The next gen of Dolby is called Axon.
I remember seeing the Dolby Laboratory symbol on all my cassette tapes when I was a punk rocker buying tapes at Rasputin Records in Berkley, California. That was back before the CD craze, and the MP3 craze and Dolby Digital craze, and all of the other crazy-phases that show how old I am. Well, Dolby Laboratory is continuing to innovate in the audio field, and now it's their turn with a voice communication platform. While other companies have definitely entered the chat channel (Ventrillo, TeamSpeak, Vivox, etc.) Dolby Axon brings significant market history and apparently some fancy new bells and whistles such as:
*3-D voice, which delivers an immersing, realistic 3-D voice experience complete with surround panning and distance attenuation.
*An occlusion engine that dynamically responds to game geometry, enabling gamers to experience voice communication that matches the game environment.
*Voice fonts that allow gamers to take on the voice attributes of game characters.
*Dolby voice pipeline, which delivers a clear voice experience free of unwanted noise, echo, clipping, and leveling problems.
*Flexible API offering creative integration and game play options to developers, including the ability to create new voice experiences in games.
Dolby Axon Benefits
Dolby Axon offers game developers and publishers numerous innovative and effective tools for improving the online gaming experience. A few of these benefits are described here.
*Enhanced audio experience: Dolby Axon enables game developers to create more interactive, engaging, and realistic voice experiences for online games and virtual worlds.
*Massive scalability: Dolby Axon supports thousands of users per server, and scales seamlessly across multiple servers to support massively multiplayer games and large virtual worlds. It also supports various world architectures and multiple instances.
*Bandwidth efficiency: Dolby Axon delivers a high-quality 3-D voice experience with low bandwidth.
*Server tools: Dolby Axon offers game operators server and abuse monitoring tools to make operating voice servers safer and more manageable.
*Flexible hosting options: Game operators are free to select a hosting option that works best for their needs.
Announced this morning at the Austin Game Developer's Conference, Dolby Axon software development kits are now available as Dolby aims to create the "voice platform of choice for the most innovative and creative game developers in the world." For more information, go to Dolby Laboratory.
