, allpass). 17 new types have been added. Primarily the intention was to provide many more options to optimise cross-overs. IAP Calibration fully supports all new equaliser types.

IAP Calibration

A major update of IAP Calibration is included in this IAP update. The most powerful acoustic measurement/analysis/simulation/optimisation tool available, has been further advanced. Besides the dozens of improvements, distortion measurement has been added. Making it easy to detect issues in your HiFi system (defects, undesired vibrations, etc.).

Detailed List of Additions and Improvements

Below is a detailed list of changes of this latest update, compared to the previous major update version (Winter 2017 Update).

Firmware

fixed bug, where SPDIF input could be unreliable

added support for many new EQ types

fixed bug related to source input delay

if no center channel, or center strength=0, FL/FR are passed through bit-identically, as in bypass

IAP Controller Software

added strict condition to work only with current IAP firmware

added support for 17 new EQ types

IAP Calibration Software

added strict condition to work only with current IAP firmware

added support for 17 new EQ types

added function to save plots as high resolution .png files

new distortion analysis tool

distortion panel with many options

distortion analysis feature in time plots

increased max number of microphone positions from 24 to 32

improved plots: now thicker average lines are behind

improved precision of time plots (more points, etc.)

improved amplitude range handling for time plots

fixed a drawing issue of time plots on the left edge

improved y-axis ticks (adaptive number of ticks)

made automatic gain/delay estimation more precise

fixed bug with normalization of measurements

now peak is shown after measuring each mic position (before it was only shown after the complete measurement series)

fixed an incompatibility with files of old IAP Calibration version

fixed bug where subsonic filter was not simulated if bass management on but inactive (quite a rare scenario)

major update of verification measurement feature

fixed bug where gain-delay/eq/bmgt/tone-control on/off would not properly switch IAP (was not an issue during normal operation)

Besides many under the hood refinements, new features have been added, and the IAP Controller and IAP Calibration softwares have been improved. Below some highlights and a detailed list of changes.

Firmware update of IAP retains all settings. Without any further work, IAP will function as before. Also, the latest IAP softwares can open files from previous software versions. EXCEPTION: Depth and Immersion parameters are set to default, since these significantly changed, compared to previous firmware versions.

The update is available here.

Depth and Immersion

Illusonic’s spatial audio technology is renown worldwide. We license our “upmix” technology to several companies making  cinemas audio processors, broadcast 5.1 processors, binaural headphone systems, digital microphones, and music production plug-ins. This technology also provides the IAP “Center”, “Depth”, and “Immersion” functions.

After three years of work, this IAP firmware update includes new Depth and Immersion functions, improved from the ground up. Depth detaches sound from the loudspeakers and Immersion envelopes the listeners. While for multi-channel systems the benefit is obvious, the new Depth and Immersion work also surprisingly well for stereo systems!

Try Depth/Immersion out! The effect is amazingly extended spaciousness. Use them modestly, goal is to feel space, not hear “audio effect”.

Calibration with Virtual Tuning

IAP and IAP Calibration have already set a standard in room equalisation and calibration. This system has again been vastly advanced (see detailed list of changes below).

A highlight is the new unique virtual tuning feature, which allows to listen to your sound system with headphones, while tuning equalisers and crossovers. This makes it easier to decide whether a specific equalizer works well or not. Like a magnifying glass for your eyes, virtual tuning facilitates focusing-in on details, perceptually. The virtual tuning also contributes to a further improved Illusonic Calibration Service. Now we can listen into your room, without being there.

Multiroom Calibration

Now IAP Calibration has full multi-room support. When an IAP is configured for multiple rooms, you can measure all the rooms from within one project. This greatly simplifies the process. A single IAP Calibration project includes the measurements from all rooms.

Thanks to these extensions, our Illusonic Calibration Service is now available for multiroom systems.

Detailed List of Additions and Improvements

Below is a detailed list of changes of this latest update, compared to the previous major update version (April 2016 Update).

