What do
Psycho, the vuvuzela and
Inception have in common? They have been enhanced in one way or another by sound separation specialist company Audionamix.
Digital2Disc spoke to the company’s CEO, Olivier Attia, about these topical projects.
The vuvuzela, of course, has caused as much comment as the World Cup football where TV viewers first became aware of the instrument. Viewers in France may have lost their enthusiasm for the World Cup but at least they will be able to watch without the sound of the controversial vuvuzela.
Audionamix found a unique solution to eliminate the ritualistic and now famous South African trumpet heard vibrating across the airwaves during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Numerous vuvuzelas playing at the same time produce a constant droning sound or buzz which can be a severe distraction and annoyance to fans viewing the game.
The team focused on removing the sound of only the vuvuzela, and not the joyous celebration of the crowd, by integrating their solution into the broadcasting pipeline. French pay TV channel CANAL+ was the first to integrate the Audionamix solution into their live transmissions of the FIFA World Cup, and Attia told Digital2Disc some of the story behind the solution.
“For the first three days, when we were watching the World Cup with the noise of the vuvuzelas, we all thought that someone would do something about it, but as time went on no-one did,” Attia said. “I asked the team to look for a solution so they went off and came back very quickly with a prototype solution. We approached Canal+ and they not only wanted it, they wanted exclusivity in France so that they could provide what they saw as the best experience for the viewer.”
Audionamix was able to provide the solution to Canal+ within 48 hours, an achievement that Attia admits, while impressive, is what can be expected of the company’s team of highly-qualified engineers, many of whom have PhDs in sound process. “We have been in the business of sound separation for eight years, so while it was challenging, we knew we had an opportunity where we could respond quickly.
“One of the real challenges was not the sound extraction itself but being able to do it in realtime for a broadcast company, who needed a relatable product that could be integrated into broadcast realtime and as fast as possible.”
While other broadcasters were offered the technology, they turned it down, said Attia, on the grounds that they felt that the vuvuzela is a cultural phenomenon and they would prefer to leave it in. “However, we think the vuvuzela will now become a significant part of sports festivities and other occasions and many people will want to be able to experience these occasions without that particular sound.”
The official website definition of the Audiomanix technology (ADX Technology) is that it approaches audio signal analysis as genetics. All audible sound is composed of energy that is allocated in certain patterns in a similar way to cells being determined by their DNA code. ADX Technology determines what the audio DNA for a specific sound is (the ‘learning source’) and then applies it using our various algorithms to extract the specific sound from the full mix.
The analogy that Attia uses is that of some play dough: “If I give my 7-year-old son four different colours of dough to play with he can eventually mould it all together so there is one lump that is a uniform yellowy grey colour. That lump is still made up of those separate colours and in order to return the pieces with their individual colours, you have to be able to separate very tiny fragments. That’s our job, to do that with sound.”
The term ADX technology is partly a way of being able to differentiate: “It is a way for the studios, for instance, to be able to show the viewers that this is the original work in all its glory but with an audio track that has been remastered and enhances the experience.”
Some of the other projects that Audionamix have been involved in are the restoration, for Universal, of the 50th anniversary version of Psycho, which premiered in the Classics section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. That involved taking the mono track and upping it to a 5.1 surround sound system.
“It is the same music and the same sound, but whereas before the music was in front of the viewer, on the screen, now they are immersed in it. It is like a time machine, someone told me: we can take the recording system of the 60s and transpose it into the technology of today.” It is, Attia said, as though the viewer is experiencing the same sound of the orchestra as Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock would have enjoyed during the making of the classic movie.
The company also worked with Hans Zimmer, a notable perfectionist, on the music for Chris Nolan’s thriller Inception. “I can’t discuss which particular pieces of music we worked on” said Attia, “but our remit was to take an old piece of music on a mono track and provide a more modern experience of that music for the viewers.”
Inception (“a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind. This summer your mind is the scene of the crime”) will hit the movie theatres on July 16.
A detailed feature on Audionamix and its technology will be published in a future issue of the Digital2Disc printed magazine.
