Personalized Auditory Reality, PARty, represents a revolutionary headphone system that Brandenburg Labs plans to develop over the next few years. The concept is based on the idea that the digital world and the real world are connected through the sense of hearing. This will be achieved through an intelligent headphone system that uses sensors and AI to adapt to the user’s individual needs. Users will be able to selectively reduce distracting or unwanted background noises while enhancing relevant sounds and acoustic information in real time. The PARty headphones will be smart everyday companions that unobtrusively and meaningfully complement the user’s digital world and enable enhanced listening in the sense of auditory augmented reality. In doing so, they bridge an existing technological gap.

A key requirement for this entirely new type of device is the precise reproduction of spatial sound through headphones. Brandenburg Labs has developed a technology that reproduces virtual sound sources over headphones with such high accuracy that they are indistinguishable from real sound sources (Deep Dive Audio).

Early application for audio engineers

Currently, the Deep Dive Audio technology is available in a very early application, Okeanos Pro, designed for professional audio engineers and mixing studios. The system allows sound engineers to replace entire multi-speaker setups in the studio via headphones with unparallel spatial accuracy. This works via a rendering computer that is connected by cable to the software used for music production which realistically reproduces the acoustic characteristics of multiple speakers’ virtual environments through headphones.

A complex algorithm ensures that the output sounds like a digital twin of the actual loudspeakers. The algorithm incorporates information on room acoustics and data on the listener’s position. In addition, insights into how our brain processes sounds were considered during the development of the signal processing software.

Deep Dive Audio will run on a single-board computer and get wireless

In the medium-term, Brandenburg Labs plans to make its technology available in the consumer headphones market. A key milestone in this effort is a five-month project supported by SPRIND with a validation mandate of 211,000 euros. “This project enables us to develop an advanced demonstrator of our technology and evaluate it. Thereby, we are setting an important technical course and making our future vision of smart headphones a reality,” states Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karlheinz Brandenburg, founder and CEO of Brandenburg Labs. “We are pleased to have SPRIND as a strong partner at our side, one that not only provides financial support but also closely accompanies the project and offers access to potential investors.”

The project will run from March to July 2026. Currently, the Deep Dive Audio technology is running on laptops and PCs. As part of the project, it will be ported to a single-board computer, i.e., a small portable computer. Furthermore, Brandenburg Labs aims to connect its technology wireless to headphones. The main technical challenge is that a natural listening experience through headphones sets extreme demands on the quality, phase accuracy (i.e., natural reproduction of frequencies without phase shift), and low latency (minimal delay) of the wireless transmission. Additional research includes a novel method for accurately tracking the user’s head position in the environment. Moreover, real-world application scenarios to illustrate potential use cases for immersive audio, such as navigation assistance for visually impaired users, will be developed within the project. This will highlight the broader impact of the technology and its potential for leap innovation.

About Brandenburg Labs

Founded in 2019 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karlheinz Brandenbug, co-inventor of the mp3 format, Brandenburg Labs GmbH develops immersive audio over headphones to create intuitive and realistic listening experiences that can immerse a listener in any soundscape. When using headphones, creating an immersive audio experience over headphones has posed enormous challenges for both science and industry for decades. The goal at Brandenburg Labs is to place solutions and products on the market that enrich digital life through immersive audio. As a spin-off of the Technische Universität Ilmenau and the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT), Brandenburg Labs draws on many years of research in the field of audio at these institutions.

With their first-generation immersive audio system, they have proven their superiority and convinced more than 1,000 audio experts at conferences and congresses worldwide. Deep Dive Audio technology enables the recreation of real acoustic environments via headphones or to create new realistic listening environments, allowing virtual sounds to fit seamlessly into the user’s life and build a bridge between the real and digital worlds. With Okeanos Pro, Brandenburg Labs is marketing systems to customers in the field of music production and to scientific institutions. Their groundbreaking Deep Dive Audio technology provides audio engineers with the ability to experience their content as if they were surrounded by physical loudspeakers.

Supporting all currently available multi-channel formats and switchable within seconds, the system integrates seamlessly with studio hardware via standard Audio over IP (AoIP) connectivity solutions, such as Dante and Ravenna. The next generation of headphones of the Okeanos series for tech-savvy audio enthusiasts will be available soon. Brandenburg Labs’ long-term goal is to market intelligent headphones (PARty).

For more information, visit www.brandenburg-labs.com.