Portuguese audio software is being tested in Hollywood – TVI24

Professor of Leiria Polytechnic Institute Nuno Fonseca developed a new software audio that is being tested in six Hollywood studios, a technology that considers a ‘added value’ for the major film productions.

“Essentially, what I did was grab on concepts that today are already extremely used in computer graphics and visual effects for film, which are called particle systems,” said Nuno Fonseca, explaining that these systems allow to “create a huge number of small elements” to generate “rain, dust, smoke or fire.”

The teacher, 39, Leiria, said that the work he has gone through “use the same concepts’, but applying them in the sound area, achieving thus” create thousands of sounds or even millions of sounds at once. ”

“In making this transition from a technology that was used in image – and that is enough to also used in cinema – and to apply it in the sound field, becomes a completely new tool ‘ said, considering that opens opportunities for those who “works the sound level film ‘currently’ still a manual work”.

“If I want to, for example, a scene of a battle, I have to go get a handful of sounds and walk to place them one by one. With this tool, I can create a scene of a battle and say I want to create 50,000 sounds spread over a square kilometer and, automatically, the system handles it all, creating a completely different effect than manually be trying to create the same sound “exemplified.

The teacher in the department of Computer Engineering of Technology and Management of Leiria Polytechnic School and coordinator of the degree in Digital Games and Multimedia stressed that ‘the point of view of cinema, this is something that interests especially to major motion pictures. ”

“That is, the greater the film production more interested this ‘software’,” said Nuno Fonseca, noting that in films such as “Star Wars” or “Lord of the Rings,” which “involves scenarios and epic scenes with many things happening at the same time, this ‘software’ is much more interesting “than, for example, in a more intimate film.

In a news release, the Polytechnic of Leiria said that the new technology “is being tested in six Hollywood studios, including 20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros. ‘ .

‘is being tested because I am interested in receiving feedback’ of Hollywood professionals about the ‘software’ which features they would like to see added, “said Nuno Fonseca, adding that a second phase, ‘very likely’ will create a commercial version of the technology.

According to the same press release, another feature of this technology “is its ability to take advantage of the latest sound systems for film, such as Dolby Atmos or the Auro-3D, some of which still not reached the Portuguese cinema “, stating that,” in addition to its application in the film area, the ‘software’ is currently being tested by other organizations, including the Playstation Santa Monica Studios, BBC, Turner Broadcasting, the RadioFrance and Stanford University. ”