In a 360 degree tour, the viewer can look away from the subject while a voice continues speaking. Decide whether that voice should feel attached to a person in the scene or remain consistently with the listener. The choice affects how the tour explains space and should be made before the audio treatment is commissioned.
A narration that guides the whole tour may need a different relationship from a visible host standing beside a feature. Neither approach should be chosen merely because spatial audio sounds more advanced. The question is what helps the viewer understand who is speaking and where to direct attention.
Define each voice role
Separate the scene's visible speakers from any later explanatory narration. A host pointing to an element may reasonably belong to a location in the scene. An overarching description may need to remain available while the viewer explores elsewhere. State the intended relationship for each voice rather than applying one treatment to the whole soundtrack.
YouTube's spatial-audio guidance documents spatial sound and a head-locked stereo component that does not change with head movement. This is a particular platform capability with specified requirements. Confirm that the proposed destination and production workflow can support the chosen treatment.
Test attention and intelligibility
Use a short representative scene and review it while looking toward, beside and away from the speaker. Ask whether the voice remains understandable and whether its apparent position makes sense. The test should use the intended player and viewing mode, not only a conventional stereo preview.
Do not rely on directional sound as the only way to communicate a consequential location. The spoken explanation and visual cues should still make the relationship understandable. A viewer may explore differently from the sequence imagined by the producer.
Preserve the scene's meaning
If a visible person's voice stays fixed with the listener while their image moves around the field of view, decide whether that is acceptable for the tour's style. Conversely, a spatially anchored narrator with no visible source may imply a location or presence that the film does not intend.
A hypothetical completed-building tour uses a visible project manager for the welcome and an unseen narrator for later explanations. The team tests the welcome as part of the scene and the broader narration as a listener-oriented guide. The client judges the transition by whether viewers can follow both roles, not by whether every sound moves.
Scope alternatives honestly
The production may need a separate conventional version for destinations that do not support the immersive treatment. Ask whether that adaptation is included and what listening checks it receives. A spatial master should not be assumed to translate automatically into every playback arrangement without review.
Acceptance questions include which voices are anchored, which remain with the listener, whether orientation changes were tested and which platforms are supported. Identify any limitations before the tour is released.
The result is a deliberate audio perspective that serves the explanation. It gives the production team a clear creative and technical brief while avoiding an unsupported promise that immersive sound alone will make a construction or corporate tour easier to understand.
Discuss the production
Contact Live Images to discuss the proposed film, intended audience and audio requirements. Confirm suitability, scope and availability for your particular brief.
Editorial note
Original commissioning guidance prepared with AI assistance. Examples are hypothetical, not completed Live Images projects. Search intent is an editorial hypothesis, not measured demand. This draft remains unpublished.