Dolby Podcast Episode 61 - April 9, 2009

Matt Tullis, Senior Manager of Dolby’s Games Market Segment, speaks to Craig Eggers about Dolby’s innovative new approach to voice in online games. In this episode, Matt covers:

1. What Dolby presented at the recent Games Developer Conference,
2. Dolby Pro Logic IIz in games, and
3. Dolby Axon.

 

[music]

Craig Eggers: Streaming to you from our headquarters in San Francisco, this is Dolbycast, the insiders guide to entertainment technologies from the experts at Dolby Laboratories. We are here to give you the straight talk and news on everything you need to know about technologies that excite your eyes and ears.

Craig: And thanks for joining us here on Dolbycast. You know we had a really interesting and informative conversation in the last edition of Dolbycast with both Steve and Jeff from HDMI Licensing.

Fact is, we covered a lot of ground with those guys, but quite frankly we've got so much to talk about. So, we're going to invite them back, and hopefully perhaps in the next edition of Dolbycast we'll again feature our friends from HDMI Licensing.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a very interesting story with you. A friend called me up and said, "You know, I want to get into the HDTV business. I want to have all this greatness you talk about on Dolbycast."

So, I advised him. I said, "Well, first thing you've got to do is get an HD television set. One of the greatest bargains out there I've seen is the new 60-wide DLPs from Samsung." We've talked about that product here on Dolbycast before.

Since my friend was also receiving satellite programming, I said, "You want to really consider an HD DVR." So, they went out and they purchased the Samsung DLP. They contacted their satellite provider and the company rep came out, and installed a new satellite dish, installed the HD DVR, and then proceeded to connect the HD DVR up to the television set via composite video and analog stereo pair.

I contacted my friend. I said, "Hey, how does your new HD system look?" They said, "Well, it look OK." Then we had a conversation about how is it connected? That's when I learned analog stereo pair and composite video. I told my friend, "Look, a simple connection. Go out, get yourself an HDMI cable. Connect that between the DVR and the television set, and you should see a dramatic difference in picture quality."

Well, it sounds pretty cuckoo out there, but it makes you wonder how many people are really paying for HD service and not getting it. Or for that matter, how many people are out there that have an upconverting DVD player that comes with a 1080p sticker, that actually think they're getting high-definition video when they're connected to their HD television set.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are some really, really great installers out there that aren't hooking up HD products via composite video. There are a lot of installers out there that really work for the service providers who really provide excellent quality service. My Comcast people here in the Bay Area are absolutely spectacular. They're real professionals.

But, the fact is, if you're uncertain of your abilities or the abilities of the "factory installer," it really doesn't hurt to investigate the services of a professional. People like the CEDIA team.

Now, for our new listeners, CEDIA stands for Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association. These are your local professionals. They get extensive training in all aspects of home theater setup, entertainment, media automation, etc. So, the bottom line really is, we have this great technology that promises simplicity, and the highest quality we've ever had available to us. But, quite frankly, you really got to take advantage of it.

By that I mean, the quality, and the experience, and the proper connection to assure that you get that quality experience. In this case, it was about a simple HDMI cable making that connection, and voila, instant gratification, great HD picture, great performance.

When we come back, we will speak with Mr. Matt Tullis of our games group who just returned from the Games Developer Conference here in San Francisco. Matt has some very exciting news to talk about surround sound and video games, and he'll join us in just a moment.

[musical interlude]

Announcer: You're listening to Dolbycast, brought to you by Dolby Laboratories. If you have questions for the experts at Dolby Laboratories, email us at dolbycast (at) dolby.com. That's D-O-L-B-Y-C-A-S-T at dolby.com.

Craig: And welcome back to Dolbycast. Matt Tullis is the Senior Marketing Manager for our games group here at Dolby Laboratories, and a very old friend of Dolbycast. Our frequent listeners will surely recognize his voice. Matt, welcome back to Dolbycast.

Matt Tullis: Hey, thanks for having me, Craig.

Craig: This is I think, your third appearance on Dolbycast. You're becoming a regular star.

Matt: Yes, I know. I've been here quite a bit. You know, I've always been thankful for the opportunity to come back.

Craig: Well, you know we've talked about games before and how I think...a friend of ours once said that video games are like a movie, only the cool thing with video games is that they have a different ending every time you play them. Then obviously the surround sound aspect of video games just brings a whole new dimension, doesn't it?

Matt: Yes, I mean surround sound really puts the player in the middle of the action, so to speak. It allows them to hear what's going on around them. And you know how we always talked about how in certain competitive games it can give people an advantage to be able to hear people come up from behind them. So, there's just...surround sound really adds an extra dimension to gaming.

