Thanks so much to David Meyerowitz from Trinnov for his help - this article is based around an interview we did together for the Home Cinema Design Podcast. The podcast is usually aimed at industry colleagues, because it's quite technical, but the WaveForming / Trinnov episode is particularly helpful for end customers.
WaveForming has developed and improved considerably since 2023, so I've updated the article to reflect that.
Thanks also to Trinnov for their fabulous explainer images.
Updated: June 2026
Why is this important?
WaveForming is a unique and patented technology by Trinnov Audio, designed to improve bass performance in domestic size listening rooms and home cinemas.
It uses multiple subwoofers at the front and back of the room, to create extremely even bass at all seats, and is vastly more effective than previous methods.
WaveForming is the product of six years' advanced R&D.
Who is Trinnov?
Trinnov Audio are a company in Paris, France, who make products for recording studios, commercial cinema, home hi-fi, and home cinema.
They focus on R&D, psychoacoustics, and digital processing, with the aim to improve the sense of reality from recordings and improve results for all listeners in a room. Trinnov's research has had a strong influence on our industry, and a major contributor to the CEDIA RP22 Recommended Practice for immersive audio design.
For home cinema, Trinnov make the Altitude surround processors and Amplitude amplifiers.
Trinnov Altitude 32 Processor
Why Trinnov are unique in home cinema
Altitude processors use their own bespoke decoding and correction algorithms, running on a high-spec PC platform, which allows constant development and improvements to the products. For example, only Trinnov processors can 'remap' speaker locations - giving great performance across a variety of audio formats with different placement requirements, and with time alignment substantially more accurate than most.
These products also have extremely long design life - Altitude 32 processors from the launch in 2014 are kept fully up-to-date with all the latest improvements.
As of March 2026, an Altitude 32 starts from £21,598; Altitude 16 costs £17,399, and the new Altitude CI starts from £8,818 (8 channels activated - more can be added in software licenses).
So yes, this equipment is expensive, but it stays current for much longer.
What is WaveForming?
Let's start at the beginning.
Bass playback in small rooms - that's all domestic rooms, even very large ones around 12m long - is a 'hard' engineering problem.
What happens is, bass notes bounce back and forth against opposing walls (a standing wave), and that creates areas with too much bass, and cancelled zero bass, at some of the frequencies. That's called room modes.
This room has a large cancellation at 45Hz
This is much more even, which means better bass
A good cinema designer has to even the bass out as much as possible - and the main weapons are:
Multiple subwoofers - two are good, but four or more could be better.
Where we put subwoofers - often using room modelling software to predict the response
Where we put seats - to keep people out of dead or too-lively positions.
With a lot of care we can achieve good, even bass at the seats.
Many people talk about Digital Room EQ - and that definitely helps - but it only tames peaks, it can't fill the cancellations back in - and you shouldn't try, because at very low frequencies you could destroy your equipment.
Double Bass Array (DBA) - the foundation
This is a recent attempt to cure the problems - you don't see it much in the UK, but it's popular in Germany, where the idea came from.
To do this, you put four identical subs in the screen wall, and four more in the back wall. The front subs all move together, and send a bass wave - called a 'planar wave' - along the room.
Then, the back subs are time delayed by the speed of sound x the length of the room, and are firing backwards compared to the fronts - and so they 'catch' that wave - absorbing it so there's no reflections, and you don't get the lumpy uneven bass caused by the room modes.
But there's a problem:
That bass wave will have changed quite a bit by the time it gets to the back wall. Seats, risers and people will all affect the bass as it passes through the room.
So the calibrator has to manually 'tune' the response of the DBA system, which adds extra processing into the chain and is never quite perfect.
How and why WaveForming improves on DBA for perfect bass
WaveForming takes the excellent - but practically flawed - idea of the double bass array and perfects it.
By taking 20-30 measurements in the room, the system builds a picture of what happens to the bass wave at various frequencies when it gets to the back wall, so that the right amount of bass gets absorbed - not too much, or too little, but just right.
It's built into the surround decoder, so you don't have to re-digitise, process, and convert back to analogue signal again.
Front subs emit a planar bass wave
Rear subs 'collect' the wave, preventing reflections and standing waves
In recent outings, Trinnov have achieved 1-2dB variations across 11 seats, which is technically incredible - so close to perfect that you really can't tell a difference, and a lot better than you get from placement techniques. That exceeds the CEDIA RP22 Level 4 requirement for bass consistency, so it really is 'state of the art'.
Flexible and scalable
Depending on the size of the room, the number of seats, how far up the frequency band you go, and how even you want the performance, a WaveForming setup could have as many as 16 subs in total (8 front, 8 back), to as few as 4 (2 front 2 back) - so it's pretty scalable. For example, a reduced sub count could give consistent bass within say 3dB - still very good indeed and well within RP22 Level 3.
In addition, because each subwoofer is actively driven by a channel in the Altitude processor, in future they will be able to absorb and emit at the same time, opening the door for 'steerable' bass.
Simplified WaveForming configuration with 3 front and 2 rear subs
Major upgrades - free of charge, in software
Pressurization mode
A year after WaveForming was launched, Trinnov added 'pressurization mode', which extends the capability even further.
The problem of standing waves only happens at the first room mode and higher - this corresponds with the longest dimension of the room - that's usually between screen and back wall. In a room 5m long, the first mode is at 34Hz.
Frequencies below this don't cause standing waves - so knowing this, the processor now uses the multiple subs differently, to 'pressurize' the room. This improves output, and extends the response, even into the infrasonic region.
Cylindrical WaveForming
This is a useful upgrade for Trinnov owners with floor-mounted subwoofers, or with a large flat-panel display so that the DBA layout can't be done.
Subs should go towards the middle of the front and back walls - at the quarter-points, as shown below:
Cylindrical WaveForming is remarkably effective - not quite as good as the double bass array, but very good.
Altitude CI - the ideal weapon to scale up a system
Trinnov Altitude CI processor/preamp/optimizer
In September 2025 at CEDIA Expo, Trinnov announced Altitude CI - a new, highly flexible Altitude processor, which has anywhere between 8 and 32 channels - buy what you need now, then add further pairs in software licenses.
AltCI features Dante/AES67 digital outputs, which massively simplifies the cabling between processor and amplifiers - a single Ethernet cable to each amplifier is all you need.
Altitude CI really helps if you want to upgrade over time - further channels, or WaveForming, or increase the size of your WaveForming array. Because it can scale up to 32 channels it also avoids the 'hard limit' of 20 the Altitude 16 has (*still very impressive, Alt16 originally had 16 channels)
Option 1 - the space route
Here, we install all the main speakers we want for our room and seating layout, but start off with two suitable subwoofers. Then, add two more for 2:2 or cylindrical WaveForming, via 4:2, up to a 4:4 or larger array.
The best subs and subwoofer amplifiers are expensive, so this is a great way to go - Trinnov's 'bubble of sound' is wonderful, and it's better with more channels, and smaller gaps between speakers.
Option 2 - the bass route
Alternatively, we can start with WaveForming. On Day 1, we don't run the full complement of surround and overhead channels, but we'll run cables for them.
Deeper, better bass hits you right in the feels, and is seriously fun. This is what I'd have, if it were my system.
What next?
If you'd like to discuss WaveForming further, whether you're upgrading an existing setup, or have a brand-new project, I'd love to help.
WRITTEN BY
Owen Maddock
Owner & designer, Cinemaworks
I've spent twenty years looking for ways to make films feel more real in people's homes.
CEDIA® Member of Excellence, award-winning designer, podcast host, and the one you'll actually work with.
