Photo from the tour of Spatial
The CRAS AES student chapter extends its utmost gratitude to Spatial Inc. for graciously hosting an open house tour of their Scottsdale showroom. The evening began with generously provided pizza and a smorgasbord of light refreshments. As guests and Spatial employees mingled, the company's awe-inspiring array of speakers?—some artfully situated around an enclosed outdoor patio--delivered a lush atmosphere of mellifluous bird calls and distant thunder. Fresh off the heels of an Arizona monsoon, some in attendance mistook these cues as the true-to-life aftermath of ebbing storms.
Sufficiently impressed by this aural appetizer, CRAS students and faculty were soon addressed by CRAS Director of Education Robert Brock. Brock recounted how CRAS and Spatial came to connect with one another and spoke of the strong collaborative relationship that led to the development of educational material for Spatial Studio and the various technologies that underpin it. Brock then opened the floor to Wyatt Giampa, Creative Producer. Wyatt gave an overview of his responsibilities at Spatial, including outreach to students and creators, and expressed excitement over the curriculum, one he hopes to expand beyond CRAS to other schools over time.
Rather than offer a sole keynote speaker, the theme of the evening would be an informal exploration of what Spatial offers through a series of discrete conversations and demonstrations. Spatial Inc. provides a revolutionary software solution for designing immersive three-dimensional audio. Unlike traditional surround formats and specifications, Spatial Studio can adapt a soundscape to any speaker configuration. Soundscapes are fully scalable, randomizable, and programmable within a 3D virtual space in-software.
Spatial's showcase involved a demo space with 44 speakers, an outdoor patio outfitted with several inconspicuous sound sources, and a conference room. Spatial employees demonstrated the power of their technology with numerous demo sequences involving jet engines, jungle ambience, surround music, a spacewalk, and even a dragon fanning its colossal wings overhead. Within the conference room, Wyatt walked guests through the specifics of the Spatial Studio software, specifically how it scales to spaces, the placement and manipulation of sounds, and the automation of movement within spaces.
Once more, CRAS AES is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to witness Spatial's cutting-edge technology. We welcome the opportunity to work with them again in the future.
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