Zylia’s 3D audio technology complements SIT’s effort to record and stream live art events in Montreal with immersive audio
Poznan, Poland, Montreal, Canada – January, 25th, 2023
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POZNAN, Poland, MONTREAL, Canada — Scenes Interactives Technologiques (SIT), a non-profit organization from Montreal dedicated to supporting the live and digital arts through interactive AV technology and Zylia, a leader in developing innovative, world-class 3D audio recording solutions, joined forces in a new collaboration exploring how spatial sound by Zylia’s 6DoF Navigable Audio solution, can innovate immersive productions workflows.
THE NEED OF EXPERIENCING LIVE ART FROM HOMEThe pandemic has taken a big hit on the live arts as theatres and concert halls remained closed for many months. In this new situation, experiencing live art performances was often only possible through streaming from the art venue to the audience that had to stay home. This need for streaming services has challenged but also inspired audio-visual productions on both a technical and an aesthetic level as new ways of mediating and distributing the experience of live arts had to be developed and shared with the community. Now that theatres have reopened, the benefits of these new solutions and practices remain available for audiences that still do not have the opportunity to come to the theatres for various reasons. Artists also benefit from connecting with new audiences that could not be reached before. This situation stimulated new solutions, pushing everyone to go further in trying to create immersive streaming solutions, but also hybrid solutions that interactively involve a live audience!
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3D AUDIO TECHNOLOGY FOR LIFELIKE VIRTUAL ARTISTIC EVENTS
Zylia specializes in developing technologies for recording and post-processing 3D Audio. The brand's flagship is ZYLIA 6 Degrees of Freedom Navigable Audio solution (ZYLIA 6DoF). The multi-microphone array system captures the entire 3D soundscape, including the acoustics and ambient sounds of the recording environment as great assets for various immersive projects. For instance, implementing Zylia’s spatial audio inside virtual reality gives the viewer complete freedom to explore the audio-video content. Like in real life, he or she can choose their path within the 3D space and hear how the intensity, direction, height, and even timbre of each sound shifts with their movement.
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“We believe that 3D Audio is a central aspect in experiencing the ever-evolving contemporary artistic productions. Artists and technology creatives have started to notice that their creative output can highly benefit from new ways of expressing ideas in sound, especially now, when the technology for capturing high-quality 3D Audio is easily available,” said Dr. Tomasz Zernicki, CEO of Zylia.
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Zylia based its solution on Higher-Order Ambisonics technology which guarantees excellent audio accuracy and quality for a more natural effect. Soon, SIT will integrate ZYLIA 6DoF in a very innovative streaming pipeline involving audio descriptions for accessible theatre experiences.
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"I feel there is great potential in combining Zylia's cutting-edge technologies for spatial audio capture and the production pipeline we have been developing to innovate in the live art field. We are more than excited to pursue this collaboration with Zylia," said Dr. Nicolas Berzi, co-director of SIT Scènes Interactives Technologiques.
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"We are delighted to be collaborating with Zylia. Together, we are advancing the research into workflows and integration of 3D audio for the streaming of live performances," added Dr. Armando Menicacci, co-director of SIT Scènes Interactives Technologiques.
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INTEGRATING NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN ART PROJECTS
SIT's area of competence is innovation, production, and integration of new technologies and multimedia design in the scenic and digital art communities. The organization is a hub around a team of artists, technicians, designers, and researchers specialized in developing and integrating new technologies. SIT is active in the following areas of operation: workshops and technological residencies about how to manipulate and integrate new technologies in artistic projects, audiovisual productions and postproductions, interdisciplinary productions, and knowledge transfer. The organization supports artists along their creative journey, from technology consultations during project planning and budgeting of new technology solutions all the way to the integration during production and postproduction. In this journey, new workflows are being developed and shared with the communities.
Since its inception, SIT’s mandate has been to support the performing arts with innovative recording and streaming solutions. In the past and through a collaboration with Zylia, SIT has already had the opportunity to work with multipoint Higher-Order Ambisonics recording solutions in various contexts, to name just two: SIT worked with the young, virtuous and energetic Andara quartet on the occasion of Vincent Delorme’s composition À tout prendre and recorded one of their live concerts with ZYLIA ZM-1S microphones at the University of Montreal after a technical residency at the studio of Jean Massicote in February 2022.
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"I am particularly excited to be able to use state of the art immersive audio solutions to promote innovative solutions for accessible and inclusive artistic formats," said Dr. Florian Grond, immersive sound lead of SIT Scènes Interactives Technologiques and creative sound engineer and representative of Zylia.
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Also, multiple ZM-1S were used to document the unique theatre production Camille au déla du visuel by Montreal English Theater Award (META) winning director Audrey-Anne Bouchard. Camille au déla du visuel is a creation for blind and blindfolded audiences, and immersive sound is one of the key ingredients of the experience on stage. Camille au déla du visuel is therefore a perfect application for 3D audio solutions as they come close to how the theater piece is actually experienced by the audience.
More information:
- STUDIO SIT: www.studiosit.ca
- ZYLIA 6 Degrees Of Freedom Navigable Audio solution: www.zylia.co/zylia-6dof
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About SIT:
SIT was founded by Nicolas Berzi Ph.D. and Armando Menicacci, Ph.D. both specialists in technology integration in the performing arts. In 2021, Berzi and Menicacci received, in partnership with Danse Danse and Troikatronix, the grant Ambition Numérique from the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. With this single public funding, they created a non-profit organization that is currently generating a multitude of projects and autonomous revenue streams, thanks to the development and integration of digital webcasting technologies and thanks to a comprehensive program of capacity building in the performing arts supporting the democratization of the knowhow necessary for the digital shift in the sector. SIT regularly gives specialized training in the performing arts and technology and supports performing artists by distributing grants, and offering technological and dramaturgical support. |
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About Zylia
Zylia ( https://www.zylia.co ) develops innovative, world-class 3D audio recording technologies and turns them into products that improve the lives of musicians and audio creatives. With a passionate and dedicated team of experts in music production, audio research, software, business and product development, the company crafts and delivers products with the potential to redefine and revolutionize the way 3D sound and musical performances are recorded and produced. Leveraging their personal experience as musicians and tech gurus, along with input from music and audio communities around the world, Zylia’s experts bring musicians agile recording tools that make it easy to be creative in any environment. Our solutions are used by musicians and sound engineers who work with Sony, Disney, Game of Thrones, Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, Red Bull, and many others. We also love to support artists! Zylia is involved in organizing volunteer efforts including Music CovAid by Zylia. More information is available at www.zylia.co. |
Media contacts:
Zylia:
Ewelina Weber, +48 61 279 40 44, ewelina.weber (at) zylia (dot) pl
SIT:
Elsa Iseult, communication (at) studiosit (dot) ca
Zylia:
Ewelina Weber, +48 61 279 40 44, ewelina.weber (at) zylia (dot) pl
SIT:
Elsa Iseult, communication (at) studiosit (dot) ca
