Adnen Ayed
100+ Head-Fier
I was reading a post by Jude Mansilla: "Headphone Measurements: The New Standard, Part 1" @jude and it brought back memories of 24 years ago when I witnessed the measurement of acoustic properties for the first time.
It was in Culver City, Hollywood. The measurement was of the three sound processing post production studios of Sony Pictures. It led to the development of the Sony amplifiers Sound Processor.
Here's the link to Jude's very interesting post:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/headphone-measurements-the-new-standard-part-1.937301/
The post is about headphones measurement not studio acoustic properties, though.
Back in 1995, I joined the Sony Audio Team in Shibaura, Tokyo.
A long time has passed since I left Sony (I had a 3 years NDA), so it is safe to share the following today.
The Sony HQ was in Gotanda, and the company had what was called TEC (technical center) for each main category of products; There was the Osaki TV TEC, Shinagawa Camera TEC, Atsugi Recording Media TEC, etc. (I'm recalling these places from memory. Sorry for any mistake. There was no Vaio nor Playstation then.)
Shibaura was the TEC for Personal Audio (Walkman, Mini Disc, Headphones, etc) and Home Audio (Audio Systems and high end components, ie amplifiers, CD players, Cassette decks, Speakers, etc). It was a five story high building, not taller, since the area was built on reclaimed land and prone for earthquakes.
(With the advance of building technology, the site has been scrapped and has become a 20 story glass building, housing the Corporate HQ.)
There were few windows, to prevent spying, and entry was regulated with Felica NFC badges (Sony had the technology functional already in 1995).
One of the projects I was involved in was DCS (Digital Cinema Sound).
Now, I am not an engineer. I was in Marketing, but got involved in Product Planning after a few months in Shibaura.
At that time, in mid to high end amplifiers, Sony lost the no.1 position to Yamaha. The signal processing of Yamaha's amps was based on recreating sound stages of famous opera houses; Albert Hall in London, Sydney Opera, Santori Hall in Tokyo, etc. Yamaha had the acoustic measurements of these halls since it also developed and manufactured music instruments. It was a strong amp selling feature since the user could choose to listen to his music as if he was in Albert Hall or listening to a concert in Sydney, etc.
In 1995, the Home Theater concept started to boom. Many equipments had Dolby Prologic and Sony was developing Dolby Digital 5.1 amplifiers.
The DCS idea was, since Sony couldn't compete with Music Hall sound processors, let's take the competition to a new camp: The Movie soundstage sound processors.
Sony had acquired Columbia and Tristar. Sony Pictures had three of the most sollicited Post Production studios in Hollywood. Measure the acoustics of the three studios where the movie Directors finalized the sound of the movies, and recreate them in the Home Theater amplifiers!
And so we did.
Late 1996, five of us left Tokyo to Los Angeles: Mr H. was the head of Components business, Mr F. was the amp software engineer, Mr. T. from Product Planning, Mr. U. from Audio Marketing, and myself.
The first difficulty was getting the hand-carried measuring equipment from LAX airport. We went to the 'Something to Declare' lane. The customs officer, hearing what sensitive equipment we had, called the airport security Head. I had to explain that we were from Sony, working on a new product, but that I couldn't give more details for confidentiality reason. Fortunately, the guy was a Sony fan, and was intrigued by what product could come out in a year. He allowed us to proceed after making me promise we'll take all equipment back to Tokyo (I kept my promise by the way).
Our Limousine took us directly to Sony Pictures where the VP and Post Production Head was waiting for us.
We spent five days in Culver city. Five wow days! Watching how movies were made, the set up of decor and its tear down after the shooting is finished, etc. But that could be the object of a different article.
Since the studios were used during the day, we worked at night. A sound source sent the signal, that reverberated on the walls and was captured by a dummy measuring head and torso. Timelessly, F and T recorded and recorded data.
The studios were designed like a cinema. A large screen covering the front wall, rows of seats, speakers on the side walls. They had one important difference, a very large sound mixing console in the theater. That's where Directors, like Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire), Michael Bay, Michael Cimino, or John Badham, worked on the postproduction of their movies.
Sony Pictures Photo
Back in Tokyo, the development begun. The R&D team of Yokohama was also involved. Soon, the outcome became clear, a Sound Processor with two novelties: Recreating the sound stage of Sony Pictures Postproduction Studios and adding virtual sound. 'Digital Cinema Sound' was born.
Copyright Sony Corp.
