Surround Digital Audio in Architectural Animation and VR Environment

To stimulate all five senses through a realistic representation, audio plays a significant role. Architectural representation in digital media primarily falls in the area of visualization. Recent developments in simulation of 3d animation, lighting effect, material options and texture quality demonstrate that technology has come to a satisfactory level for representing realistic environments. But, at the same time, designers may not have paid due attention in regards to simulation of quality audio in architectural representation, particularly in 3D animation. “Surround Soundi or technically, the Dolby Digital and DTS technology has been used for entertainment purposes in film and movie production for a long time. As realistic materials and lighting increases the value of reality, sounds and sound effects too can add value to represented virtual reality architectural environments. Surround Sound technology simply delivers different signals from a 360-degree range. The reason beneath this is to break the sense of looking towards a single direction. Ideally, the audio should come from the direction of the visuals on the scene. Synchronization of both visual and Dolby Digital audio can enhance the experiential quality of an audio-visual representation. At the same time, it can break the notion of audio coming from a single direction. This paper suggests and demonstrates the technique of combining surround sound in digital 3D architectural animation for the purpose of enhancing its visual and sensory quality.