360° Learning Videos for 361XR – Interviews with 3D Sound

A conversation with an expert, but in a way that puts you in the room: that was the idea behind the learning videos that the Munich start-up 361 Extended Reality produced in 360° in late 2017 and early 2018. The first two modules featured Dr. Ulrich Bauhofer and Emilio Galli Zugaro. I was responsible for the sound, on set and in post-production for the first module, and in post-production for the second.

Why a 360° interview needs more sound planning

In terms of the process these were perfectly normal interviews: a quiet room, two speakers at most. The difference is in the picture. A 360° camera looks in every direction, so a boom pole above people’s heads would always have been in shot. And anyone looking around in the headset expects the voice to stay where the person is sitting.

Then there was the scope. Close to 20 videos with a total running time of around three hours were planned. At that volume it pays to decide before the first edit how stitching, editing and sound fit together, so that everyone works on the same version.

How the sound got into the app

For the shoot with Emilio Galli Zugaro in January 2018 I was travelling myself, for #EUsavesLives in Bangladesh and Denmark. A colleague therefore took over the shoot, after I had walked them through the recording technique. Post-production was mine again.

Normally the sound is attached to the video for good, so you get one file with 360° picture and 360° sound. In the app it worked differently: sound and picture were delivered separately. That way the sound can be swapped, for example for another language, without exporting the video again.

What I took away from it

The production itself went well. The real hurdle was somewhere else, namely playback. Not every device supports 3D sound, and at the start it was often unclear which format the sound actually had to be delivered in. So on 360° projects one question belongs early on: which device will it be watched on, and what can the player do?

Frequently asked questions about 360° learning videos

How do you record an interview for a 360° video? Without a boom pole, because it would be visible in the all-round picture. What matters is that the voice sits in the mix where the person can be seen in the picture.

Why deliver sound and picture separately? So the sound stays interchangeable, for example for other languages. The app only combines the two during playback.

What needs to be clarified before a 360° learning video? Which devices it will run on and which sound format the player supports. That determines how the sound is mixed and delivered.

Planning a VR or 360° project? Let’s talk.

Sound that fits the format and the device, from the shoot to delivery.