Sound for Extreme 360 Productions

Martin Rieger, Immersive Audio Producer, VRTonung

This video of a presentation from the Virtual Vienna convention in June 2020 features immersive audio producer, Martin Rieger. Martin shared entertaining, yet informative stories and listening examples of the experiences he made with interesting virtual reality productions around the world.

The workshop included various examples of 360-degree video productions under challenging conditions, featuring location recordings and post-production. The purpose of the talk was to give practical insights into immersive VR-video and how the sound on vision needs to be contemplated, which varies a lot from usual film formats and requires a lot of knowledge additional to audio as such. Different technologies and sometimes even custom solutions are needed on set and post. There is no use for a boom microphone and its operator, which gets replaced by an immersive microphone array. There is, just like for 360 cameras, no perfect setup for every occasion as people tend to claim that there is.

Martin experienced a lot of different types of challenges, which classic production sound mixers and post-production facilities dont need to take care of. Therefore, he realized the importance of having a very specialized audio engineer who can, while on-location recording, think about his own following 3D audio mix with sound design, restoration and re-recording.

Martin's experience ranges from a 360 documentary in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, traveling with the team on motorbikes; through work in knee-high snow for a freeride experience in Austria; to accompanying the EU at aid operations in Belgium, Denmark and Bangladesh.