The virtual sound was achieved by including an algorithm in the sound processor to send a first wave of sound then a second or more waves with delays calculated to make the listener's ears think the sound from the speakers in front of them is coming from behind them.
Copyright Sony Corp.
I still remember the first time I listened to it. We were in the Soundless room. It is a room in the third floor of the annex building in Shibaura. The door is in the upper part of the wall (door top is touching the ceiling, and you had to take a few stairs to reach the door). In the room, all walls, ceiling, and floor are covered with sound killing needle pyramids. There was a net a few meters above the ground on which we walked. The bottom of the door was at the level of the net. The moment you enter, you feel a bit awkward, dizzy. There is no sound! Really none. No wind, no birds chirping far away, no cars passing by, nothing. It was very unusual and our ears aren't used to it. I always needed time to adjust.
At the centre of the room was a speaker, linked to a signal source. I was asked to sit in front of the speaker. A high frequency sound was produced, which I could hear clearly. Then I was asked to move a meter to the right. The sound became unaudible. I did move a few times to experiment how the high frequency sound was unidirectional. Since the room didn't allow any reverberation, only the direct wave was audible.
Then, F. turned the algorithm on. This time, and to my surprise, the sound appeared like coming from behind me. There was only one speaker in the room, in front of me. When F. stopped the algorithm, the sound was again coming from in front of me. This was my first experience with virtual sound.
We had other experiments in the main listening room afterwards, where we experimented a second type of virtual sound. The rear speaker would send a direct sound wave, then delayed ones, to make the sound look like it's coming from several rear speakers. The purpose was to recreate the sound effects of the multiple speakers in a cinema side walls.
Unfortunately, I left to a different position in the Middle East before the final product was finished, but I could work on the Marketing and Sales literature of DCS before leaving Tokyo.
Copyright Sony Corp.
In Dubai, I bought the final product, the SDP-EP9ES. As was planned, there were 3 modes for Studio A, B, and C, and virtual modes to recreate sound behind the listener with only two front speakers (Virtual Rear Shift mode), or to recreate multiple rear speakers with only two (Virtual Multirear mode).
DCS was then included in the lower range amplifiers, and Sony regained no.1 global market share then.
I still use the EP9 with 5.1 sources, clubbed with a TA-VA8ES amplifier. SS-A5 as front speakers for 2 channel music, or with a yamaha center speaker and Boston Acoustics rear speakers (sometimes Sony S1 as rear).
It was in Culver City, Hollywood. The measurement was of the three sound processing post production studios of Sony Pictures. It led to the development of the Sony amplifiers Sound Processor.
Here's the link to Jude's very interesting post:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/headphone-measurements-the-new-standard-part-1.937301/
The post is about headphones measurement not studio acoustic properties, though.
Back in 1995, I joined the Sony Audio Team in Shibaura, Tokyo.
A long time has passed since I left Sony (I had a 3 years NDA), so it is safe to share the following today.
The Sony HQ was in Gotanda, and the company had what was called TEC (technical center) for each main category of products; There was the Osaki TV TEC, Shinagawa Camera TEC, Atsugi Recording Media TEC, etc. (I'm recalling these places from memory. Sorry for any mistake. There was no Vaio nor Playstation then.)
Shibaura was the TEC for Personal Audio (Walkman, Mini Disc, Headphones, etc) and Home Audio (Audio Systems and high end components, ie amplifiers, CD players, Cassette decks, Speakers, etc). It was a five story high building, not taller, since the area was built on reclaimed land and prone for earthquakes.
(With the advance of building technology, the site has been scrapped and has become a 20 story glass building, housing the Corporate HQ.)
There were few windows, to prevent spying, and entry was regulated with Felica NFC badges (Sony had the technology functional already in 1995).
One of the projects I was involved in was DCS (Digital Cinema Sound).
Now, I am not an engineer. I was in Marketing, but got involved in Product Planning after a few months in Shibaura.
At that time, in mid to high end amplifiers, Sony lost the no.1 position to Yamaha. The signal processing of Yamaha's amps was based on recreating sound stages of famous opera houses; Albert Hall in London, Sydney Opera, Santori Hall in Tokyo, etc. Yamaha had the acoustic measurements of these halls since it also developed and manufactured music instruments. It was a strong amp selling feature since the user could choose to listen to his music as if he was in Albert Hall or listening to a concert in Sydney, etc.
In 1995, the Home Theater concept started to boom. Many equipments had Dolby Prologic and Sony was developing Dolby Digital 5.1 amplifiers.
