Clubhouse is launching spatial audio and the roll out of the feature will begin today.
This will initially be available to iOS users with the latest version of the app, the Android version will follow quickly.
As with music or movies, spatial audio on Clubhouse is designed to make community members feel like they’re more immersed in the conversation or room they’re listening to by making the speakers sound like they’re spaced throughout the room.
For the listeners, spatial audio replicates how they hear and process voices in the same physical room, spacing individual speakers in the listener’s wired, or bluetooth headphones (including Airpods) or car stereo system. Music/stereo sources will be positioned as well and will maintain their stereo separation.
For creators, spatial audio opens up more opportunities to get creative and experiment with the power of audio on Clubhouse. Imagine a musical performance or comedy show where you can hear applause or laughter coming from every corner of a sold-out virtual club.
How it works:
Our brain is an amazing instrument that processes cues like distance, frequency, vibration to understand where a sound is coming from.
To create the spatial audio experience, the Clubhouse software first assigns a specific spatial position to each speaker in a room, taking care to evenly distribute speakers for maximum intelligibility.
It then applies a HRTF and some additional audio processing for each incoming audio stream to make the audio for that speaker seem to the listener that it is coming from the specified position.
It can even do this for stereo sources (e.g., music) to preserve the stereo effect in the spatial audio environment.
Creator Commons and Leah Lamarr
In addition to launching a spatial audio, Clubhouse has also released a new resource to support creators’ success on the platform – the Creator Commons. From Clubhouse 101 and tips about planning and production to creator soundbites and information about working with brands and agencies, everything a creator needs to be successful on Clubhouse is included. Anyone can access the creator commons here.
Clubhouse can confirm that the platform is now seeing more than 700,000 rooms created each day, up from 300,000 in May.
Clubhouse is also introducing this month’s app icon, Leah Lamarr, the creator of Hot on the Mic, one of the most popular comedy shows on the platform.
Leah’s journey on Clubhouse began last December when she was feeling lonely after a breakup and joined in order to ask a relationship expert some questions. While on stage she made some jokes and was stunned by the wave of laughter and positive feedback from the audience.
