By Mark Johnson
You’re surrounded! We’re all surrounded! In what seems like the blink of an eye, a multitude of loudspeaker manufacturers have developed immersive technology for live performance. We are immersed in immersive audio systems. In fact, surround sound systems have been in use for quite some time; experiments in surround sound date back to the 1930s. In 1940, the first use of surround sound commercially came in the form of “Fantasound” created by Disney sound engineers for, you guessed it, Fantasia. The system was made up of three audio channels and 54 loudspeakers. The surround sound effect was created by using the sum and the difference of the phase of the sound. In 1952, the film This is Cinerama applied a discrete seven-channel system (Who remembers seeing that? I do). Surround sound for live performance was applied by composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in the 1950s for electronic compositions Gesang der Jüngling and Kontakte using discrete and rotating quadraphonic sound.
Read the full review at: Lighting & Sound America
www.l-acoustics.com
Australian DIstributor: Jands www.jands.com.au
