#holophone

[hallowbeanie]

This show never ceases to amaze me. I love all the small detail they put into the storyline and giving a nod to futurama fans as well.

[codexprotocol]

Can you tell me the uses of the holophone, Codex?

Good afternoon, Billie!

The holophone is primarily a communications device, but is also capable of running sophisticated programs. It has audio and video calling capabilities, as well as a text messaging system. Your holophone is automatically updated with the contact information of all residents on the Ark. It’s the perfect way to make new friends!

Additional apps can be downloaded onto your holophone from the Aldebaran Ark’s app store. Apps range from practical utilities such as maps, calendars, and writing tools to entertaining games to amuse yourself with. Why not browse the app store and see what you can find?

Please do ask if you have any further inquiries.

[zootechnik]

The Holophone from Daniel Iglesia on Vimeo.

holy shit this is the coolest thing i’ve ever seen 

i need it now

[wowitsounds]

[auralscope]

Field Recording at a Wildlife Sanctuary with Holophone H2 Pro 7.1

                  A few weeks ago I went back to my home city Bombay (Mumbai) for a short 2-week visit after spending almost a year and half in Edinburgh, UK. I wanted to make most out of this visit by going on a unique Indian Nature recording trip at a wildlife sanctuary in Bombay. Not having a proper field recording gear and an off-season timing (May month summer) for visiting the woods made it seem difficult to go out there and capture some interesting sounds of Indian Wilderness but I didn't want to let it hamper my plans.

                                  I decided to rent the field recording gear from a local audio equipment rental service. Initially because of my budget constraints, I had decided to go for a basic digital field recorder such as Fostex Fr-2 and a stereo microphone such as Sennheiser MKH-418s or a Sennheiser MKH-60 pair. But thanks to Akhilesh Acharya, the owner of Syncsound, the audio rental services, he recommended me to go for Holophone H2 Pro 7.1 and Zaxcom Deva 5.8 Multitrack Hard Disk Recorder with a good deal. Last year I had a brief intro encounter with DPA 5100 Surround microphone at the university but never got a chance to use it for recording. This time I could not resist the temptation of trying out a lovely combination of Holophone and Deva.

                   After spending most of my day's time getting the permission from the officials at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the wildlife sanctuary in Mumbai, I finally managed to capture some decent recordings of birds (which were surprisingly rare to find) and insects (mostly very loud crickets). I had to go into the interiors of the forest to get a good spot for surround sound of jungle ambience. It was a little difficult task to find the sweet spot because of the dense thorny plants and fickle-minded birds, I somehow managed to find a couple of spots where I could set up the Holophone on a stand and wait for the birds and insects to behave naturally (they get quieter when they hear some non-forest sounds but after a while they get all noisy, being patient is the key).

                            The recordings are 7.1 surround sound, 8 track 96 kHz/24-bit WAV files. I have edited and mixed down some sections of LCR tracks into stereo and uploaded on my SoundCloud page. I am also attaching a zip file containing a section of the raw recording containing all 8 tracks (actually 10 tracks but last 2 tracks can be ignored) for anyone who has got a surround speakers set up for playback. Though I believe the tracks have to be leveled and mixed for proper surround playback. Due to time constraints, I did not get enough time to configure the gain settings, so I kept all gain setting levels same for all the tracks.

Raw Un-Edited 7.1 Surround Sound channels mixed down to 2-channel Stereo :

LCR Tracks:

The link to download source 7.1 surround sound WAV file is currently unavailable (Email me at hrishikesh_dani[at]yahoo[dot]com if you want to request for the file). 

I hope you enjoy my nature recordings. Please do give a feedback on the sounds, will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

PS: How was it to work with Holophone H2 Pro 7.1? (asked by AzimuthAudio)

The thing that impressed me most was the quick set up and point n shoot operation. It took me less than 3 minutes to put it on a very sturdy stand and hook up the cables. Although it is a bit heavy to carry the whole equipment, it is still the lightest surround sound recording option. While recording, I was monitoring on headphones which for obvious reasons didn't help me much to determine the accuracy but the website claims "No mixing, signal manipulation or processing is required, direct and discrete signal path from the mic to the monitor.". I personally felt it may actually need some mixing and slight processing. Also, felt that the 'TOP' Mic (used in IMAX) was very sensitive as it recorded the signal at high input level compared to other mics, may be it is meant to be that way, I can't be sure as I didn't playback the recordings at 7.1 surround sound speaker set up.