Craig: So Matt, you were here in San Francisco last week and you attended the Game Developers Conference. Talk about GDC. What is it?

Matt: GDC is a show for game developers from around the world to come together. There're a lot of sessions where game developers can share information and best practices from the games they've developed. As well as there's an expo hall where companies that have technology that they license to game developers can show what they have. And it's also the chance for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo to show the latest things for their consoles as well.

Craig: Cool. So, it really is an international exposition though, isn't it?

Matt: Yes, we see game developers coming from Tokyo, Japan; obviously, Seoul, Korea, Korean game developers. We saw a lot from China this year.

Craig: Is that right?

Matt: Yes. I think the Chinese gaming market is growing fast. There're a lot of Chinese game developments going on as well as in the Europe and North America.

Craig: So, if I'm a really big time gamer, and I'm really into games, can I get into this conference?

Matt: You can buy a pass. You don't need to show that you're in the industry. You can buy an All Access Pass. A lot of folks that are students go to the show to learn about game development. I think that we've seen a lot of colleges out there offering classes in game developments. Because there are student passes and things like that as well.

Craig: That's cool. So, tell us what you did at GDC, and tell us what Dolby was doing at GDC.

Matt: So at GDC we had an expo suite where we were showing in, behind closed doors, we like to get it a little quieter. The show floor can get a little loud, so we have a closed door expo suite.

Craig: I can imagine, yes.

Matt: Yes. So, we were showing a couple of new technologies that we're here to talk about today. The first of which is Dolby Pro Logic IIz, which adds a height dimension to games. And is actually a technology for AV receivers.

Craig: Exactly. And you know we've talked about PLIIz in previous podcasts. As a refresher, Dolby Pro Logic IIz enables you to have a 9.1 or a 7.1 listening experience, with the addition of two front height channels. It's compatible with legacy content, and it also has a certain compatibility that we're going to talk about with regards to games content.

The cool thing about PLIIz is it adds that whole added dimension of height and immersion in the experience. Like I said, it works with movies and it also works great with video games. There is a unique aspect to PLIIz as it pertains to video games, and I guess you were talking about that.

Matt: We were showing game developers the technology, first and foremost. This was recently announced at CES, so there's been a lot of buzz in the industry about what this means to game developers. Really, in the game development community, people have been asking for height channels or the voice of God for some time now, because games are naturally in three dimensions.

You have people shooting at you from maybe a couple stories above you. There might be helicopter flyovers. There's a lot of action in games. Really, the idea of being able to add height is something game developers have always been interested in.

What we showed was a demonstration that we'd worked with a game developer called Red Storm on to integrate into a prototype. We could show how the technology works and really build interest amongst game developers.

Craig: It should be noted that when we came to the name PLIIz, "z" actually speaks to the z-axis, which is the height aspect of video games, correct?

Matt: Yes, so when we talk about three dimensions, x, y, and z. That's where "z" came from.

Craig: That's very cool. One of the cool things about Dolby PLIIz is, not only is it compatible with legacy content, but with game developers we can actually have them take height elements of the audio signature, if you will, mix them into the 5.1 mix or the 7.1 mix, maybe in the future. Then have that extracted by a PLIIz AV receiver, and give you almost near discrete height elements that are part of that game's mix. Correct?

Matt: Yes, so in the same way that Pro Logic II allows game developers to do surround sound on the Nintendo Wii, even though it only has a two channel output, we can use similar techniques to enable developers to then encode a height channel into a 5.1 source that can then be extracted out by a PLIIz receiver.

Craig: What you literally have is a helicopter that's hovering above you and, literally, there's dimension. It's up there.

Matt: It was so cool, Craig. That's exactly what we showed. We showed a helicopter scene in this game, where there're helicopters flying over, and there's rocket launchers, and the helicopter's shooting at you. You just felt in the middle of it. We'd go back and forth from 5.1 to 7.1.

The reaction from game developers is more just shock and awe. They were just so excited about the possibilities that this allows them.

Craig: That was my next question. You're so in tune with this community. Are these guys jazzed about this? Should we expect to see PLIIz in video games anytime soon?

Matt: Yes. First and foremost, they're excited. This is just one more tool that we give them to enhance the gameplay experience and immerse players in games. They're excited about it.

We're definitely talking about the implementation. That's something that people are definitely interested in. They're just waiting to see when these things are going to get in homes. We're going to start seeing height speakers in the home.

Craig: It's important to note that two weeks ago, Onkyo announced the very first AV receiver equipped with Dolby Pro Logic IIz. It's the Onkyo TX-SR607. From what I understand, this is the first of many products from Onkyo to feature Dolby PLIIz.

We're going to have the products in the marketplace to play back and decode these excellent experiences that are going to happen in video games. We just need your team to get out there and start working with the game developers and make this happen.