The DCS idea was, since Sony couldn't compete with Music Hall sound processors, let's take the competition to a new camp: The Movie soundstage sound processors.
Sony had acquired Columbia and Tristar. Sony Pictures had three of the most sollicited Post Production studios in Hollywood. Measure the acoustics of the three studios where the movie Directors finalized the sound of the movies, and recreate them in the Home Theater amplifiers!
And so we did.
Late 1996, five of us left Tokyo to Los Angeles: Mr H. was the head of Components business, Mr F. was the amp software engineer, Mr. T. from Product Planning, Mr. U. from Audio Marketing, and myself.
The first difficulty was getting the hand-carried measuring equipment from LAX airport. We went to the 'Something to Declare' lane. The customs officer, hearing what sensitive equipment we had, called the airport security Head. I had to explain that we were from Sony, working on a new product, but that I couldn't give more details for confidentiality reason. Fortunately, the guy was a Sony fan, and was intrigued by what product could come out in a year. He allowed us to proceed after making me promise we'll take all equipment back to Tokyo (I kept my promise by the way).
Our Limousine took us directly to Sony Pictures where the VP and Post Production Head was waiting for us.
We spent five days in Culver city. Five wow days! Watching how movies were made, the set up of decor and its tear down after the shooting is finished, etc. But that could be the object of a different article.
Since the studios were used during the day, we worked at night. A sound source sent the signal, that reverberated on the walls and was captured by a dummy measuring head and torso. Timelessly, F and T recorded and recorded data.
The studios were designed like a cinema. A large screen covering the front wall, rows of seats, speakers on the side walls. They had one important difference, a very large sound mixing console in the theater. That's where Directors, like Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire), Michael Bay, Michael Cimino, or John Badham, worked on the postproduction of their movies.
Sony Pictures Photo
Back in Tokyo, the development begun. The R&D team of Yokohama was also involved. Soon, the outcome became clear, a Sound Processor with two novelties: Recreating the sound stage of Sony Pictures Postproduction Studios and adding virtual sound. 'Digital Cinema Sound' was born.
Copyright Sony Corp.
The virtual sound was achieved by including an algorithm in the sound processor to send a first wave of sound then a second or more waves with delays calculated to make the listener's ears think the sound from the speakers in front of them is coming from behind them.
Copyright Sony Corp.
I still remember the first time I listened to it. We were in the Soundless room. It is a room in the third floor of the annex building in Shibaura. The door is in the upper part of the wall (door top is touching the ceiling, and you had to take a few stairs to reach the door). In the room, all walls, ceiling, and floor are covered with sound killing needle pyramids. There was a net a few meters above the ground on which we walked. The bottom of the door was at the level of the net. The moment you enter, you feel a bit awkward, dizzy. There is no sound! Really none. No wind, no birds chirping far away, no cars passing by, nothing. It was very unusual and our ears aren't used to it. I always needed time to adjust.
At the centre of the room was a speaker, linked to a signal source. I was asked to sit in front of the speaker. A high frequency sound was produced, which I could hear clearly. Then I was asked to move a meter to the right. The sound became unaudible. I did move a few times to experiment how the high frequency sound was unidirectional. Since the room didn't allow any reverberation, only the direct wave was audible.
Then, F. turned the algorithm on. This time, and to my surprise, the sound appeared like coming from behind me. There was only one speaker in the room, in front of me. When F. stopped the algorithm, the sound was again coming from in front of me. This was my first experience with virtual sound.
We had other experiments in the main listening room afterwards, where we experimented a second type of virtual sound. The rear speaker would send a direct sound wave, then delayed ones, to make the sound look like it's coming from several rear speakers. The purpose was to recreate the sound effects of the multiple speakers in a cinema side walls.
Unfortunately, I left to a different position in the Middle East before the final product was finished, but I could work on the Marketing and Sales literature of DCS before leaving Tokyo.
Copyright Sony Corp.
In Dubai, I bought the final product, the SDP-EP9ES. As was planned, there were 3 modes for Studio A, B, and C, and virtual modes to recreate sound behind the listener with only two front speakers (Virtual Rear Shift mode), or to recreate multiple rear speakers with only two (Virtual Multirear mode).
DCS was then included in the lower range amplifiers, and Sony regained no.1 global market share then.
I still use the EP9 with 5.1 sources, clubbed with a TA-VA8ES amplifier. SS-A5 as front speakers for 2 channel music, or with a yamaha center speaker and Boston Acoustics rear speakers (sometimes Sony S1 as rear).
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