Glossary
Immersive formats
Spatial audio
Also known as spatialised audio · 3d audio · ambisonics · binaural audio · positional audio
Sound rendered so it seems to come from particular directions around the listener, and stays in place as they turn their head.
360° video often carries ambisonic audio, a format that records the full sphere of sound and is rotated to match head movement. Interactive scenes can instead place individual sound sources in 3D space and render them for headphones using binaural techniques.
It helps learners orient: an alarm behind them or a patient calling from a bed to the left tells them where to look. Narration and instructions usually work better head-locked, staying fixed relative to the listener rather than coming from one point in the room.