Firmware IAP 2/4/8

new UPMIX v5 DSP library

add support for HSR41P board (HDMI 2.0)

fix issue with infrared remote control

fix name of SUB channels when multiple subs are used

microcontroller udpate for modified/new parameters of UPMIX v5

DSP adds support for many additional EQ types

Optimisation of DSP code

Got rid of equaliser and bass management menus (these settings are now only accessible via IAP Controller and IAP Calibration)

configured Wolfson SPDIF chip to support 192/176 kHz

fixed issue, where IAP name not correctly shown to HDMI source

Firmware IAP 16

new UPMIX v5 DSP library

microcontroller udpate for modified/new parameters of UPMIX v5

add support for HSR41P board (HDMI 2.0)

DSP adds support for many additional EQ types

Optimisation of DSP code

Got rid of equaliser and bass management menus (these settings are now only accessible via IAP Controller and IAP Calibration)

configured Wolfson SPDIF chip to support 192/176 kHz

IAP Controller Software

modified sound settings to match UPMIX v5

added multi-threading for lengthy operations (IAP read/write)

IAP Calibration Software

added multi-threading for lengthy operations (measurement, IAP read/write, simulations)

loudspeaker selection groups can now be edited

microphone positions selection groups can now be edited

channel can be linked for joint-modification of params

binaural headphones tuning feature

added higher freq resolution option (beyond 1/18dB)

make y-axis (dB) in frequency plots absolute and same between all plots

multi-room extension: now with one project one can measure multiple rooms

added new test signals (tone, tone bursts, sweeps)

now .wav files (48kHz, 2ch) can be used as test signals

now better support for international symbols (file names, microphone positions names, loudspeaker names)

many small improvements and bug-fixes

On the campus of renown technical university EPFL Lausanne is a Montreux Jazz Cafe. It features a listening room with a 31.2 channel sound system. Illusonic has calibrated this system with its IAP Calibration software.

Visitors can enjoy a few 31.2 channels remixed Montreux Jazz videos. Additionally the whole archive plays in 31.2 thanks to Illusonic Immersive (same technology as in IAP, extended to 33 channels).

https://restauration.epfl.ch/montreuxjazzcafe

Besides many under the hood refinements, new features have been added, and the IAP Controller and IAP Calibration softwares have been improved. Below some highlights and a detailed list of changes.

Firmware update of IAP retains all settings. Without any further work, IAP will function as before. Also, the latest IAP softwares can open files from previous software versions.

The update is available here.

Refined Calibration System

IAP and IAP Calibration have already set a standard in room equalisation and calibration. This system has now been further advanced. The measurement process has been simplified with instructions on microphone positions and a help system integrated into IAP Calibration software. The GUI has been greatly improved, not only visually, but allowing more convenient and much faster calibration editing.

IAP Calibration can now also be used to determine optimal bass and treble settings (frequency and gain). A room should be rationally calibrated, the subjective aspect can be handled with bass/treble, allowing also different sound settings presets for different cases (sweet spot, everywhere in room, etc.).

These and other new features also contribute to an improved Illusonic Calibration Service. The measurement data sent to us now contains all your IAP settings, such that we can review them. This also allows us to deliver the result in the form of a small .iap file which can be more easily loaded into IAP with IAP Controller software.

Multi-Room Support

A multi-channel IAP can now not only be used with all channels in one room, but any unused channels can be configured to play sound in other rooms. Each room can be calibrated separately. Each room has separate volume and mute controls.

The loudspeaker setups in each room can be different. For example, an IAP 4 can be used to drive two stereo systems in two rooms. Or, an IAP 8 can be used to drive a 5.1 system in one room and a stereo system in another room. In this case, IAP 8 will handle proper downmixing for the stereo room, when needed.

Other New Features

IAP Controller GUI and functionality has been refined. On user request, we have added a balance control, allowing to adjust the stereo image by as precisely as one degree (IAP 2 / 4 / 8). RIAA filtering is now not only available on the phono input, but also on analog input, for those analog purists that use a flat phono preamp before IAP. Additonally, many other internal refinements and reliability improvements have been implemented.

Detailed List of Changes

Below is a detailed list of changes of this latest update, compared to the previous version (January 2016 Update).