Matt: Yes, we started that at GDC and we'll continue that moving forward.

Craig: Sounds great. When we come back, Matt's going to talk about some really cool, exciting technologies for online gaming. Stay tuned.

[musical interlude]

Craig: Hi, this is Craig from Dolbycast. We love to get your questions. Send those questions to dolbycast (at) dolby.com or give us a call - 1-888-6DOLBY-C. That's 1-888-6DOLBY-C.

Craig: We are back at Dolbycast with Mr. Matt Tullis, who is the senior marketing manager for Games Group here at Dolby Laboratories. You know, Matt, at CES 2009, we showed a really cool technology in our exhibit. It was called Dolby Axon.

Matt: Dolby Axon is our solution for online games. It's a voice chat solution that actually incorporates 3D surround sound for voice.

Craig: 3D surround sound for voice. Obviously, that's how it's different from the conventional technology that's already out there.

Matt: Yes. Let me give you a little background here. Dolby's been working with the game development community since about 1994 to integrate surround sound in the games. Currently, there're about 3000 games that support Dolby Surround of some kind.

We've gotten to the point where surround sound is expected in games. It's built in Dolby Digital to the Playstation 3, and Xbox 360.

Craig: And the Wii.

Matt: Well, Dolby Pro Logic II is on the Wii.

Craig: Exactly.

Matt: Dolby surround sound. It's to the point where people expect surround sound, but then they go online. Now every game's got some online component. You go online, and the voice is just not quite there. It's not positioned in any way, so there's this disconnect. Someone's shooting at you from over on your right, or behind you. Then the voice just comes, in pretty low quality, right in front of you.

Craig: Right from the center channel.

Matt: Yes, exactly. So now, you're hearing essentially the same person from two different locations. We looked at this as this is a solution that Dolby can solve. We obviously have experience in surround sound. We go back 40 years in noise reduction and trying to make things sound better.

We looked at it as this is a tough industry problem that Dolby can lend some expertise and solve.

Craig: If I understand correctly then, Dolby Axon replaces that typical mono sound signature that we hear when we do online voice communications with a surround sound aspect? What does that mean if I'm playing with other team members?

Matt: We licensed Dolby Axon to game developers to include into their game. Again, they can give this technology to the game players, so that if me and you were on the same team and we're walking through a level, I can actually hear your voice now from where the location of your character is.

Craig: So, if I'm standing to your right, you're actually going to hear me out the right channel.

Matt: Yes. If you're standing on my left, you can hear from the left. You go behind me, I'll hear you in surround sound. We can do surround sound over 5.1, 7.1 speakers. But, for those gamers out there who are on headsets, we can actually use Dolby headphone technology to simulate surround sound over any pair of headphones.

Craig: Right. Now, talk about fidelity. Does Dolby Axon improve the fidelity of the online voice communications?

Matt: Yes. In online games, you obviously have to be cognizant of the bandwidth use out there, right? Because this is online technology, where you're streaming bandwidth live over the Internet. We actually created our own proprietary codec that would deliver high-quality voice experience at a very low bandwidth.

Craig: Audio fidelity, better improved audio fidelity, this new surround sound component to online gaming. So, if I've got your flank, I literally do have your flank because you can hear me on the right, or the left, or behind you.

What happens if I'm out in front of you and running towards you going, "The enemy's coming, the enemy's coming," any unique aspects there?

Matt: As you come towards me, your voice will actually get louder as you approach. Likewise, if you were to go away from me, your voice would actually get quieter. We're actually taking the distance into account as we apply distance attenuation.

Craig: Now, does that work for the entire 360 degree circle? If I'm really far away from you on your right side, if I get closer, I'm going to get louder. If I'm really far away from you behind you, as I get closer to you will my voice get louder too?

Matt: Definitely. When I said 3D, it's true that even in some games where height is an element, the farther you get away from me above me, you'll get quieter as well.

Craig: Oh, that's cool. That's really cool. Now, what happens if I'm standing behind a wall where maybe my voice is being occluded by a building or whatever?

Matt: Yes, we take occlusions into account. Dolby Axon technology can read the game geometry and actually if you are walking away from me and you go around the corner, your voice will trail off as you go around the corner.

It won't just cut off abruptly. We actually do a little bit of modeling to enable the real occlusion effect of you walking around the corner and your voice trails off as you go.

Craig: I think, what's really amazing is this all happens in real time. Quite frankly, it could happen with me in New York City and you in London, or me in San Francisco you in possibly Japan or Dallas, Texas. We don't have to be in the same neighborhood to enjoy this, do we?

Matt: Yes, really we're trying to create that worldwide couch where you feel like you're playing with people that you know.

