Fairlight and DTS have jointly announced the Fairlight 3DAW – a 3D audio production platform with native MDA (object-based) mixing and format support.
Having announced MDA as an open object-based audio authoring format in January 2013, DTS hopes to pre-empt a format war developing over next-generation content creation and cinema delivery. Fairlight responded and worked with DTS to integrate MDA into its 3DAW, enabling mixing of object-based audio in unrestricted 3D space, monitor in any configuration and output in the proposed future specification. Additionally, 3DAW will be able to mix soundtracks for DTS Neo:X, a channel-based audio solution designed to support up to an 11.1 speaker system.
‘Together, we can now offer studios a highly anticipated alternative to the closed proprietary object-based audio formats being proposed to date,’ says Fairlight CTO, Tino Fibaek.
The MDA specification is currently being proposed to international standardisation committees as an alternative to today’s closed proprietary solutions. MDA allows every sound element of a soundtrack to be mapped in 3D space, storing all of the spatial and behavioural information of each sound element as metadata. Mixing audio with MDA as opposed to other surround-sound platforms allows a soundtrack to maintain the spatial characteristics.
The Fairlight 3DAW is available to the industry as a turnkey solution, based on Fairlight’s Crystal Core Media processor and software. The system provides on-screen 3D panning via a plug-in as well as extensive monitoring functions, and is able to generate mixes ranging from stereo, 5.1, 7.1, 9.1+2, DTS Neo:X, as well as an object-based mix (MDA). A separate tablet control application allows for easy previewing and demonstration of audio output to verify and display the results of the creative process.
‘We are extremely excited to be working with Fairlight on enabling their all new 3DAW workstations with MDA format support,’ says DTS CEO, Fred Kitson. ‘The industry has been clamoring for an open-platform for the creation of object-based audio to end the format wars, and MDA was created specifically to address this.’