Firmware IAP 2/4/8

new Balance control

new option to apply RIAA de-emphasis filter on analog line input

extended range for Sub Overhead to -10 … +20 dB

support for multi-room on IAP 4/8

low-level changes to improve flexility and reliability of IAP Calibration

many other internal improvements

Firmware IAP 16

extend range of Sub Overhead to -10 … +20 dB

support multi-room

low-level changes to improve flexility and reliability of IAP Calibration

many other internal improvements

IAP Softwares

IAP Controller

new layout of inputs pane

multi-room configuration support

many other improvements

IAP Calibration

major GUI changes

new help system and simplified measurement process

vastly improved handling of equalizers

vastly improved EQ mouse-editing

improved system for verification measurement

includes now also bass and treble

function to export .iap files compatible with IAP Controller

many other improvements

Illusonic sponsors for the third time a concert of Calliope. This time again as a main sponsor.

A year of intensive work on IAP 16 firmware bears its fruits: Firmware Update 4.0 & greatly improved IAP Controller and IAP Calibration softwares.

Based on user requests, we have added:

more equalizers (6 per channel)

more subwoofers (up to 4)

more IR remote control commands

active crossovers (up to 4-way)

lock settings feature

standby LED brightness

Windows 8 support

IAP Calibration software and Illusonic Calibration Service cover all new features (up to four subwoofers, active crossovers), to make sure every system with every feature is ultimately optimized.

Other improvements:

major update to IAP Controller software

major update to IAP Calibration software

Check out the updated Immersive Audio Processor (IAP 16) page!

PSI Audio, Illusonic – (Raum 10)

PSI Audio nutzt eine ausgefeilte Aktivtechnik für Studio-Monitore. Eine ähnliche Technik nutzen sie, um ein unbewältigtes Problem anzugehen: die aktive Absorption von Raummoden. Die als KTI-Forschungsprojekt entstandene Lösung wird als Prototyp vorgeführt.

Illusonic führt ihre innovativen Audio-Prozessoren an PSI-Monitoren vor und zeigt, wie grundlegende Probleme der Stereofonie und der Raumakustik entschärft werden können.

We present with a booth and a room shared with loudspeaker manufacturer Klangwerk. On our booth D29 in Hall 4, we will:

Explain our products

Display our different IAP models

Demonstrate our system/room calibration service

In Atrium 4, Room F 231 B, we will demonstrate IAP 4 with Klangwerk loudspeakers:

IAP 4

Klangwerk Ella main left and right loudspeakers

Klangwerk Muro on/in-wall surround loudspeakers

BMzC acoustic elements

IAP 4 will connect to these sources:

HDMI universal player (CD, SACD, DVD, Blu ray)

Network Media Server

Thorens turntable

Additionally, every day, I will give a presentation on the High End Technology Stage about room equalization. Compared to last year, I’ll present new insights and tricks:

Thursday, May 24, 11:00 
11:30 (in German)

Friday, May 25, 11:00 
11:30 (in English)

Saturday, May 26, 11:00 
11:30 (in German)

Sunday, May 27, 11:00 
11:30 (in English)

I will present a paper at the AES 138th International Convention in Warsaw/Poland, taking place May 7-10, about head tracking for mobile headphone usage. By measuring small head fluctuations and imposing the acoustic effect of these on headphones signals, spaciousness and front-back extent are improved. Surprisingly, we were also able to show with a subjective test that random head fluctuations, not related to actual head fluctuations, give a similar effect, but weaker.

Thursday, May 7, 12:00 — 12:30

Binaural Audio with Relative and Pseudo Head Tracking

Presenter Christof Faller (co-authors: Fritz Menzer, Christophe Tournery)

While it has been known for years that head-tracking can significantly improve binaural rendering, it has not been widely used in consumer applications. The goal of the proposed techniques is to leverage head tracking, while making it more usable for mobile applications, where the sound image shall not have an absolute position in space. Relative head tracking keeps the sound image in front, while reducing the effect of head movements to only small fluctuations. Relative head tracking can be implemented with only a gyrometer; there is no need for absolute direction. An even more economical technique with the goal to improve binaural rendering is pseudo head tracking. It generates small head movements using a random process without resorting to a gyroscope. The results of a subjective test indicate that both relative and pseudo head tracking can contribute to spaciousness and front/back differentiation.

Stereophile has published its 2014 Recommended Components. Our Immersive Audio Processor has been chosen by Stereophile editors to be included in this list. Top rated other audio products are there, like the editor’s favorite amplifiers, cables, loudspeakers, and turntables. Stereophile editors recognised our out-of-the-conventional innovation.