Craig: Worldwide couch, I really like that. That's cool.

Matt: Yes, that's kind of an experience you want to have. Actually in some of our demos, to your point, we actually tried it, utilized some of the Dolby offices across the globe. It's really cool.

We showed this to game developers. We actually showed it live on the show floor at GDC, where we actually had people in Australia as well as people in London. I mean, we're talking worse case scenario. Trade show floor, Internet connection through the trade show and people literally spread out across the globe and it worked perfectly.

Craig: There's this thing called voice fonts.

Matt: Yes, in a lot of cases in these online games, people like to play characters that aren't necessarily representative of themselves.

Craig: You create an avatar of yourself or whatever.

Matt: Yes, and you might like to play as a female or a female might like to play as male or an ogre or various characters. Again, we're trying to make people feel as if their immersed in the game. If you are talking to this little female character and this booming male voice comes out of it, it's going to be a disconnect.

We actually enable players and game developers to create voice fonts, which allow people to alter their voice to more closely represent their character.

Craig: These fonts would be in a menu in a system and you select the actual font that you want?

Matt: It will be different in each game depending on how we roll it out. We'll work with the game developers to make that happen.

Craig: So improved audio fidelity, a 360 degree experience with voice communication, this thing called voice fonts. Is there anything else that Dolby Axon does?

Matt: Yes, what we try to do with our system is enable game developers to use voice in exciting new ways. Now that the voice is integrated into the game, it's not just bolted on, game developers can use voice to create new experiences.

What I mean by that is, I'll give you an example, currently in the demonstration that we show to game developers, we actually attach a spy microphone to a device where a game developer can now use voice to attach to weapons or different devices in their game.

I can actually fire a little device down in there, plant it maybe near your spawn point which is where you start on a level. Then I can listen in and hear my enemies maybe strategize about how their going to play the game.

Craig: Oh, very cool. Very, very cool.

Matt: We modify games that we work on here. Our development team down in Sydney's favorite one is actually to attach a voice to a det pack, a detonation pack or a mine.

Craig: OK.

Matt: What they do is, they attach this little device, they throw the mine in a doorway, then they go hide behind a tree. They sit there and they talk and then the enemy walks by and they hear a voice from inside this area.

The enemy of course hears a voice, and they're like, "Oh I'm going to go in there and get this guy." Then they walk in and then they detonate the mine, blow the guy up.

Craig: Oh.

Matt: It's kind of dirty, but yet it's fun.

Craig: Sounds like it gives you an unfair advantage almost. That's the great thing about technology, right?

Matt: Yes, we've tried to create Dolby Axon to make it as flexible as possible.

Game developers will come up with things that we've never even thought of. They've shown this time and time again, so we try to create a platform for game developers to create exciting new experiences for gamers. Really just wow the gamers with using voice in the game now instead of making it such a bolt on, add on feature.

Craig: At GDC, you were demonstrating Dolby Axon on a 5.1 system. You got to tell me what was the reaction of the game developers to Axon?

Matt: It was great, especially over the surround sound system. It's really cool to be able to hear voices go around you. We've actually solved another problem there. Previously, when you played a game and you were using voice, you were coming out of the speakers. One of the problems is, is that if I speak to you Craig, my voice comes out over your speakers. Well, if then my voice over your speakers feeds back into your microphone, then I'll hear an echo of myself.

We've actually created some echo suppression, echo reduction technology that removes that. The reaction from game developers said that was the best they ever heard of that technology. It was really exciting because they like gamers to be able to sit back on the couch and play it on that big home theater system and have a seamless experience.

Craig: Sounds very sophisticated, which takes us to the next question which is, where will I find Dolby Axon? Will it be on a shiny silver disc, will it be on a console? Will it be somewhere else?

Matt: Dolby Axon is directly integrated into the game. Right now, we've actually been working with PC game developers. Our first title is actually going to be coming out soon. We announced at GDC that Kingsoft from China is releasing Mission Against Terror and that will incorporate Dolby Axon.

Craig: When's that coming?

Matt: We're looking at April.

Craig: April, and I expect other announcements, hopefully through the rest of the year.

Matt: Yes, we have a couple of them lined up and we'll be sure to come back on and share those designs with you.

Craig: Excellent. Matt Tullis is the Senior Marketing Manager for games group here at Dolby laboratories. Matt, thanks for joining us on Dolbycast.

Matt: Thank you, Craig.

Craig: Thank you for being our listeners. You can contact us at dolbycast (at) dolby.com. That's dolbycast (at) dolby.com or give us a call at 1-888-6DOLBY-C. That's 1-888-6DOLBY-C. I'm Craig Eggers, this is Dolbycast. Talk to you soon.

[music]