Barco

To date, exhibitors have signed agreements with Barco to install more than 300 additional screens with Auro 11.1 in their cinemas – on top of the 150 auditoriums already featuring Auro 11.1 – with the goal of elevating the moviegoing experience in their premium auditoriums. In fact, due to the economic advantages of Barco’s immersive sound solution, leading exhibitors worldwide are embracing Auro 11.1 as their preferred sound format in markets such as The United States, Latin America, Switzerland, Austria, Taiwan, Estonia, and many others, allowing them to add value to their own specific brand of premium cinema experience.

Auro 11.1 is a critical component of Barco’s recently introduced CinemaBarco, dramatically enhancing the showmanship and immersive qualities of the movie for audiences, who will soon embark on a new entertainment journey in cinema for a true destination experience.

A growing slate of “Auro” movie titles
With an open standard format now imminent thanks to Barco and our other partners advocating for this new ‘open’ approach to sound, production companies worldwide are embracing Auro 11.1 due to its flexibility and excellent audio quality, mixing more than 30 feature films in Auro 11.1 to date. Another 20 additional movies will be released in the Auro 11.1 sound format in 2014, with 50+ movies in the pipeline – including this summer’s blockbusters “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” “Expendables 3,” and “Transformers: Age of Extinction” – and even more announcements in the coming weeks.

A pioneer and champion of an “Open Format” approach for immersive sound
“Barco is proud to celebrate the significant accomplishment achieved with our industry partners one year ago as we kicked off efforts to secure the creation of an ‘open format’ for immersive cinema sound. This approach protects exhibitors and studios alike from the worry of ‘gatekeeper’ entities forcing future licensing fees, and ensures the ability to play any movie regardless of the authoring system used to create it,” comments Brian Claypool, Senior Director Strategic Business Development, Digital Cinema for Barco. “Thanks to the efforts of those involved in SMPTE dedicated to developing an open standard, our customers can expect more content, an increased focus on marketing to help audiences understand what immersive sound means, and of course the eagerly anticipated arrival of a true open standard in the marketplace.”

Premium immersive sound for the lowest total cost of ownership
“We are very pleased that exhibitors all over the world are realizing the benefits that Auro 11.1 and an open standard immersive cinema sound solution offers, not only to their audiences in the form of an enriched sensory experience, but to their overall business profitability,” comments Patrick Lee, Vice President Barco Digital Cinema.  “Auro 11.1 allows exhibitors to build upon their current 5.1 systems, and will never require any future licensing fees thanks to the success of moving the industry to an open standard.”

Barco will be participating in a panel discussion “The Road to Open Standards for Immersive Audio” at this year’s CinemaCon on Thursday, March 27, to help educate exhibitors on the concept of open standard immersive audio, how Barco is supporting this platform, and what it means to their business.

Studios benefit from platform flexibility, too
More than 25 post-production studios have installed the Auro-3D® Studio System, with several more currently being installed due to its ability to offer content creators total freedom with regards to immersive sound development. “An open standard ensures that no manufacturer can hold exhibitors hostage by levying license fees for immersive audio. Instead, studios can effortlessly create both channel- and object-based sound masters for movies without fear of incurring exorbitant costs or being locked-in to one authoring or playback system. Best of all, by using the Auro-3D® Creative Tool Suite, a single distribution master can be created within the existing workflow that can be used on any legacy or new immersive audio system to ensure the widest distribution of their movies,” comments Wilfried Van Baelen, inventor of the Auro-3D® format and CEO of Auro Technologies.

The most natural acoustical experience
Auro 11.1 by Barco is designed in accordance with a sound reproduction layout consisting of three layers (traditional Surround Sound with Height and Overhead layers), which enables studio sound mixers to move objects around in space to create the most realistic and acoustically perfect experience. Auro 11.1 is fully compatible with existing audio equipment and current workflows.