[Philip Lelyveld comment: this is a lengthy, easy to read white paper describing IMM Sound’s technology.]
[immsound whitepaper]
…. the resulting imm 3D soundtrack can be straightforwardly reproduced in any layout, or converted to the corresponding multi-channel format, from stereo and 5.1, to 14.1 or 23.1, with absolute respect to the original dynamics, and absence of downmix problems.
Further creative processes that are much simpler and powerful in channel-free workflows are the use of 3D reverberations and 3D ambient sounds, which often provide realism and naturalness hard to create purely in post-production.
We shall conclude this section describing the final steps of distribution and playback, which follows a fully DCI compatible process [3]. imm 3D soundtracks are mastered and exported to a digital support, like a hard-drive. Alongside, 5.1 and 7.1 versions can be created and monitored automatically from the imm 3D soundtrack. …
Read the full whitepaper here: http://immsound.com/download/0112_immWhitePaper.pdf