Listener in the Center : Inventor of Holophonics Opens Up World of Sound

Holophonics, Hugo Zuccarelli is convinced, will someday become the standard of the recording industry.

It may take some time, however.

Zuccarelli, 28, recently formed a 29-branch production company to assure him complete control over the various applications of Holophonics and to preserve its integrity.

“I’m not in any rush--I’d prefer to destroy Holophonics rather than have it fall into the wrong hands.”

In the simplest of technical terms, Holophonics incorporates both dynamic and spatial encoding. In other words, the listener is situated at the center of an “audio hologram,” which can be imagined as a limitless sphere of sound.

Holophonic sound images represent the only true sound reproduction, Zuccarelli said.

An Audio Wonderland

Sound effects and music on Zuccarelli’s demonstration tape, played back through an ordinary personal stereo, transport the listener through an audio wonderland.

The sound of snipping scissors--behind the ear, trimming the sideburns, taking a bit off the top--places the listener in a barber’s chair.

A sheet of newspaper is crumpled up and tossed around--behind, in front of, arced over the head of the listener.

A segment from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” is featured twice--first, in regular stereo, then in Holophonics.

The difference is astounding. Holophonics puts the listener on intimate terms with the string section.

Amazingly, the “surrounded by sound” sensation is retained with one ear plugged or when played back through a single monophonic speaker.

Medical Possibility

In addition to the obvious applications--music, motion picture and television sound tracks--Holophonics has medical possibilities.

“Holophonic tapes, when played for comatose patients, have produced responses no other stimulus could,” Zuccarelli said.

In the motion picture industry, the inventor said his creation could be best appreciated by the masses.

“It not only will sound better, the picture will be brighter.”

Zuccarelli explained that 40% of the motion picture screen is made up of tiny holes. The reason?

“To match the dialogue and the image, the speakers must be behind the screen or it can be very disorienting,” Zuccarelli said in a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles.

Rohf Kahlbenn of Western Theatrical Equipment in San Francisco confirmed that “perforated screens” were the industry standard to accommodate speakers.

Speakers Go Anywhere

“With Holophonics, the speakers can be placed virtually anywhere in the theater and the listener will still hear everything,” Zuccarelli said. “No holes in the screen will mean a 40% sharper image.”

Zuccarelli has been working toward the development of Holophonics most of his life.

“While the other boys were playing football, I was playing with wires and tubes. I was taking apart telephones and microphones.”

Zuccarelli developed Holophonics while working at an Italian paper factory.

“I had lots of time, and lots of paper, to work on my theories.”

Zuccarelli concluded that the human ear must have a reference point of some sort from which it can establish details of external sounds. He postulated that the ear constantly emits an inaudible “reference tone.”

Discovery Traced

Zuccarelli said medical research into patients who complained of ringing in the ears led to the discovery of such a tone. He duplicated the tone in a model of the human head.

The model, nicknamed “Ringo,” mathematically approximates what actually occurs inside the head when sound waves reach the eardrum, Zuccarelli said.

“Nobody would believe it,” he said of his initial failure in convincing the scientific world of his breakthrough. “But then I play the tape, and people become Holophonic fans.”

“They can’t ignore it much longer,” he said.