[HONOR 20 Series] An Industry-First Virtual 9.1 Surround Sound

HONOR Brings Audio Experiences to Life

Sounds from the nature are multidimensional and diverse. However, after being recorded and transcoded by machines, and when played through your speaker or headphones, the original sense of dimension and breadth is lost. At present, all the finest music, movie, gaming and other related entertainment equipment are trying to imitate or even restore such breadth and depth in sound quality, in order to enhance the audio-visual entertainment experience.

Learning from the Past: The Evolution of Audio Technology

Dual channel technology is seen as an advancement in the audio field: a sense of multiple dimension is created utilizing both the left and right sound channel to identify the source of the sound. Eventually, the superior 5.1 Surround Sound System and 7.1 Surround Sound System began to gain popularity.

Although the 5.1 Surround Sound System and 7.1 Surround Sound System have been adequate in bringing about immersive surround sound experience, there remains a gap to the 9.1 surround sound system used in luxurious cinemas or all-in-one home theatres. The so-called 9.1 surround sound system adds two additional speakers at the top to merge audio content and reflect further details in sounds. For example, users can clearly identify whether the bird-chirping audio comes from the treetop or the lawn in front.

The recently-launched HONOR 20 Series is the first to bring such premium audio technology to a smartphone.

Industry-First Virtual 9.1 Surround Sound Tackles Two Major Technical Difficulties

In fact, most music, movies, games still have dual channel files. How does a dual channel file allow users to experience the true multi-dimensional effect of the 9.1 surround sound? HONOR’s engineers had to overcome two technical difficulties – the first was to decode the audio file while the second was to imitate how the human ear perceive sound.

Firstly, HONOR 20 analyzes audio files using AI algorithm, transforming dual channel audio files to match the 9.1 Surround Sound System. Commonly-seen dual channel shooting games would be a simple example: following considerable AI learning, the HONOR 20 would be able to intelligently identify and single out the sound made by flying military aircrafts in the game. The device would then convert the audio virtually to match the sky source in the 9.1 Surround Sound System, playing the audio above users’ head to achieve an immersive sound effect.

This brings about another issue as users do not have speakers above their heads. Even though the HONOR 20 identifies the sound of military aircrafts, how does it play the audio above users’ heads? This is when the second core technology, source simulation technology, becomes key.

In principle, humans can judge the strength of sounds through both left and right ear, as well as the order of which the sounds occur to identify the source. Suppose you are facing a road and a car is coming from your right with an increasingly loud sound. Once the car passes by in front of you, the sound gradually decreases from your left. Even with your eyes closed, you would be able to identify the car’s path in this situation.

The left and right ear identifies the source of a sound through time

Similarly, if you play an increasingly intense car sound to your right ear, then play a fading car sound to your left ear, you may be able to trick your ears and brain into thinking that a car has raced by if the sound transition is natural enough.

This is the basic idea of the HONOR 20 Virtual 9.1 surround sound: through the distinct volume of objects and controlling the time such sounds are played to both the left and right ear, the device creates a multi-dimensional auditory experience through imitating the source of different sounds. Obviously, the actual simulation process is more complicated than the example above.

With games such as Fortnite, it is common to have complex sounds like gun shots, engine revving as well as enemies’ footsteps – these sounds are artfully created by HONOR 20 Series’ Virtual 9.1 surround  sound to give every gamer a wonderful gaming experience.

Our Achievements: Virtual 9.1 Surround Sound Awarded with 21 International Core Patents

HONOR engaged over 40 audio experts from top global universities in Europe, Japan and China to repeatedly test and improve the algorithm. It is no wonder that the Virtual 9.1 Surround Sound System was eventually awarded with 21 international core patents for its nine core technological innovations.

Not only is virtual 9.1 surround sound available on HONOR’s headphones, the technology will adapt to a variety of third-party headphones. More users will be able to experience this advanced technology in different forms of headphones, including but not limited to headsets, Bluetooth and in-ear. Simply connect to your headphones and select “Grand” under “3D audio” according to the below instructions to experience HONOR’s cutting-edge technology.