Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site hou2a.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!hou2a!pjk
From: pjk@hou2a.UUCP (P.KEMP)
Newsgroups: net.audio,net.video,net.tv
Subject: CBS, "3-D Sound", and The TZ
Message-ID: <653@hou2a.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Sep-85 18:27:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou2a.653
Posted: Mon Sep 30 18:27:09 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Oct-85 06:07:34 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 85
Xref: watmath net.audio:5975 net.video:1568 net.tv:3291


This appeared in a local paper on Friday 9/27:
(Re-printed in part without permission)

>  From The Los Angeles Times (by Morgan Gendel)
>  
>  Hollywood - CBS may be literally journeying
>  to "another dimension ... of sight and sound"
>  when all-new episodes of "The Twilight Zone"
>  premiere at 8 p.m. [PDT & EDT] today on channels
>  2 and 10 [NYC and Philadelphia].
>  
>  The revived speculative-fiction series, to which
>  CBS has owned title rights since it began airing
>  on that network in 1959, will feature touches of
>  "three-dimensional sound" this time around.
>  
>  A bird singing in a tree on screen, in other words,
>  should sound as if it is higher up and perhaps farther
>  away than the people speaking in the foreground.
>  The sound of a trickling water fountain travels from
>  the top corner of the screen as the camera pans
>  accordingly.
>  
>  The magic behind this is "spatial reverberation
>  processing," which recreates sound via computer to
>  match how the brain would perceive it in different
>  situations.  The process has served as the
>  impetus for CBS to catch up with rival NBC's
>  efforts in stereo TV, because that is the format
>  that best showcases the new effect.
>  
>  "We're going to do experimental stereo in Philadelphia
>  for the `Twilight Zone' premiere," CBS Broadcast
>  Group spokesman George Schweitzer said.  The network
>  until now has not had enough music or sound effect-
>  oriented shows to warrant a rush to stereo, Schweitzer
>  added, but does intend to gradually convert to stereo
>  over "the next several years."
>  
>  Even viewers hearing "The Twilight Zone" on a standard
>  TV set's 3-inch speaker, however, will be able to
>  pick up "really accurate positioning of sound," said
>  Stanford University acoustician Betsy Cohen, a consultant
>  to the series.
>  
>  "In stereo, we get all that and more," Cohen said.
>  "You get left-to-right motion and you get surround.
>  You get a great sensation of sound moving around your
>  ears."
>  
>  Cohen, who is a consultant to CBS on its eventual
>  move to stereo, also is paid by "The Twilight Zone"
>  to implement the 3-D process, first developed at
>  Northwestern University's Computer Music Studio.
>  
		.
		.
>  
>  The 3-D effect thus far is used sparingly, because
>  it is processed at Northwestern and is only subtly
>  perceived on monaural sets.  But [executive producer
>  Philip] DeGuere does not believe that it is a wasted
>  effort.  In stereo videocassette form, or rebroadcast
>  when stereo TV is more widespread, "these shows are
>  going to have an enhanced quality that is going to
>  make them worth a lot more money to CBS." ...


Does anyone know anything more on this "3-D sound"
system?  Is there an article in some journal on this?

Is it a matrix system like "Ambisonics" (sp?), or
is it some new type of digital manipulation of parts
of the sound track between the stereo channels?

Would Dolby Surround-Sound decoding work well on this
or is there a more optimum method of decoding?

			Paul Kemp
			ihnp4!hou2a!pjk

       The above statements are those of the author only,
          and are not those of AT&T Bell Laboratories.