Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521235
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 81 of our choice, with or without associated visuals, and this might be geo-responsive. Of course, one current limitation of presenting 3D audio over headphones is the HRTF mismatch. Apple and other companies are already moving toward machine learning and LiDAR scanning of users' pinnae to offset this and personalise playback from iOS 16 onward, but perhaps the technology will evolve to match audiology pro-scanners used for made-to-measure hearing aids and earbuds to add ear canal morphology to make this even more efficient. Near-ear HMD speaker playback bypasses these issues to some degree, largely at the expense of frequency response, but nanotechnology could yet offer beamforming at a comparable scale to mitigate this. Multimodality will also extend. Currently, immersive experiences are predicated largely upon audio-visual, but haptics is rapidly evolving and work is ongoing to digitally harness olfactory stimuli. Eye tracking and facial expression recognition are already viable control mechanisms, and this is likely to develop. Immersive storytelling will draw from all these developments and more, to offer creative audio responses to the increments. The article repeatedly refers to the core audio-authoring areas of technologies, tools, techniques, and perception. These areas are interlinked and profoundly influence each other in an ecology that could be described by various sociological approaches, but that is beyond the scope of this text. This article illustrates that there is a well-defined audio- production pipeline for XR, but it has many device-specific idiosyncrasies and these can necessitate variations across projects. Projects with similar delivery media can consistently share a particular pipeline with variations primarily in the assets. The relationship between the various software actors can be complex and requires a diverse skill set. Spatial audio presents many opportunities for immersive storytelling and these range from enhanced entertainment and immersion to slight cognitive benefits. Professional practitioners working in the field might typically take an approach driven by project goals and guided by tool-imposed workflow. However, the above discussion facilitates a strategic oversight of work packages that encapsulate and allow a vision of where to deploy or develop resources. It also serves as a pedagogical aid for the newcomer—to represent the ecology and its key dependencies and underpin an understanding of the immersive audio workflow. Within the next decade, spatial and interactive audio will become an integral part of immersive media, storytelling, and communication.