Earlier last week, I had the chance to attend a media invite* from Golden Village Suntec City to mark the arrival of the revolutionary 3D immersive sound technology, Auro 11.1 by Barco on our shores.
The Auro 11.1 is touted as the most realistic 3D sound experience currently available in the market, so I was pretty excited to have a first-hand experience with it.
The experience was delivered via a sneak preview of Jack Neo’s latest Chinese New Year film, “Long, Long Time Ago”, which was mixed in the new immersive technology at Galaxy Studios Belgium.
So how did the sound system fare?
It was impeccable. It made me feel like I was brought back into 1960s Singapore, which was the time period that the film was set in. Now, you may be feeling skeptical about it but let me explain how it works.
So what’s the difference between Auro 11.1 and the usual 5.1 surround sound system?
Here’s a 6 minute trailer that’s similar to the one we watched on-site about how the sound system works. Of course you wouldn’t be able to get a true feel of it watching it off YouTube, but you’ll get a rough idea.
Basically, the usual 5.1 surround sound makes use of the layout of a horizontal plane and provides sound coming from the front and the back. However, the design is still inadequate because it cannot replicate the depth of the sound accurately. This makes it unable to fully provide an immersive experience.
On the other hand, the Auro 11.1 is designed to eliminate this flaw by employing a speaker layout that consists of three layers, which includes the coverage of the three axes, width, depth and height to create a 3-Dimensional feel. This creates a much more realistic experience for moviegoers as it mimics the real-life experience that we have while living within our 3-Dimensional world.
In layman’s terms, if you were to listen to a plane flying overhead on 5.1 surround sound (width+depth), you probably wouldn’t be able to make out how high the plane is flying. It wouldn’t even sound like it was flying overhead! But with Auro 11.1(width+depth+height), you can. That is the amazing part of this system.
With the introduction of this system on our shores, you can finally fully immerse yourself in the world of your favourite movies, as if you were standing there right beside your favourite characters. So far over 125 films have made use of this new technology, and that includes mega blockbusters such as “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” as well as the upcoming “Kung Fu Panda 3” which will be coming very soon to our shores on the 10th of March!
Time to hit the theatres for scary movies, don’t you think? Save me a seat!
*Alex is a brand ambassador for Discover SG. Brand ambassadors get to attend media invites, food tasting sessions and hotel staycations on behalf of Discover SG. Be a brand ambassador like Alex – get in touch with us today at [email protected]
