Merkelphone – 3D Sound Story and Radio Play

It is always my ambition to push the boundaries of what is possible. Merkelphone is a prime example. We spent over a year experimenting, recording and producing it as a 3d sound story.The result is a listening experience that cannot easily be categorised as a podcast, radio play or audio book.

Thanks to spatial sound technology (provided by the American secret service 😉 ), we can listen around in the chancellor’s flat. So put on your headphones and listen in on the daily life of the most powerful woman in the world. But that’s not all, since episode 1 I’ve already been producing with head tracking and soon I’ll have the app to go with it. Radio plays with head tracking, where can you find something like that? With us and with the story, it makes total sense.

If you want to read more about the potential of 3D audio podcasts, here has an article with more productions.

In our 3D sound story comedy format, Angela Merkel decides to release the NSA’s wiretap footage. You can hear why she does this in the following video speech of the chancellor “in her own words” (spoken by our leading actress Lucca Züchner): “What American secret agents have intercepted from my private mobile phone, that’s what I want you to know now, hehe.”

About the Project

In December, we will release the first miniseries of the “Merkelphone” series in 3D audio. On all popular podcast platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Deezer. In the miniseries by Sylvia Schirmer, we dive deeper into Merkel’s private flat with the pilot episode and four further parts with a total of 70 minutes of listening pleasure. After the release of the miniseries, six additional episodes are planned for spring 2022.

Merkelphone can be find on:

3D Sound Story: A New Dimension of Listening

The emergence of 3D sound stories marks a revolutionary shift in the world of audio entertainment. By utilizing advanced spatial audio techniques, these stories place the listener within a three-dimensional space, allowing them to experience sound as if they were inside the scene.

This innovation creates a unique storytelling experience, enveloping the listener in a way that traditional audio formats simply cannot achieve. From intimate whispers to distant echoes, every sound feels alive and immediate, offering an unparalleled level of engagement and immersion.

Sound in a Three-Dimensional Space: Bringing Stories to Life

The use of 3D sound in audio production has opened up new possibilities for creating immersive environments. This technology positions sounds within a three-dimensional space, allowing listeners to perceive depth, distance, and directionality, as if they were physically present. Recent examples like the Harry Potter 3D audio experiences illustrate how this can transform familiar stories into new, dynamic adventures.

However, the success of these experiences depends heavily on the quality of the sound design. While systems like Dolby Atmos aim to enhance spatial audio, the results can vary. Poorly executed 3D sound can feel disjointed or artificial, detracting from the immersive potential rather than enhancing it.

Creating Immersive Experiences with 3D Sound

Creating truly immersive experiences with 3D sound requires a combination of innovative technology and meticulous sound design. The key lies in how effectively the audio can replicate real-world listening experiences, tricking the brain into believing it is in a different environment.

With head-tracking capabilities, listeners can interact with soundscapes in a dynamic way, adding layers of interactivity and engagement to the experience. This is what makes well-produced 3D sound stories so compelling – they transform passive listening into an active exploration, whether it’s in a fantasy world like Harry Potter’s or a more grounded, realistic setting.

The Future of Sound: Pioneering New Audio Experiences

As 3D sound continues to evolve, it is poised to redefine audio storytelling and entertainment. While platforms like Dolby Atmos provide the foundation for three-dimensional sound, the true potential of this technology lies in its creative application. As more productions embrace 3D sound – from movies and games to podcasts and radio plays – we are likely to see a broadening of what audio experiences can offer.

However, the industry must also focus on refining these technologies to ensure that the sound quality matches the immersive potential. Only then can 3D sound fully deliver on its promise, offering listeners not just a story, but a whole new world to explore.

The future: 3D audio radio play with head tracking

Merkelphone is just the beginning. We want to establish the radio plays as an innovative audio format and thus offer unique and entertaining listening experiences on a regular basis. The author and director, Sylvia Schirmer, relies on a dynamic production with actors who are captured under real conditions by a film sound engineer using a fishing rod and then arranged in 3D sound on a sphere around the listener by the mixing sound engineer.

The listener moves to the centre of the action and can enjoy the final product on the usual platforms in spatial stereo (for an optimal listening experience with headphones). From 2022, the episodes can even be experienced with head tracking via the specially developed listening game app; the listener can then intuitively decide with their head movements where they want to listen more closely and thus influence the listening experience.

What is audio headtracking?

And what does it do to audio? More and more headphones with headtracking function are coming onto the market (e.g. AirPods Pro, Galaxy Buds Pro, etc.), which can detect the listener’s head movements via sensors.

If you play a corresponding 360° audio with such headphones, the audio is adapted to the head movements in real time and the audio appears as if it were firmly anchored in the space around the listener – like a good surround sound system. Details are here

For our radio play, this means that the listener can follow the protagonists in the room with head movements, which enables a new kind of immersion and interactivity. When Merkel moves from left to right in the radio play, I as a listener have the possibility to follow her with a simple turn of the head, so that she remains in the centre of my “listening field”.

Where is the market for 3D audio head tracking?

This dynamic head-tracking is now built into almost every pair of headphones. Even in some sunglasses. There are already more devices on the market than there are VR glasses, for example. Now good content is needed. Merkelphone, a 3D audio radio play, puts an acoustic exclamation mark on this!

Are you interested in exploiting the enormous potential?

Contact me now without any obligation