Photo: Apple Insider Apple claims that all Apple Music users will get improved sound with Apple Music Lossless, Dolby Atmos, but to use this feature users also need to have the right headphones. Apple Music will get its first major update with the launch of Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos, and Lossless Audio in June 2021. Apple plans to make its entire library of 75 million songs streamable route at a new, higher quality (Lossless). Headphones that use the Dolby (Spatial Sound) feature The Dolby Atmos feature is automatically enabled if the user owns the following headphones: – AirPods – AirPods Pro – AirPods Max – BeatsX – Beats Solo3 wireless – Beats Studio3 – Powerbeats 3 wireless – Beats Flex – Powerbeats Pro – Beats Solo Pro With any of these devices, Apple Music will automatically switch to Dolby Atmos when available. Some other headphones can also be used, but they do not switch automatically. Instead, the user has to go to Setting , Music , Sound and switch settings Dolby Atmos newly made Always On . However, with the Lossless Audio feature, only a few of the above headphones can be used. In fact, no wireless headset device can use the Hi-Res Lossless Audio feature. Apple has confirmed that even AirPods Max does not support Hi-Res Lossless. To use this feature, Apple notes that it requires an external device, like a USB to Analog converter. Apple devices will play Lossless audio As well as headphones, many Apple devices are also capable of playing Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio from their built-in speakers: – iPhone 7 and above – iPad Pro 12.9 inch (3rd Gen) – iPad Pro 11 inch – iPad (6th Generation) or later – iPad Air (3rd Generation) or later – iPad mini (5th Generation) or later – MacBook Pro (2018) or later – HomePod and HomePod mini While consumers won’t be able to listen to Lossless Audio via HomePod and HomePod mini at the time of launch, Apple has confirmed that a firmware update will be supported to enable these special features. this. Photo: Apple Insider Listen to Lossless Music on Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Mac Lossless Audio will require users to use the latest operating systems such as iOS 14.6, iPadOS 14.6, macOS 11.4 or tvOS 14.6 or later. For Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Mac, users must manually enable the new sound quality. Go Setting , Music , Sound quality . There will be an option to enable Lossless . To use this feature on Apple TV, users will need to connect the TV to a compatible speaker device. Also for uninterrupted Lossless audio streaming will depend on your internet connection. Apple confirmed that users can switch between Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless depending on whether they are on a cellular or Wi-Fi network.

