Sennheiser has taken a majority shareholding in spatial audio algorithms and VR/AR audio software specialist, Dear Reality GmbH.

Dear Reality will continue to operate as a separate company based in Düsseldorf, with customers able to rely on existing dearVR products. Uwe Cremering, responsible for AMBEO Immersive Audio at Sennheiser, will support the company as a third CEO alongside founders Achim Fell and Christian Sander.

‘For us, 3D audio is the future. With Ambeo, Sennheiser is active in all areas of immersive audio production, from the initial recording to mixing and processing and, finally, reproduction,’ says co-CEO Dr Andreas Sennheiser. ‘Audio software is an important building block in this production chain, especially as regards VR/AR applications.’

‘We are pleased to have gained additional highly qualified software experts and further 3D audio products with the acquisition of Dear Reality,’ adds Co-CEO Daniel Sennheiser. ‘At the same time, leveraging the strength of the Sennheiser brand and its global distribution network will give Dear Reality a larger scope of action.’

Dear Reality is a leading company in the field of immersive audio controllers, well-known for its dearVR Pro binaural, Ambisonics and multichannel encoder with room virtualisation. The latest Dear Reality software is dearVR Spatial Connect for immersively mixing VR content in VR, for example with Nuendo 10. Further VR/AR workflows will subsequently be developed jointly by Sennheiser and Dear Reality.

‘We have been working closely with Sennheiser as an investor and partner for the past one and a half years, and are excited to now become a part of the Sennheiser family,’ say Dear Reality founders Fell and Sander. ‘3D audio software has an ever-increasing importance in audio production. Together, we will expand our innovative, professional end-to-end workflows – and develop new ones.’