I sat down with the team of AURO-3D attending Cannes with a demo booth at Majestic Beach.

The spectacular demo was outstanding, immersive, precise and seems to make a huge difference with existing professional or home video installations on the market.

The 25m² demo theatre built for the circumstance had 20 speakers and 3 bass speakers...

Tell me about Auro Technologies?

                Auro Technologies is part of the Galaxy Studios Group of companies and was launched in 2010 when it introduced its breathrough audio format Auro-3D®.  The company serves customers in digital cinema, home cinema, mobile, gaming and automotive sectors.

• Tell me about the Galaxy Studio Group?

                Galaxy Studios is a music recording, mixing, mastering and post-production facility established in 1980 by two brothers, Wilfried and Guy Van Baelen. It is the home of the    Auro-3D® sound technology, invented and developed by CEO Wilfried Van Baelen in 2005.

• Who are the key executives at Auro Technologies?

Ø  Wilfried Van Baelen/ founder and CEO

Ø  Guy Van Baelen – CFO

Ø  Bert Van Daele – CTO

Ø  Robert Bose - VP Business Development and Marketing

• Where are the Auro Technologies headquarters located?

                Auro Technologies’ headquarters is in Belgium

• What is Auro Technologies relationship with Barco?

                Barco has an exclusive license on the Auro-3D® technology for the professional cinema             market

About 3D Sound

• What is 3D sound?

                3D sound is the addition of the third and final dimension (Height) in the evolution of   sound. This experience is fundamentally different from (2D) Surround sound, which        does not allow sounds from objects or reflections to be reproduced in three-    dimensional space. Immersive sound is also referred to as “Surround sound with height”         or “Sound in 3D”.

• How does 3D sound differ from surround sound currently on the market?

Other offerings do not factor in the various height layers

About Auro-3D

• What is Auro-3D?

                Auro-3D® is a listening format that is an exciting move from two-dimensional Surround             Sound formats (5.1/7.1) to three-dimensional sound, achieved by adding height in front          and around the viewer. The unique Auro-3D® speaker layouts deliver the most efficient          immersive and natural sound experience in a layer formation around the viewer, which   surpasses existing industry sound technology.

• How does Auro-3D Work?

                Auro-3D is an immersive 3D audio format. It is designed along three layers of sound,   building on the single horizontal layer used in the 5.1 sound format.

Ø  Auro-3D® Top Layer

                               This top layer is situated directly above the listener. It can be an array of                                           speakers (as in                 a larger theater) or a single speaker.

Ø  Auro-3D® Height Layer

                               The Auro-3D Height layer is positioned approximately 40° above the Lower                                     layer and is the most important layer in the surround “sphere”.

Ø  Auro-3D® Lower Layer

                               It’s this Lower layer, which occurs between 0° and 20° that produces the                                          important 2D horizontal plane where most ear-level source sounds are located                                         in the mix.

• What are the benefits of Auro-3D® sound?

                With Auro-3D® sound, consumers have the impression that ambient sounds are truly                coming from all around and above, providing them with the most true-to-life reproduction of sound.   The Auro-3D® format provides a realistic sound experience          unlike anything you’ve heard before.

                Auro-3D® is designed to be the most efficient immersive sound experience. The          technology allows scalable and flexible solutions for each size and shape of room from      Digital cinemas to home cinema.

                The Auro-3D® format has been designed that content (music, films, sports, games etc.)            will be experienced by the consumer everywhere in the same immersive quality         intended by the creators

• How is Auro-3D® different other 3D sound technologies?

                There are of course competing formats in the market, which claim to offer the most   immersive new surround experience in cinema sound but the Auro-3D® system is the    most compelling, based on the fact that it uses existing speaker layouts and technology              to which you add the extra dimension. It is also fully backwards compatible in the                 cinema and home cinema market, which means it can be adopted easily, without         changing any of the existing standards or specifications for Blu-ray and home playback         systems.

• Who are your competitors?

                Dolby and DTS are our main competitors

• Who are your customers?

                Auro-3D® has customers in a variety of industries including Digital Cinema, Home          Cinema, Automotive, Gaming, and the mobile industry.    As the format becomes more            widely known,  Auro-3D® is optimistic about its ability to serve customers from an even                broader set of industries.

• What is the Auro-3D® professional tool suite?

                The Auro-3D® Creative Tool Suite is a powerful package of software solutions to help                                content providers to mix easy in Immersive Sound, be it with channels or objects or both          combined. It gives the content creator the ability to make easy the most immersive    sound experience with full backwards compatibility so that no extra time is needed                 compared to the standard deliverables required.

About Auro-3D®  in Film

• What was the first Auro-3D® film?

It was RED TAILS, 2012. George Lucas has always been at the forefront of cinema technology. He was one of the driving forces for surround sound with the original Star Wars series, and famously claimed that sound is 50% of the movie experience. So, it's not too surprising that LucasFilm’s RED TAILS was the first film recorded and released in Auro-3D®.

• Is Auro-3D® limited to providing 3D sound just for Movies?

        Although the first widespread implementation of Auro-3D® was within cinema, it is not            intended to be solely a movie sound format. Auro Technologies positions the sound               format firmly in the consumer electronics arena. It is being made available for in-car                systems, mobile phones and tablets. Music is enhanced, as are live events. Allied to the         latest 3D visual technology, it offers a completely new level of home entertainment.

• How can I get Auro-3D® content?

                The height information, captured in recording or created during the mixing process, is               mixed into a standard 5.1 PCM stream that comes with a regular Blu-ray. Major           Hollywood studios and musicians are partnering with Auro to create native Auro-3D^®                content on Blu-ray Discs. Moreover, the Auro-3D^® Engine combines different                 technologies to guarantee an optimum 3D sound experience generated both natively               and from existing audio content.

·         Does Auro-3D^® work with existing non-Auro audio content?

                Yes. Whatever the resolution of audio input, the Auro-3D^® engine will create a full 3D                 experience thanks to Auro-Matic®. This ground-breaking up-mixing algorithm converts          legacy content into the Auro-3D^® format. It recognises existing Mono, Stereo, or 5.1             Surround signals and transforms them into audio, firing up all Auro height speakers.            Regardless of original format, you can always experience the stunning effect of sound in          3D.

·         How many movie theatres use Auro-3D^®?

                There are now over 550 movie theatres worldwide that are equipped with Auro-3D® or            committed to its installation, while more than 35 post production facilities use Auro        3D®’s creative tool suite.

About Auro-3D® in Music

• What is Auro-3D® Native?

                Auro-3D® Native is an audio technology which allows you to experience music in a three          dimensional way. Music albums mixed specifically in this format will offer a more               entertaining and/or realistic way of listening to music than any other audio format     available today.

• What music titles are in production?
   

                More than 30 music albums have been released in Auro-3D® Native, covering all kind of           genres, of which the first (Souvenir, Remote Galaxy and Magnificat from 2L, Mando               Diao’s Aelita, the ambient Lichtmond 3, and Tiesto’s Elements of Life) are already     available in Pure Audio Blu-Ray.