Sony Adds Video Streaming to 360 Reality Audio; Bows Car, Phone Solutions

Sony added video streaming capabilities and content creation tools to its 360 Reality Audio services and products, it said Friday. The 360 Reality Audio platform allows creators to produce music by mapping vocals, chorus and instruments with positional information and placing them in a spherical space to give the sense of being in a studio or concert venue “without leaving the comfort of home.” Sony Music artist Zara Larsson will release a live performance in 360 Reality Audio Monday at 5 p.m. EST, viewable with the Artist Connection app on a smartphone. Viewers can experience the performance using select Sony headphones and the company’s Headphones Connect app, which allows users to optimize sound for their ear shape and listening preferences, it said. Sony and Virtual Sonics developed content creation software, the 360 Reality Audio Creative Suite, to help musicians create content for the platform. The software plug-in, due at month's end, is compatible with popular digital audio workstation software, Sony said. Sony and Music.com, with distribution by The Orchard, are launching a program that will let creators stream content they produce with the 360 Reality Audio Creative Suite. Sony will introduce compatible speakers this spring -- the SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000 -- designed to create an “immersive” 360 Reality Audio sound experience using a Sony audio enhancement algorithm. The speakers are controllable by Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant voice assistants. The company will also license headphone personalization technology that analyzes listeners’ hearing characteristics along with technology that allows smartphones and car audio systems to play 360 Reality Audio, it said.