Immersive audio, capture, transport, and rendering: a review

Abstract

Immersive audio has received significant attention in the past decade. The emergence of a few groundbreaking systems and events (Dolby Atmos, MPEG-H, VR/AR, AI) contributes to reshaping the landscape of this field, accelerating the mass market adoption of immersive audio. This review serves as a quick recap of some immersive audio background, end to end workflow, covering audio capture, compression, and rendering. The technical aspects of object audio and ambisonic will be explored, as well as other related topics such as binauralization, virtual surround, and upmix. Industry trends and applications are also discussed where user experience ultimately decides the future direction of the immersive audio technologies.