More and more Dolby Atmos content is needed, and the ability to use headphones to produce it will make things a lot easier. That is why Dolby activates work on Dolby Atmos Personalized Rendering technology using binaural rendering through headphones.
Building on Dolby’s Personalized Head-Related Transfer Function (PHRTF) initiative, the Dolby Atmos Personalized Rendering app and service in beta is now available to a wide range of music professionals.
The technology is intended “for professionals working in the video game, music, film and television industries.” The idea is to use headphones to monitor tracks in Dolby Atmos format instead of a bulky acoustic system that requires a separate prepared room. The Atmos production process will be simplified, which, as Dolby rightly noted, “is critical to increasing the amount of content available and creating a critical mass of Dolby Atmos music production.”
The basis of the technology was the mathematically expressed transfer function, or HRTF. It describes the individual acoustic characteristics of a particular headphone-listener system. Dolby Atmos Personalized Rendering uses a personalized HRTF (PHRTF) approach that is unique to each individual.
Images of the head and ears from the smartphone camera are sent to the cloud service, then a 50,000-point analysis of the ears, head and shoulders takes place and a unique PHRTF file is created, which is then uploaded to the device. With it, the system is ready for individual binaural monitoring of Dolby Atmos content.
Dolby PHRTF Creator takes advantage of current iPhone models (11 or later) with Apple FaceID support running iOS 13 or later. Registration of professionals using the Dolby Atmos Renderer software package to participate in the beta testing is already available on the Dolby resources.