Create a clean path from the speaker to the listener’s ear The perception of stereo sound depends on subtlety and in particular on the presence of live sound as well as the immediate feedback that follows. Incoming sounds play a general role in what you’re hearing, but they’re not as important in stereo as the “first-in” effect (the latter is considered unimportant by the ear/brain’s decision). spatial and positional information). Now do you understand what we mean by “clean road”? You don’t need anything on the floor or anything else close to the path from the speakers to where you sit. The floor and ceiling of the listening room should be flat and smooth because high frequency reflections will be minimized. If the ceiling is not very high, it is better if it is made of a soft and smooth object. The problem here is that rough materials, such as appliances and furniture, will cause the sound to be distributed unevenly. This is one reason why the stereo effect is blurred and the ideal performance cannot be obtained. A friend in the test room asked me to close my eyes to test the change of stereo sound when there is an obstacle in front. When the music plays, I feel the change quite clearly, the stereo comes out in parts, becomes distracting and the sense of space is seriously affected. Then my friend told me to open my eyes. What surprised me the most was that he just silently placed the CD cases on the floor symmetrically between the speakers and a few in front of us. This is obviously not a huge physical change, but it does sabotage stereo performance a lot. So what if you put a coffee table or put a few remotes on it symmetrically with two speakers and in front of a music chair? Maybe it will be convenient for you to enjoy the melodious music while sipping a cup of coffee, but you will certainly not be able to fully feel the stereo performance. Get rid of objects next to you, use a chair with a low back Although using a chair with a low backrest, the arrangement of the chair as shown in the picture makes it impossible for both listeners to experience the stereo effect. Hard objects near your ears along a straight line are seen to greatly affect when you listen to music. It’s best to sit in a chair with a very low back, as that will put nothing near your ears. If your back doesn’t adapt to this, you should at least use a chair that doesn’t go over your head and make sure it’s soft. Hard leather sofas become weak points because they reflect high frequencies. If you are sitting alone, cover the area behind and near your head with a cloth curtain. Because otherwise, a lot of high frequencies will be scattered before reaching you, or in other words, the back wall of the listening room should design sound-absorbing materials or accessories. But using a low chair is still best. Try it! You will be surprised how much better your system will sound. Symmetry rule Stereo sound is based on symmetry between two channels. For the latter, where people are exposed to large amounts of treble diffusivity, the role of symmetry is diminished. But for anything that comes first with the sound of low frequencies, the role of symmetry is indispensable. In the old days, when many audio players didn’t understand how stereo really worked, and especially didn’t fully appreciate the importance of the intrinsic tonal time difference, many would try to make adjustments. difference between the two channels by electronic means, i.e. adjust the equalizer and use a separate equalizer for the channels. The result was, of course, a disaster, because analog equalizers and EQs couldn’t deal with asymmetric timing effectively. When that happens, the actual digital signal processing (DSP) may be full of detail, but the problem lies in the accuracy. So it’s better to make the whole system as symmetrical as possible from the start. As always, the tuning DSP room works best when there is a lower frequency response peak and sag and is less demanding for correction (the one exception is the very wide, very useful bass correction. useful in practice). Part of the task of symmetry is on you, which is to keep the two speakers evenly spaced. In general, everyone does this, but they don’t do it fully and carefully. Let’s take a quick look at the numbers. People can hear a time difference between the two ears of about 1/100,000 of a second. But let’s stay conservative and give it only 1/50,000th of a second. How far will the sound go in 1/50,000th of a second? Well, a millisecond (1/1000 of a second) is about a footstep. So 1/50,000 is about 12/50,000 feet, which is about a quarter of an inch. So if you want stereo speakers, you need to get them within a quarter of an inch. Time is a measure! Mark the spot and keep it there. Sit near your speakers loa There will always be some sound coming soon that you really don’t expect. So try to make them symmetric and have smaller amplitudes, but there are bound to be some limits. The way to minimize their effects is to make the live sound appear as early as possible. Sitting close to the speaker is how you do this. Of course, you also can’t sit too close, because most speakers depend on a certain distance for the accuracy of the drivers. And