Sensaura
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Sensaura, a division of Creative Technology, provides sophisticated 3D audio technology for the interactive entertainment industry.
Following its origin as a research project at THORN EMI Central Research Laboratories ("CRL", based in Hayes, United Kingdom) in 1991, Sensaura evolved to become the leading worldwide supplier of 3D audio technology. By 1998 Sensaura had licensed its technology to the three major audio chip manufacturers (ESS Technology, Crystal Semiconductor/Cirrus Logic and Yamaha), who at that time supplied 70% of the PC audio market. Subsequent major licensees included NVIDIA, Analog Devices, VIA Technologies (expired, replaced by QSound) and C-Media Electronics (expired, replacement not yet available).
In 1993 Sensaura released a CD sampler disc 'beyond stereo...' containing four tracks; 1. Roadside 2. Railway Station 3. RAF Band 4. Falla: Final Dance from "The Three-Cornered Hat"
These tracks, recorded from life illustrated what you could achieve in terms of 3D sound from a two channel stereo set-up and was clearly ahead of its time.
The prestigious MacRobert Award was presented to Sensaura by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2001.
Sensaura technology has shipped on more than 24 million game consoles and 150 million PCs (on soundcards, motherboards and external USB audio devices). As well as being licensed directly for the Microsoft Xbox hardware, the technology is also available as a middleware product, GameCODA, for the Xbox, Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.
In December 2003 the Sensaura business and IP portfolio was bought by Creative Technology. Sensaura continues to operate as an R&D division within Creative, however following a major reduction in staff numbers in March 2007, it is no longer supplying advanced audio technologies for PC sound cards, game consoles but now focusing on other product areas, including involvement with the OpenSL ES standard.
Following further headcount reductions in 2008, the remaining Sensaura engineers have been absorbed into Creative's 3DLabs subsidiary.
