3-D sound developer is bending Hollywood’s ear

The eerie whisper of a ghost in your right ear. The pitter-patter of rain pelting your umbrella. The whistle of bullets screeching past your face.

Get ready for the next leap forward in movie theater technology: 3-D sound.

At least that’s the hope of a German software company that has spent 15 years and $20 million developing a system that aims to do for audio what 3-D has done for screen images. Moviegoers may soon be able to experience the audio technology — assuming theater owners and movie distributors, already shelling out for a new generation of projection equipment for 3-D pictures, are willing to take on the added expense of upgrading their sound systems.

“We want audience members to forget that they’re in the theater so they can experience sound as close as possible to the real world,” said Uwe Karbenk, chief executive of Iosono Inc., which develops and licenses 3-D audio systems and has offices in Los Angeles and Erfurt, Germany.

The phrase “3-D sound” is more a Hollywood marketing moniker meant to grab people’s attention than an acoustical science term. But the phrase is used to convey the idea that the movie’s audio can project aspects of multidimensional space, providing a more “immersive” experience for the audience.

Originally conceived by Karlheinz Brandenburg, one of the main developers of the MP3 standard that is used in the iPod and other portable audio players, Iosono’s technology already is used in various museums, planetariums and theme parks, including at the Haunted Mansion attraction at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

The system’s unique feature is its ability to project audio anywhere inside the theater, giving the audience the illusion that sounds originate from right next to them. It also creates audio uniformity, so that everyone hears sound at the same volume, regardless of where they sit. The effect is created by using multiple speakers, each of them controlled by a computer that can play back individual sounds at intervals.

While most theaters use six to eight speakers, Iosono’s “holographic sound” uses up to 128 speakers with 32 channels, or distinct sound locations, placed behind the screen and around the theater (most theaters would probably use the 64-speaker system that projects 64,000 watts).

Iosono has installed its system, which consists of speakers and a PC-based sound control unit, at two screens in the Mann Chinese theater complex in Hollywood. The company aims to roll out up to 50 screens this year and 200 screens by 2011.

“It’s incredible,” said Peter Dobson, chief executive of Mann Theatres, which operates seven theaters. “People are very sound-conscious these days, and they’re looking for something they can’t get in their homes. This adds one more dimension.”

Although Iosono declined to reveal which movies would be shown in the new format, people familiar with the matter said Iosono would debut with Walt Disney’s “Tron: Legacy,” set for release Dec. 17.

Executives at Disney and other major studios declined to comment, as did several leading theater circuits, saying they were still studying the technology.

The reticence is perhaps understandable, given the novelty of the format. One hurdle Iosono faces is price. Some theater operators, which have already spent millions upgrading their theaters with new digital projectors and 3-D equipment, have balked at the price of the system, which costs about $70,000 to $80,000, with the purchase and installation of speakers. That excludes $150,000 that producers would pay to mix a movie in an Iosono-equipped sound studio.

Karbenk said Iosono was still developing its business model but the company would offer alternatives to selling the system outright, such as supplying the equipment in exchange for a share in revenue from ticket sales.

“The system’s price will not be a deal breaker,” he said.

Theater operators are looking for new ways to make their cinemas stand apart from home entertainment, where big-screen, high-definition televisions and five-channel sound systems have turned family rooms into miniature multiplexes.

According to Hollywood.com, box-office revenues through Oct. 10 reached $8.3 billion, an increase of 3.4% from the same period a year ago — attributable in large part to a flood of 3-D releases, which command higher ticket prices. But actual theater attendance is declining, with 1.05 billion tickets sold so far this year, down 2% from a year earlier.

The new format has drawn praise from some influential directors, who have been frustrated because their movies rarely sound the way they intended when they reach theaters.

“They can create the illusion of a sound being right next to every person in the theater,” said Guillermo del Toro, director of “Pan’s Labyrinth” and the “Hellboy” movies. “And you can use it to move a sound across the theater — not just from the surrounding walls, but in the middle of the theater, over the audience’s head. It creates a really immersive experience.”

San Francisco-based Dolby Laboratories Inc. also has been experimenting with more advanced sound techniques, albeit more basic than Iosono’s.

The company this year unveiled a new audio format, Dolby Surround 7.1, which is already available in home video, with Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 3.” The system, which has eight speakers, has been installed in 1,000 theaters and costs only a few thousand dollars to upgrade from the standard 5.1 format, making it a low-cost alternative to Iosono’s, said David Gray, vice president of worldwide production services for Dolby Laboratories.

Iosono’s system is impressive but carries “practical drawbacks” because of the number of speakers that must be installed in a theater, Gray said.

Still, he acknowledges that the 7.1 system does not have the same acoustic capabilities. In response to market demand, Dolby plans to introduce a more advanced product — with 14 speakers — next fall.

“Sound mixers and directors want to have a bigger palette, and theaters want a richer sound to go with the 3-D experience,” Gray said.

richard.verrier@latimes.com

john.horn@latimes.com