to some extent, you need some distance to avoid hearing the microscopic vibrations because that can make the speaker more visible than the music source. But you’ll get the best stereo sound if you sit reasonably close to the points. Many people sit too far and to the far end of the room due to the fact that the music room is too long. Sitting closer to the speaker changes the direct sound reflection ratio. You should also sit away from the wall behind your back, and the speakers should also be away from the wall behind them (unless they are designed to be wall-mounted), because positioning the speakers and listeners too close to the wall will cause discomfort. benefit the sound of a stereo system. Need a soft room Many recordings (CDs or LPs) are made with the expectation that some room sound will be added as the music plays. A few other recordings were made with the expectation that they would not be echoes when heard. But all those effects don’t stand a chance if your listening room is too small. In my opinion, the best stereo sound should be presented in an RFZ (no-reflection room) room. In such a room, early incoming direct sound will be in moderation, and sound reflection will soon be absorbed. After you hear the live sound, the listening room will appear to be assisted by sound diffusion, where discrete sound reflections are not evidence, or the sound will arrive too late after the initial sound. arrived. As a result, live sound is heard more clearly, without being confused. While building an actual RFZ room is quite a challenge, you can handle it well by making a “soft” listening room, which will especially help the treble get the most out of it. In addition, a soft acoustic environment will also result in more harmonious notes. If your music room has a large picture, use fabric drapes to cover it while listening to music. In particular, the wall of the music room made of glass would be a disaster. A few years ago, a friend brought to my apartment a system to edit rooms. Then this apartment had a spectacular view, located on a high ground and had a long wall of nothing but glass and steel support. But when it comes to music, it’s clear this room can’t get the most out of it unless I add some curtains. Sit still and close your eyes Part of that symmetry is placing the music chair in the right position. Unless you move the seat straight forward or backward, you will end up in an asymmetrical position! But there is another way of sitting that is really subtle and more important than the effect. This is a complex topic so I can only give an overview. As the brain builds perception from raw data during processing, what we “see” or “hear” is not the same as light in our eyes or sound in our ears. Because it’s just a mental construct. This particular mental construct often includes the following surprising things: it will use many signals, but if one signal is lost, the brain will recognize it as lacking and simply reprogram itself to use other signals. This may sound crazy, but there’s a simple visual experiment you can illustrate with that principle. Look at a photograph with a lot of three-dimensional (3D) material in it or at a painting with strong perspective, then you will get some impression of a three-dimensional image. But if you look at them with one eye closed and the other through a short tube that blocks the background and only allows you to see the picture, there is a surprising increase in the perception of three-dimensional images. If you’ve never tried this, you’ll have a hard time believing that your eyes can see the background around the picture of the picture (the way you usually look at a picture), and the brain will pick up some signal about the picture. that three-dimensional perspective. But the brain will also receive information that the surface of the painted or printed picture is in fact only two-dimensional. Binocular vision shows a fatter picture, and the background shows it too. So the brain is getting conflicting signals, which means it allows you to see some of the three-dimensional image, but not all of it. When you look with one eye and don’t see the background, the signal to that fatter image is blocked. Going back to the world of sound, one of the ways the brain detects the position of an object, the shape of the hearing room, of space, or in general auditory terms, is to slightly move the head and Notice the changes in the sound. People will have the feeling that they suddenly “sink into” the space of stereo sound. There are some people who choose to sit absolutely still. This will put the listener in a quiet state, and obviously very suitable for listening to music. And, to my ears, the stereo got better. Finally, closing your eyes also eliminates cues that a person can’t hear in a concert hall or a stadium, but can hear from the speakers in your listening room. In short, sit with your eyes closed, with your head completely still, in a chair near the speakers in a “soft” room and in the correct symmetrical position with no obstructions in the line. between you and the speaker. If you do all that, I guarantee your stereo system can perform at its best. Hope you find the best stereo sound!

