Technical sound services company, Headspace Studio (Inside the Box of Kurios; Jurassic World: Apatosaurus; The People’s House: Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama) has today announced the expansion of its virtual reality (VR) sound operations with the opening of a new studio in Los Angeles, California.
The new Los Angeles office marks the first expansion for the Montreal-based company. The L.A.-based operation aims to further the company’s mission to provide VR producers, developers, and filmmakers with on-set and post-production audio solutions of the highest technical, execution, and creative standards and an end-to-end process pipeline for 3D positional audio production, post-production and delivery.
“Expanding to L.A. was a natural move for us. Having already delivered soundtracks on 360 video and VR productions for major Hollywood studios and leading VR storytellers, our new presence in L.A. allows us to be even closer to more VR content creators,” said Jean-Pascal Beaudoin, President and Head of Sound of Headspace Studio in a statement.
In addition to the new office Headspace Studio has hired audio industry veteran Viktor Phoenix as head of the L.A. branch, bringing 17 years of interactive audio experience to the role. Phoenix was previously Sound Supervisor for the Sound Lab at Technicolor and held senior positions at AAA game developers Pandemic Studios, an Electronic Arts-owned developer, and Turtle Rock Studios.
“I’m incredibly excited to have Viktor join the team to launch our L.A. office,” adds Beaudoin. “Viktor possesses not only the vast interactive audio experience and leadership qualities required to lead the new studio, but also a shared passion for exploring the power of sound field audio in presence-based immersive storytelling.”
“As virtual reality advances toward mainstream consumer adoption, producing high-quality VR content with seamlessly-integrated positional audio has become more essential than ever,” said Phoenix. “I am excited to be joining Headspace Studio at this exhilarating time in the entertainment industry. Audiences are becoming increasingly sophisticated and expect immersive experiences to feature spatial audio that helps to deliver on the promise of the future of storytelling. Jean-Pascal is a pioneer in cinematic VR audio workflow and mixing and I am thrilled to be joining him and the rest of the Headspace Studio team to lead the charge on the west coast.”
Headspace Studio was founded in 2015 as a separate division of Felix & Paul Studios. Recent projects the company has participated in include Space Explorers: A New Dawn and Isle of Dogs: Behind the Scenes (in Virtual Reality), both of which have premiered during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Currently Headspace Studio is assisting in production of Kite & Lightning’s Bebylon Battle Royale, which is due for release later this year. For any further updates from the audio specialists, keep reading VRFocus.