MPEG-I Immersive Audio - Reference Model For The Virtual/Augmented Reality Audio Standard

MPEG-I Immersive Audio is a forthcoming standard that is under development within the MPEG Audio group (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG6) to provide a compressed representation and rendering of audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) applications with six degrees of freedom (6DoF). MPEG-I Immersive Audio supports bitrate-efficient and high-quality storage/transmission of complex virtual scenes including sources with spatial extent and distinct radiation characteristics (like musical instruments) as well as geometry description of acoustically relevant elements (e.g., walls, doors, occluders). The rendering process includes detailed modeling of room acoustics and complex acoustic phenomena such as occlusion and diffraction due to acoustic obstacles and Doppler effects as well as interactivity with the user. Based on many contributions, this paper reports on the state of the MPEG-I Immersive Audio standardization process and its first technical Reference Model architecture. MPEG-I Immersive Audio establishes the first long-term stable audio format specification in the field of VR/AR and can be used for many consumer applications such as broadcasting, streaming, social VR/AR, or Metaverse technology.