Huawei is starting to move into the car business after being hit by a US ban that made it lose access to chip design software for smartphones. The company recently launched the Seres SF5 crossover between Huawei and energy firm Cyrus. This model features smartphone connectivity and automatically transfers music and navigation information between the two sides, and is equipped with voice control technology and an audio system with 11 speakers. Visitors at Auto Shanghai exhibition in Shanghai (China). Photo: Reuters. Sources familiar with the matter said that, in addition to working with Changan to develop joint venture-branded smart cars, Huawei also plans to launch its own branded electric vehicles. and is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the electric vehicle division of a small domestic automaker. Huawei’s partnership with Chongqing Changan comes amid a global shortage of semiconductors and particularly affects carmakers. According to observers, switching to the automotive chip business is a more appropriate new direction, especially when the company is unable to produce chips for smartphones due to the bans from the US. Changan is currently unavailable for comment. Meanwhile, Huawei said it will let automakers make announcements about their cooperation relationships. Battery maker CATL, also part of the partnership, was also unavailable for comment.

With an internet-connected mobile phone or tablet, visitors can freely explore 100 typical works on the regular display system of Vietnam Fine Arts Museum. Photo: VGP / Hien Minh On April 22, Vietnam Fine Arts Museum launched the iMuseum VFA multimedia narrative application to help visitors online or directly at the museum. This application includes audio, articles and photos, integrated on both Android and iOS platforms, using QR code scanning and iBeacon locating technology. The application has automatic annotation, allowing to view high-quality images of the work, read the introduction content, accurately determine the location of exhibits, view the display system diagram, distinguish the rooms. have, are and not visited by color … With only a mobile phone or tablet with an internet connection and an application fee of 50,000 VND / time, visitors can freely explore 100 typical works on the museum’s regular display system. Vietnamese fine arts anywhere, anytime. In particular, the duration for each time is up to 8 hours, with 8 languages ​​including Vietnamese, English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Italian. The iMuseum VFA application is the result of a project of socialization, stemming from the need to improve the quality of sightseeing for visitors, while capturing the benefits of applying information technology to conservation and conservation. promote the values ​​of cultural heritages in general and art heritage in particular. This is also a step to concretize the policy of leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in implementing activities under the National Digital Transformation Program to 2025, with a vision to 2030 of the Government. Vietnam Fine Arts Museum is one of the national museums with the most important position in preserving and promoting cultural and artistic heritage of the Vietnamese ethnic community. Currently, the museum holds more than 20,000 artifacts, which are vivid evidences for the development flow of Vietnamese art from pre-prehistoric times to today, including 9 national treasures.

Delegates at the ceremony. More than a regular Auto Voice Over application, iMuseum VFA also has outstanding features such as allowing high-quality image viewing of works; read the introduction text; accurately determine the location of exhibiting exhibits; see display system diagram; distinguish between rooms that have been, are and have not been visited by color … With only a mobile phone or tablet with internet connection and application fee of VND 50,000 / time, visitors can freely explore 100 typical works on the Museum’s regular display system. Vietnamese fine arts anywhere, anytime. In particular, the duration for each use is up to 8 hours, with 8 languages: Vietnamese, English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Italian (German language will be added in the coming time). Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Director General of the General Department of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism spoke at the ceremony. The iMuseum VFA application is the result of a socialization project in cooperation between the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum and Vietnam Mobile Application Software Joint Stock Company (VINMAS), stemming from the need to improve the quality of the tour. for tourists, at the same time, capture the benefits of the application of information technology in the conservation and promotion of cultural heritages in general and artistic heritages in particular. This is also a step to concretize the policy of leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in implementing activities under the national digital transformation program to 2025, with a vision to 2030 of the Government. After more than 2 years of research, content building and technology development, the iMuseum VFA has been put to the test since December 2020. Based on feedback, comments from visitors and experts, iMuseum VFA application has gradually improved content, improved user experience and officially launched on April 22, 2021. . The iMuseum VFA application is expected to become a powerful support tool for visitors in the process of discovering and understanding the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, contributing to spreading the love of art to the public and attracting visitors. visit to the Museum. Delegates press the button to launch the iMuseum VFA application Speaking at the ceremony, the General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh highly appreciated the initiative of Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts in building and putting into practice the application of Theory. iMuseum VFA automated intelligence. It can be said that this is one of the leading units applying technology to increase the experience for visitors at museums across the country. “For the lead in the iMuseum VFA application construction and deployment, the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum once again affirms its determination to innovate and enhance the visitor experience; we hope that the application will becomes an effective tool to support visitors in the process of discovering and exploring the Museum, making an important contribution to attracting a large number of tourists to visit in the coming time “, Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh emphasized.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s company believes that the combination of audio formats, as well as the combination of text, sound and images, will create many magical features that meet the expectations of users. Facebook’s adjustment of the feature stems from actual user tastes as more and more people choose to use voice, from audio calls on social networks to leaving voice messages on WhatsApp’s app. Messenger. Currently, Facebook is building new sound generators “like having a recording studio in the user’s pocket.” These tools will let people create short recordings, such as jokes. There are more than 170 million people connected to Facebook pages using podcasts, and about 35 million users are members of podcast fan groups. However, at the moment, listening to audio on podcasts forces users to leave the social network. With Facebook’s improved feature, in the near future, users will be able to listen to podcasts directly on the app, using both at the same time. according to TechCrunch

