At CES next month, Dirac Research will introduce several major updates to its Dirac Live room correction platform, including a refreshed, modern user interface with a simplified setup procedure, improved performance through a new algorithm, and new multi-language support. CES 2018 attendees will be able to experience a pre-release demo of this second-generation Dirac Live platform at Dirac research’s Westgate Hotel Suite 630. The updated software is expected to launch in Q1 2018.
According to Niklas Thorin, Dirac’s general manager of high-performance audio, these upgrades come in response to technological advances and user input and lay the foundation for the company to continuously expand Dirac Live’s capabilities throughout 2018 and beyond across all of the markets it serves—from home theater and stereo to professional studios and automotive.
“Dirac Live has been delivering the world’s best room correction for many years now,” Thorin said. “And these updates broaden the market and deliver user-requested features including support for Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Japanese languages, a new, more user-friendly interface and configuration process, and an even more advanced algorithm that ensures improved performance.”
To make the platform easier to configure, Dirac Live shifts from a fairly technical process requiring a substantial base of knowledge to one where the app helps the installer ensure everything is being done correctly. This is achieved through a more guided process that confirms the correct actions are being taken and the optimal settings are being implemented. The mobile app version of this new Dirac Live platform is designed so intuitively that even end-users, with no technical expertise, can room correct one’s home theater set-up.
“With our refreshed interface and configuration, users don’t need to be technical experts to gain optimal benefits from the platform,” said Thorin. “And an equally important change is the move toward a more mobile-friendly UI. The Dirac Live interface is now as accessible on a midsize tablet as it is on a larger laptop, giving installers flexibility in which tools they prefer using on site. Together, these improvements reaffirm our commitment to providing the best product, developing ever-improving room correction tools, and keeping current with peripheral technological advances.”
Where the previous version of the Dirac Live algorithm individually measured the phase of each stereo speaker, this new version also analyzes speakers in pairs. By doing so, the algorithm ensures that the pair’s phase responses are matched to each other. The upgrade will further enhance Dirac Live’s ability to improve staging and imaging—already key strengths of the platform—and will deliver immediate and obvious improvements to all users.
In Q3 2018, Dirac research will build on this CES 2018 momentum by introducing an entirely new product development model for this second-generation Dirac Live platform. Going forward, Dirac will be committed to introducing, on a yearly basis, one new Dirac Live “module” that offers unique functionality and allows users to customize their Dirac Live platform based on specific usage requirements and market application—be it home theater, stereo, professional studio, and/ or automotive.
“We will soon offer our Dirac Live customers both cross-market and market-specific modules, which can be bolted on to their existing Dirac Live platform, to allow for a more customized and personalized room correction experience,” said Thorin. “As a result, Dirac Live will become a highly-dynamic, always-evolving, market-customized room correction platform, forever equipped with the most advanced audio optimization technologies.”