Overview
Areal's innovative hardware and software make immersive audio more accessible, enabling spatial sound to be produced, monitored, and experienced anywhere. The company offers the SR1 spatial reference headphone system, which won a Red Dot Design Award for design and innovation in mobile immersive monitoring, and an Upmix engine product.
In the news
- How do you get more from a single Atmos room when immersive work keeps growing? We sat down with Daniel Alanís, Latin GRAMMY-winning engineer, producer and Studio Manager at Mapa Studios, to talk about how the team is handling a growing volume of Atmos work without letting the main room become a bottleneck. At one recent peak, three engineers completed around 200 Atmos mixes in a month. The challenge was not just the final mix, but everything that had to happen before and after it: session prep, pre-mixing, checks and artist
- We’re pleased to welcome Audio Acoustics as Areal’s official distributor for the Benelux. The appointment marks another step in the development of our European distribution network, bringing local sales and support for SR1 to professionals across Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. For us, the right distribution partners bring more than market coverage. Audio Acoustics combines longstanding relationships across professional audio with expertise in both professional headphones and immersive audio, making them a strong fit
- That’s a wrap on #PLASAShow 2026. A big thank you to everyone who came to see us with the POLAR team over the past three days. It was great to spend time with engineers, distributors and the wider pro-audio community, whether that meant hearing SR1 for the first time, getting into the detail on Upmix Engine, or simply comparing notes on where immersive audio is heading across studio and live. Thanks as well to everyone who joined Kristof Jeuris for his session, Upmixing: A Practical Path to Mainstream Live Immersive Audio. We had
- If immersive or live audio is part of what you do, come and find us at PLASA. From 6–8 September, Areal will be joining POLAR Integrated Solutions on Stand G21 at Olympia London, with both SR1 and the Upmix Engine on show. We’re looking forward to catching up with engineers, distributors and the wider UK pro-audio community, and having some good conversations around studio and live immersive workflows. You’ll be able to get a live demo of SR1, take a closer look at the Upmix Engine, and talk through where both technologies could
- Good discussion at Club Wintercircus in Ghent during our joint Upmix Engine session with Amptec. It was a fitting setting for the conversation. Wintercircus runs a full L-Acoustics L-ISA immersive system, but like many venues, it still regularly receives stereo content from guest engineers and touring productions. That gave us plenty to dig into together around how to get more from stereo content in a multichannel system, right down to the finer details of LF warping, focusfield setup and venue-specific configuration. The
- Spatial audio is reaching more listeners, but artist review and approval can still depend on access to specialist immersive rooms. That creates a practical bottleneck for labels, distributors and production teams as spatial releases become more common. In exploring SR1 at Amuse, one of the opportunities identified was the ability to give artists access to the same multichannel reference as the engineer, wherever they are, making spatial review more flexible without relying on a physical speaker room. It’s one example of how
- At #PLASAShow 2026, our Commercial Director, Kristof Jeuris, is presenting "Upmixing: A Practical Path to Mainstream Live Immersive Audio." Drawing on 18+ years in live sound and real-world deployments across Tomorrowland, Arcadia, and Boomtown, Kristof will break down how real-time upmixing bridges the gap between traditional stereo workflows and immersive multi-speaker setups. Crucially, it does so without changing the stereo mix. ▻ Date: Sunday, 6 September ▻ Time: 16:45 – 17:30 ▻ Location: Audio & AV Theatre, Olympia London The
- The shortlist for the AV Awards 2026 is out, and the Areal Upmix Engine made the cut for Technology of the Year! Powered by our unique RISE algorithm, the Upmix Engine converts any stereo source into a fully immersive experience in real time—without introducing artifacts or altering the original sound. The result is a natural, expansive soundstage that maintains complete clarity and speech intelligibility for live, corporate, and broadcast setups. It’s great to be recognized alongside some fantastic innovations in the industry this
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