Photo: Axios Sharing with the community on the Discord chat app, Mark Zuckerberg announced a product roadmap that Facebook will launch within the next 3 to 6 months. Products that the head of Facebook announced include: Photo: Axios – Soundbites: Short audio product of Facebook to serve users. Mark Zuckerberg says the product looks like an audio version of Reels (similar video product to Instagram’s TikTok). Users can share short audio clips on their News Feed or they can listen to a series of short, algorithmically arranged audio clips on the News Feed. Photo: Axios – Podcasts: Facebook will build a tool that allows users to explore Podcasts content on Facebook. Facebook may partner with an external Podcasts app to implement this feature. Photo: Yahoo Live audio: Users can chat with audio on Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg believes live chat audio can help Facebook improve the economics of content creators. Mark Zuckerberg has started experimenting with more sound platforms in recent times as the trend gets stronger. A few weeks ago, he announced a shopping-related partnership with Shopify on Clubhouse, the popular audio social network recently.

Let the performer come to play a concert that is exclusive to you? Dreams can shine into reality! The Huawei VR music media communication meeting with the theme of “Immersive and Seeing Beauty” was held today, showing VR music created based on Huawei’s VR audio and video platform, turning traditional concerts into 3D spatial music effects and VR visual experience , More on-site and immersive.

With the help of 5G, cloud computing and AI technology, the VR industry is entering a period of rapid development, and rich content and application scenarios have become key elements to promote the wider implementation of VR. In the digital age, users’ experience requirements for entertainment lifestyles are constantly escalating, and VR music produced by the combination of the two has become a trend in the music industry. Tan Donghui, vice president of Huawei’s consumer cloud services, revealed a set of data on the spot. In 2020, the demand for online video will increase sharply, and the viewing time will increase by 40% year-on-year; consumers need more forms and higher-quality excellent content.

Following the official release of the VR audio and video platform at the Huawei Developer Conference last year, Huawei has continuously made breakthroughs with its years of accumulation in the VR field and its own technology and ecological influence. The VR music works released this time are the commercial results of VR audio and video platforms moving towards consumer experience. “We can provide a technical platform for music companies and independent musicians, including high-definition VR video capture and output solutions, VR cameras, post-video encoding and decoding and playback, which greatly improves the convenience of VR music creation and lowers the threshold.” Tan Donghui said.

Feng Hanying, a Chinese classical recording engineer and producer, shared on the scene that as a person in the music industry, he has experienced the ups and downs in the music field and has been seeking breakthroughs. With the continuous development of audio technology, the sound reproduction format has also undergone a great iteration, from mono, stereo, flat surround sound, immersive surround sound that has only recently emerged, and more innovative VR audio and video. Faced with this new field, music producers are also exploring new forms of musical expression. The innovative services of Huawei’s VR audio and video platform not only solve the pain points of music production in the past to a large extent, but also realize scenes that we could not imagine in the past, such as combining with classical music, so that more people can feel the energy and vitality of live performance , Which makes the jewel in the music palace shine again. This cooperation is our initial attempt. In the production process, we have overcome many technical and artistic problems that we have never thought of before.

Xinxin, Huawei’s VR audio and video product director, introduced the platform’s innovative technology and its value to people in the music industry. Huawei’s VR audio and video platform connects musicians to provide Huawei’s global users with leading VR audio and video experience services. The most unique advantage of VR music is the sense of immersion, which restores the sound and physical characteristics of the scene, which is extremely important for establishing the sense of immersion. Huawei has its own core capabilities in audio and video. In addition to restoring various parameters at the scene, it also retains high-light details and dark colors through the industry’s highest-resolution 3D VR video at 13K*9K.

The domestic VR/AR market will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2022, and the trend of VR is unstoppable. In the future, Huawei’s VR audio and video platform will continue to leverage the synergistic advantages of software and hardware, empower developers and work with more artists to launch a wealth of high-quality content, inject innovative technology vitality into music, create more diversified forms of expression, and promote the booming audio-visual industry Development, thereby enriching the user’s audio-visual experience and enjoying more beautiful digital age.

Author: Xu Jinghui

Editor: Zhang Tianchi

*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source for reprinting.