DTS Eyes Games Market As One Possible Application for Neo:X
LAS VEGAS -- DTS wants to “leverage” the benefits of its new Neo:X post-processing technology for markets beyond just traditional home audio systems, to markets including videogames, Chief Technology Officer Frederick Kitson said on the eve of CES Tuesday night. The technology “will enhance the experience in a lot of different venues and a lot of different products,” including TVs, car electronics and even mobile phones, he said.
Neo:X adds two front-height channels to 5.1- and 7.1-channel surround systems, and can combine the two front-height speakers with two additional horizontal-plane surround channels to create an 11.1-channel surround system. One implementation of the Neo:X could include six surround speakers arrayed on the left and right, one each at 90, 120 and 150 degrees from the listener.
"You will see products show up” using Neo:X “by the second quarter of this year,” DTS CEO Jon Kirchner said Tuesday, touting the technology’s “depth, submersion and realism.” He predicted companies will “support it very, very quickly.” Some companies, none of which he named, will spotlight the technology using their products at CES this week, he said.
Kirchner conceded there will be some consumers “not ready” for technology that uses up to 11 speakers. It’s arriving amid growing demand for sound bar speakers that reduce the number of speakers required to experience a surround-sound experience. Some consumers will likely not want to add speakers beyond even a 5.1 surround setup. The Neo:X effect, however, can be achieved in a “virtual” manner, not requiring 11 channels, Kirchner said.
Neo:X provides “a quick and easy way to take Blu-ray content and automatically generate” an enhanced surround-sound field, Kirchner said. For example, the technology would allow viewers of the movie Pearl Harbor to feel as if there are planes flying “above you” while things are “exploding below you."
The technology was first demonstrated by DTS at CES in January 2009 and was shown again at the show last year, although Neo:X was just used as a code name then. Neo:X was originally expected to arrive in products last year and it wasn’t clear why that failed to happen. DTS gave private demonstrations to potential customers during CEATEC in Japan in October (CED Oct 8 p2). At the time, a DTS spokesman said development of the technology was completed and now it’s at the stage where it’s being added to chips that drive AV receivers and other products. The 11.1-channel system will be available only in new receivers and can’t be added as a firmware upgrade of existing product, he said.
DTS has targeted the cellphone market before. It showed a new suite of products targeting cellphones at CEATEC. On Tuesday, DTS said it got a deal to provide its audio decoding solutions to LG Electronics. DTS said its audio decoding technology will be integrated into certain LG smartphones and tablets. The new offerings from LG will include a DTS decoder with two-channel analog and two-channel PCM output through a mini HDMI output. That will allow customers “to stream content from their phones to a number of external sources, while experiencing DTS sound,” DTS said. It said the first line of LG products to feature DTS technology was introduced in South Korea in December, and a global launch is planned for 2011.