Swedish digital audio pioneer Dirac today introduced the company’s content-based upmixing technology, a critical new feature of the company’s industry-leading Dirac Virtuo solution that enables true, immersive, multichannel audio from existing stereo content.

“With Dirac’s intelligent upmixing technology, creators no longer have to reengineer their content in immersive formats for consumers to enjoy an immersive experience,” said Mathias Johansson, Chief Product Officer at Dirac. “By leveraging Dirac’s expertise in signal processing, we are able to—in real-time—create a new multichannel experience from existing stereo content while maintaining the high-fidelity sound of the original recording.”

The Dirac upmixing technology analyzes source content and splits into component parts with different spatial attributes. From this real-time decomposition, the upmixing technology intelligently generates a multichannel version of the same content and distributes it to multichannel-capable sound systems. No additional surround sound processor is required.

Unlike similar multichannel processing solutions, which create audible distortions and artifacts that were not part of the original stereo recording, Dirac’s upmixing technology employs new patent-pending algorithms to minimize such effects, so the results sound accurate, natural, and immersive.

“The ability to upmix stereo content so that it sounds like a true multichannel recording – while still staying faithful to the intent of recording artist – further strengthens the value of our automotive audio solution,” Johansson continued. “We are pleased to introduce this new capability and expect it to help create new immersive experiences that many more consumers can enjoy.”

Dirac’s upmixing technology will debut first for the automotive market as part of the Dirac Virtuo spatial audio solution. Dirac Virtuo is a key component of Dirac’s Intelligent Audio Platform, the company’s modular approach to perfecting automotive sound. In cars, Dirac Virtuo with upmixing technology can create a true surround-sound experience at every seat when listening to standard stereo content. The upmixing technology is customizable, so automotive sound engineers can tailor the immersive in-car experience.

Dirac’s upmixing technology will be available for licensing by automakers as an add-on to Dirac’s Premium and Professional Packages to create truly immersive experiences from legacy stereo content. Dirac will be demonstrating its upmixing technology during CES 2022 in Venetian Hospitality Suite 3-227. It will launch in the automotive market in Q2 2022.