INPUT
A NEW OPPORTUNITY IN AUDIO: PART 2
Technicolor’s Scott Gershin on Audio for Virtual, Augmented & Mixed Reality
By Andrew King
S
cott Gershin, supervising sound
editor and mixer with Technicolor,
presented a session at The 2018
NAMM Show called “Mixed Reality
& the New Opportunity for Audio.”
We invited him to share some thoughts on
the technologies and techniques being
used f or these applications, and where he
sees the most potential. Here’s part two.
PS: Whether you can name the specific
project or even just offer some general
details, what are some of the more in-
novative or exciting VR or AR projects
that you and Technicolor have had a
hand in lately?
SG: We’ve done over 20, maybe even 30
VR projects to date. What’s fascinating and
quite enjoyable about each of the projects
that we’ve done is that each one is very
different from the next.
We’ve done documentary-style VR
projects that are just fascinating – we love
[VR content platform] Within. There’s one
coming out shortly for Sundance called
Awavena. We’ve done Giant. Some of these
projects are just really fascinating, because
you get a chance to participate in an envi-
ronment in a 360 way that allows you to get
a very real idea of where these films are set.
That’s a very neat thing.
Then there are other projects we’ve
done that aren’t out yet that are more
gaming-based, and a lot of it is neat in that
it gives you that 270-degree look, and it’s
very immersive, so you’re on or in that place
and it’s just a ton of fun.
We’ve done some projects tied to mov-
ies that expand those film universes – a
piece with [the 2017 remake of ] Jumanji,
a piece with [2016’s] Passengers, where it’s
kind of an extension of the film.
I did something called My Brother’s
Keeper – a short little piece for PBS on the
Civil War focusing on two brothers. One
ended up going to the south and one to
the north, and they faced each other in a
battle in the Civil War, and the film explored
what that meant.
So everyone’s still experimenting with
what they want VR to be. There’s a lot of
great material people are working with.
We’ve even done music videos. People are
still playing with different concepts and
ideas on what will work best in VR
and AR.
PS: Where do you see the most
opportunity for growth in this
industry, in terms of product de-
velopment, consumer potential,
and even job creation?
SG: We’re still at the very, very
beginning, I believe, of a new in-
dustry. Some people think it might
be a fad and some don’t. There are
reasons I feel it has a lot of potential
for growth.
A few challenges we’re faced with are
that we’ve just been introduced to 8K TVs,
and they’re amazing. So people are get-
ting used to super-high definition when
it comes to TV and film. When it comes to
phones – and sometimes it’s not phones,
but just with devices of that size, even
though they do 4K, it’s called a 4K wrap,
where it’s stretched to a spherical circle,
so in any given spot, it’s a lot less than 4K
resolution. People feel to get VR to the
same place TV is, we need to be working
in 16K, so that’s the target that a lot of
people feel we need to hit for this to be
really competitive.
There’s also a big discussion about AR
vs. VR, and that’s like apples and oranges.
AR is an extension of the reality you partici-
pate in. If you wanted to walk around with
sticky notes of what to buy, or your to-do
list, that could live in the environment you
work in. It embellishes or overlays content
into the reality you’re working in. So I com-
pare AR to the development of the com-
puter – computers to laptops to tablets to
phones to watches. We want to utilize that
kind of information and those functions
quickly. If we could have a goggle that
basically gives us that information within
our reality, that’s where I feel the evolu-
tion of accessing information [through
AR] could go. Within a generation, I think
AR will have the potential to take over the
computer, because how many people now
use their phones to access that information
and functions that could eventually just be
incorporated into what we see?
Right now, everything is big and clunky
and it’s all still very young, so I equate
that to when I was younger and mobile
phones came out and they looked like
WWII walkie-talkies. If someone asked, “Do
you think that’ll catch on?” You’d think it was
ridiculous. And now, look at mobile phones.
So I think AR is going to become huge
Now, the discussion many people have
is, is VR just a stepping-stone to AR? And I say
no. When we look at entertainment, since
the caveman days, we’ve always wanted
a form of escapism – someone telling a
story around a fire, going to see a play, go-
ing to see a movie, to TV, to now everyone
watching what they want on their tablets.
Everybody wants to be entertained, number
one. Number two, everybody wants escap-
ism. Many people aren’t happy with all the
aspects of their life, so they want a way
to escape. If we can create the Hollosuite
[from Star Trek], and if you’re in a 10 x 10-ft.
apartment you don’t love and want to be
anywhere else, you could put the goggles
on and be skiing the Alps, or be anywhere
else. I think that’s important, and I think
once the technology is mature, it could be
widely adopted.
The other thing, and it’s a bit morbid,
but baby boomers are now talking about
end-of-life. People in hospitals near the end
of their lives don’t want to be there, and
don’t want the reminder that life ends. Can
we help people in their last days have a dif-
ferent experience? If they pop the goggles
on, they could be anywhere they wanted.
It’s the perfect illusion, so in medical, that
could be a serious tool. As they’re giving
me my happy meds, I’d love to be on the
beach or skiing or anywhere else than the
hospital. And maybe I have avatars of my
family with me. There’s so much potential
in that area as well.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 9