Professional education as immersive media designer

In recent years, the potential uses of immersive media, which include augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and 360° applications, in particular, have expanded significantly. In the area of technology, hardware and software have become much more user-friendly and the infrastructure has also been improved. This is for anybody who is interested in what the education system in Germany is doing in the future metaverse.

Update 22/10

Qualification courses for vocational school teachers for the IHK training profession from August 2023 has been added below. A portal for all information on the new training occupation of immersive media designer is being created at https://gestaltung-immersiv.de/.

Qualification course workshops

As a first step, we would like to offer vocational school teachers the opportunity to register for the qualification courses.

Offer for designers for immersive media

In order to achieve a basic qualification in the field of immersive media, we would like to point out qualification courses in various selected areas. This includes

• the knowledge of and handling of hardware (AR devices and VR glasses)
• the differentiation of technologies (360-degree video versus real-time graphics)
• Basics of the spatial audio, i.e. immersive 3D audio
• Basics of using 3D digital content creation tools such as Blender, concrete work with the two most important real-time tools on the market such as Unity and Unreal Engine, and
• Agile project management. The course content is aligned with the requirements of the immersive media designer training. For general questions please contact Helge Berlitz-Olle, Helge.Berlitz-Olle(at)bs19hh.de

Spatial Audio

I am pleased to offer advanced training on 3D Audio. So there will be a dedicated series of workshops for immersive audio in German. There are currently 3 dates, these are constantly updated on the page https://gestaltung-immersiv.de/buchung.php.

creative viewing

• How sound enhances the experience in XR? (more immersion, information about speech, user guidance, multiple characters better differentiated).
• What is immersive audio and how is it combined with stereo? (diegetic vs. in-head localization).
• How does it sound and what are some applications in which sound makes a difference? (best practice)
• What are the platforms and content formats? (VR, 360 video, AR, sound installations, headphones with and without head tracking).

technical workflow

• What is there to consider when recording? (spatial sound + audio objects)
• What are the audio formats and platforms? (Dolby Atmos, NGA, Ambisonics, audio assets)
• What is the post-production and delivery process (DAW + game engine + middlewares)?
• Round-up, why sound in XR must not be considered in isolation but holistically (not mapping reality but hyperreality, visuals must support audio and vice versa)

Technological progress

For some years now, a wide variety of applications have developed, especially in the areas of production (Industry 4.0), in commerce, in medicine, and in education and culture.

In the medium term, it is to be expected that the expansion of the digital infrastructure and the increase in bandwidths for mobile data transmission (5 G) will create an important prerequisite for immersive media to no longer be used primarily stationary, but that they can also be used mobile while on the move.

Shortage of skilled workers

Current progress thus leads us to expect that technologies in the field of immersive media and their diverse applications in professional and private everyday life will continue to play a growing role in the future.

With the significant development of the market and technology, the need for qualified personnel capable of developing and designing immersive media is also growing.

At the moment, however, there is still a major shortage of skilled workers; the demand cannot currently be met in either qualitative or quantitative terms. The result of a preliminary study by the Federal Institute for Professional Education (BIBB) found that the creation of an independent three-year training occupation is seen as the best way to develop qualified personnel in the long term (https://www.bibb.de/dienst/dapro/daprodocs/pdf/eb_22338.pdf).

On the initiative of the social parties, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection has commissioned the BIBB to develop a corresponding training regulation. Currently, the work of the experts from the Federation and the Länder is underway.

Immersive audio in education

The BIBB has therefore convened a committee of about 20 experts who come from the most diverse areas of the XR world or who have already worked on the vocational training of media designers for image and sound.

The aim is to train a specialist who understands the whole process of an XR production and is in exchange with the different areas such as: Creating a prototype, programming for game engines, 3D modelling and animation and of course designing immersive soundscapes.

Why is 3D audio important for XR?

That’s why I sit on the committee once a month for two days as a deputy expert, so that the topic of sound can be fully appreciated. The most important thing here is to convey to non-sound people why sound is essential for media production and how 3D audio is taking on a new special role in the area of XR for the user experience (UX) and storytelling.

So it’s not primarily about replacing sound people, but on the contrary about laying the foundation for sound to receive the appreciation it deserves in the XR sector in the future.

What are skills that XR needs?

This is an iterative production process where Technical Director, Creative Director and Project Management merge into one person.

During the process, the trainee understands consulting (sales, marketing), conception (storyliving, mood boards), design (visual artist, UI/UX designer, sound artist) and programming (software developer).

The focus is – as the name suggests – on design, while support is provided in the other areas, but implementation is anchored in a career path, such as IT specialist.

What is there to know for XR and sound?

At the moment, it is a matter of determining the training framework plan in which the contents are defined. So every single word in the plan is actually discussed with lawyers in order to be able to guarantee that knowledge transfer works sustainably with new technologies and terminology in the future.

My function here is to build a bridge to the audio world. I welcome contact and suggestions so that the audio industry can be represented as fully as possible in the new training. The vocational training should be available for selection for the first time in 2023.