The I.S.R.O Immersive Media Lab is engaged in research and development of immersive media experiences, as well as tools and technologies for Virtual Reality and Spatial Audio.
Projects at the Immersive Media Lab include artistic productions, VR instruments, and spatial audio tools, amongst others. Take a look at some of our recent and ongoing projects below.
PROJECTS
Zoophony VR
Zoophony VR is a spatial audio and virtual reality work developed as a collaboration between Berlin-based composer, Sergey Khismatov and Bangalore-based visual-artist, Chaitanya Krishnan. The collaboration took place as part of Soundchains - Virtual Artist Exchange 2021, which was a response to the pandemic. With the shutting down of the international physical residency at The I.S.R.O, production and collaboration moved into new uncharted digital formats.
Haptics and Acoustics for VR Folk Instruments
Our ongoing research on VR Instruments and Interfaces involves recreating the haptics and sounds of South Indian folk instruments in virtual reality. Our research explores techniques such as Physical Synthesis Modelling, to accurately emulate the natural sound of acoustic folk instruments in Virtual Reality.
Brahma Sculpture 16
Our current research includes the design and development of a low-cost, user-friendly and open-source 16-channel ambisonic field recorder. The recorder's hardware is based on MEMs microphones and a Raspberry Pi Zero.
3D Sound Lab Bangalore
Since 2017, The I.S.R.O studio has been home to the 3D Sound Lab built by Felix Deufel with the help of Umashankar Manthravadi and Yashas Shetty. The 3D sound lab features a 32 channel audio system, which is one of India’s first such systems. The lab has access to ambisonic microphones for recording ambisonics and in surround – courtesy of Brahma Microphones. The 3D Sound Lab is open to practitioners who want to work on spatial audio projects.
WORKSHOPS
Building a 3D Sound Lab in Bangalore
In 2017, as part of the BangaloREsidenc programme organised by Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore, artist-in-residence, Felix Deufel facilitated a workshop around building the first 3D Sound Lab in Bangalore.
Crash Course in 3D Audio
In Jan 2022, sound-designers and sound-artists, Felix Deufel and Nikhil Nagaraj facilitated a day-long workshop at 3D SoundLab Bengaluru. The goal of the workshop was to empower students, sound artists, producers and other practitioners to work with 3D audio and to use the SoundLab Bengaluru for future experiments and productions. In the workshop, participants were introduced to the technical infrastructure of the 32-channel 3D sound-system at the SoundLab (hardware setup and signal flows). They workshop also included an introduction to open-source ambisonics VST plug-ins by IEM and Not a Number, and a software crash course for full 3D audio production pipeline (binaural and multichannel).
PUBLICATIONS
DIY Brahma Field Recorder
In October 2021, we conducted a workshop for the trans-disciplinary graduate research students of the Srishti Manipal Institute, where they learnt how to modify a Zoom H2N into an ambisonic recorder using a Brahma ambisonic array. The process of building the recorder has been published in the form of an instructions booklet.
PEOPLE
Dhruva Gowda Storz
Karthik Krishna
Umashankar Manthravadi
Chaitanya Krishnan
Sergey Khismatov
Felix Deufel