The Audio Engineering Society has published its AES69-2015 standard to address the evolving field of 3D audio. The new standard offers a framework for binaural technologies (growing in popularity due largely to the increase of headphone use with smartphones and tablets) and 3D personal audio. Developed in AES Standards Working Group SC-02-08, it defines a file format to exchange acoustic data in multiple forms, including head-related transfer functions (HRTF) and directional room impulse responses (DRIR).

“AES states that an understanding of the way that the listener experiences binaural sound, expressed as head-related transfer functions facilitates the way to 3D personal audio,” reports CE Pro.

“In the past, AES points out, the lack of a standard for the exchange of HRTF data made it difficult for developers to exchange binaural capture and rendering algorithms effectively. While 3D audio continues to gain popularity among end users, binaural listening could be the very first 3D audio vector with sufficient fidelity of HRTF.”

“AES69 represents a fundamental piece of architecture for taking personal audio to a new level of performance,” said Bruce Olson, committee chair, Audio Engineering Society. “Using this, product developers will be able to take advantage of transfer-function databases from all over the world to produce a truly immersive 3D audio experience.”