Axon has headset audio surrounded

Matt Tullis, the senior manager of Dolby’s gaming division, has been talking to Develop in our latest Tools Focus about the company’s new Axon technology, which strives to bring surround sound to online gaming headset systems.

“There’s a disconnect when someone’s shooting at you from over there someplace but they speak right inside your ear in mono,” explained Tullis. “We felt there was definite room for improvement. Add to that the fact that many voice codecs are low quality due to bandwidth limitations, and we thought ‘Hey, Dolby can help!’”

As well as offering distance attenuation, Dolby Axon offers support for surround-pan voices, associating them with game avatars, and the technology can take occlusions into account to simulate sound sources as they move behind obstacles. “This really contributes to re-achieving that immersion – it puts you in the game,” said Tullis.

For more on Dolby Axon read the full feature here.