Introduction

Recording sound in a reverberant space can be a challenging task, since it strongly depends on many external and random factors, such as:

the distance from the sound source to the recording point

the geometry and properties of the room/space

Acoustically, a recording in a reverberant space is characterised by a first direct sound followed by sounds transmitted through reflected paths. Considering enough time after the directly transmitted sound and few early reflections, numerous reflections are themselves reflected in the space creating a diffuse sound field. By diffuse sound field is mathematically understood independent sounds having the same energy and coming from all directions. Practically, diffuse sound field and late reverberations are identified to be the same.

Microphones

In this context, de-reverberation is the art of controlling the amount of late reverberations with respect to direct sound in a recording. Conventional microphone techniques have been widely used to successfully provide high quality recordings with dry sound.

Technically:

a microphone has to be placed at a relatively near distance from the source,

the type of microphone is chosen to achieve the desired additional attenuation of reverberation

The figure above illustrates how conventional microphones functionally cope with reverberation. On one side the directional response of a microphone corresponds to the gain how a direct sound in free-field is recorded as a function of its direction of arrival. On the other side the directivity index gives the overall attenuation applied to diffuse sound.

Typically, the data sheet of a conventional microphone will provide measurements of these two characteristics. The figure below shows, for instance, how a cardioid microphone is measured to derive its directional response from direct sound, and its directivity index from diffuse sound.

A cardioid microphone captures direct sound with an unitary gain from the look direction, a 6 dB attenuation on the sides, and infinitely attenuation on the rear. Also, it applies a 4.8 dB attenuation to diffuse sound.

Simulating A Directive Microphone

The concept of Illusonic de-reverberation solutions is to digitally simulate a highly directive microphone. Let’s consider further the responses of a cardioid microphone to any mixes of direct and diffuse sounds as shown in the left side of the figure above. The ideal target microphone would be such that its directional response and its directivity index could go beyond the ones of a conventional microphone, as proposed in right side of the figure above.

Placing coincidently two cardioid microphone elements face to face, the directional response of a virtual microphone can be derived and fully controlled. By further discriminating between direct and diffuse sounds as a function of how the two cardioid signals correlate, the attenuation applied to direct versus diffuse sound in the virtual microphone can be adapted.

The resulting microphone can be measured under the same conditions as conventional microphones. And, again, excited with any mixes of direct and diffuse sounds, the directional response (direct sound only) and directivity index (diffuse sound only) can be measured. The figure below shows a measurement of the virtual microphone on the right side, compared to the ideal target microphone shown on the left side.

Differential Microphones

The same solution could be of course straightforwardly applied to consumer electronic devices. However cardioid microphone elements have to be placed in free air to work which seems not compatible with consumer electronic design. The use of omni-directional microphone elements is more suitable since these elements can be better hidden or embedded in the devices.

Consequently, before applying the same principles as previously described to derive a digital highly directive microphone, a pre-processing step is required to convert the two omnidirectional microphone signals into two virtual cardioid microphone signals.

This numerical transformation results in frequency and noise issues depending on the distance between the two omnidirectional microphone elements forcing the algorithm to cope with inter-microphone mismatch, high microphone/electronic noise levels, and limited frequency responses.

Single Microphone

Last but not least, considering a single microphone, the perviously described processing cannot be applied anymore. No information about the direction of arrival of sound neither its diffuse or direct nature can be retrieved.

The response of the recording space to reverberant sound is modelled instead as shown in figure below. The idea is not to invert the full impulse response but derive an estimate of the late reverberant sound only. Late reverberation is assumed to follow an exponential decay with a characteristic time corresponding the reverberation time. A parametric filter is thus proposed to recursively estimate, directly from the microphone signal, the reverberant sound directly which will be suppressed.

Conclusions

The Illusonic de-reverberation solutions have been inspired from conventional microphone recording techniques. They digitally simulate a highly directive microphone with adjustable de-reverberation capabilities. They are furthermore flexible and scalable from lower to higher grade microphone qualities.

Disclaimer
Note that the functionality and functioning of Illusonic technologies and products may be modified at any time without notice. The algorithm descriptions above are for illustrative purpose only.

If you are around, don’t miss this great musical in Lausanne on June 20th by choir Calliope! Calliope is one of Lausanne’s traditional choirs. Creative as they are, this time they perform a musical named “C’est quoi ce cirque!”.