Hi-Res, Spatial Audio Set to Usher In New Age, Says Futuresource

When Apple and Amazon wrapped hi-res music into their standard music subscription packages in the spring, a fifth of all music streaming subscribers had access to high-quality music, said a December Futuresource report. Though the music services helped enable a “mass-market migration” toward hi-res audio -- delivering to their music streaming subscribers hi-res tracks “almost overnight, at no extra cost” -- challenges are blocking widespread adoption, said Futuresource's Simon Forrest.

The playback side hasn’t caught up, said the report, which noted many true wireless earphones -- the fastest growing segment of the headphone market -- don’t currently support hi-res audio. Wireless protocols are lagging in hi-res capability; imminent upgrades -- Bluetooth 5.3, LC3+ and other solutions -- are needed for wireless earbuds to be able to handle hi-res audio, Futuresource said. In 2022, devices will catch up with the capabilities of music streaming services, “creating more choices for consumers.”

Hi-res audio will continue to become more widely available to mainstream consumers; Futuresource expects Apple to create products with the latest H2 chip that will support the next generation of products and services. Ongoing semiconductor shortages, however, could “thwart this ambition,” Forrest said.

The analyst referenced “super resolution” as a possible audio technology that could influence the market in the future. Responding to questions in an email, Forrest called super resolution a “potential, but unconfirmed, opportunity for the audio industry to use AI-based computation.” It would allow spatial and higher resolution audio formats to be synthesized on devices, similar to the way HD video content can be upscaled to 4K and 8K on TV chips.

On whether audio companies would coalesce around such a strategy, or if multiple codecs threaten to create a compatibility quagmire, Forrest said it will depend upon which format device manufacturers license. The video hardware industry has managed multiple-format adoption with surround sound and HDR formats used “reasonably interchangeably,” he noted. “The same is likely to happen in audio, where streaming providers encode in several formats and present the correct one dependent upon the capabilities of consumer devices.”

Futuresource sees spatial audio driving a hardware upgrade cycle with the promise of more engaging and immersive listening experiences for consumers. “A lot of R&D and investment has gone into making this a possibility,” Forrest said. For the video industry, the opportunity to deliver height as well as depth to audio soundscapes has led to “deeper engagement with the content,” including in advanced sound bars with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Spatial audio is now being applied to music, too, “placing instruments in a virtual sphere so consumers feel surrounded by the orchestra,” Forrest said. He noted that Amazon’s Echo Studio smart speaker can access Amazon’s catalog of 3D audio tracks, which stood at 750 at the time of the report.

Spatial audio is about more than music. The automotive industry is introducing spatial audio into vehicles, where speaker placement can be optimized for each cabin, Forrest said. Front, rear, side and height speakers are positioned around the car interior so passengers can "feel" the movement of whatever they're hearing. “Not only does this produce far more immersive rendition for music, but it also enables directional acoustic signaling for notifications, warnings and other alerts,” Forrest said. In that use case, blind-spot detection and unbuckled seatbelt warnings come from the direction of the potential concern, he said.

Electric vehicles pose unique challenges for acoustics, said Forrest. Vehicle manufacturers are investing in how their EVs' sound, “since audio is now considered an essential part of the brand experience.” The absence of engine noise means other sounds, such as tire and wind noise, “now dominate the driver and passenger experience.”

EV makers are working closely with audio infotainment OEMs to deliver systems that can cancel out unwanted noise, which Forrest compared to headphone companies using active noise cancellation. “This also allows them to generate new sounds that enhance driving pleasure, such as making a high-performance EV sound more appealing,” he said. Spatial audio will also enable in-cabin communication, amplifying the conversations between occupants, he said.

The audio experience even extends outside the vehicle, Forrest said: Manufacturers are “carefully crafting” how their vehicles are perceived by pedestrians and other road users through Acoustic Vehicle Alert Systems (AVAS) that emit sounds when traveling at low speeds, he said. Legislation worldwide is making AVAS mandatory for EVs, whose sound “must be audible above background levels, be distinct from the environment and indicative of vehicle behavior, with the pitch of the sound rising and falling to reveal when the vehicle is accelerating or braking,” he said.

An EV's audio must be continuous and progressive, and it must clearly indicate it’s a vehicle, said Forrest, saying “this limits the amount of variation in sound that models can produce.” Within those boundaries, AVAS sound engineers have freedom to design their vehicle audio signatures, he said.

Spatial audio has the potential to improve the videoconferencing experience, said Forrest. “When everyone wants to talk at the same time and converse as we would normally, we actually need spatial audio to make it work,” Forrest said. "Zoom fatigue” is partially caused by the lack of spatial cues that forces people to have to differentiate between speakers “in a different way to a natural in-person setting.”

In the hybrid work age, Futuresource expects videoconferencing and online meeting platforms to start integrating spatial audio technologies so that "the direction of voices matches the physical arrangement of video feeds on screen,” Forrest said. He sees that as a “tentative transition towards virtual meeting spaces and the Metaverse.”

The evolution of technology in the audio space has reached an inflection point, said Forrest, providing the advent of not just better-quality audio, but “completely new and immersive listening experiences. The way people will be interacting with sound and the devices that channel it are set to change as we move into 2022 and beyond.”