Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1543070
52 S P R I N G 2 0 2 6 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y Then, in March 2020, the world shut down. Having those profiles already captured, along with working software and headphones already distributed, suddenly became invaluable. Tom McCarthy committed to using 360VME to continue advancing work while his department worked from home. What had been a promising technology now became an essential one. Throughout the pandemic, development continued remotely. The R&D team in Tokyo supported SPE Post Production through web meetings, providing online assistance while local staff conducted measurements wearing face masks. Sound creators, including Will Files CAS, Kami Asgar, Andrew DeCristofaro, and others used 360VME to continue their work on films, including Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage. In 2022, Sony released the MDR-MV1 open- back monitor headphones designed specifically for 360VME. With this, Sony had achieved something no competitor could claim: a complete end-to-end solution. They controlled the microphones used for measurement, the capture software, the playback software, and the headphones. Every element of the signal chain had been developed and optimized together. As Koyuru put it during our interview: "In order to achieve very accurate sound localization, we needed to update everything from input to output, from hardware to software. We are the only company able to control the whole process, we have everything." How It Works What makes Sony 360VME so effective is that it does not model or estimate. It measures directly. Other virtualization systems typically rely on generic Head-Related Transfer Functions or algorithmic predictions based on ear-shape analysis. They approximate what a room might sound like to an average listener. 360VME captures exactly how sound reaches your specific ears in a specific room. The slight frequency colorations and timing differences that define spatial perception, the things that make a center channel sound like it's in front of Input and Output Level displays Input Monitor display The De-reverb tab allows for personal adjustments