CNET’s headline reference to “a uncommon look inside Apple’s secret iPhone 16 digicam labs” is considerably hyperbolic, since there’s nothing secret about them: we’ve seen certainly one of them a pair of instances earlier than.

However the piece does, all the identical, present an attention-grabbing have a look at among the testing processes used in the course of the improvement of a brand new iPhone …

Our first look at Apple’s anechoic chamber was again in 2018, when the corporate confirmed it off to The Loop, adopted by a second one simply a few months in the past, when Apple shared photographs in an AirPods information launch.

CNET was proven among the methods Apple assessments the microphones used to document sound for iPhone movies, demonstrated with the iPhone 16.

There may be an array of audio system (roughly two dozen) mounted on a pipe within the form of an arc that goes from beneath the wire mesh flooring to the ceiling of the chamber. The audio system play a collection of chimes and engineers measure what the iPhone 16 Professional’s mics decide up. The telephone, which is mounted on a stand atop a turnable base, rotates a couple of levels clockwise and the chimes play once more. This continues till the iPhone has rotated in a whole circle.

The result’s a spherical sound profile for every mic created from the info recorded in that anechoic chamber. Apple takes these profiles and makes use of it as the inspiration for spatial audio and different software program that may cut back wind noise or make iPhone recorded audio act and sound like totally different sorts of microphones – suppose a lavalier mic or in-studio mic for a voiceover.

“We need to allow that [Audio Mix] function as if you happen to document it on a lapel mic,” Dave defined. “We use machine studying algorithms in addition to our tuning chains to provide you with that signature sound that you simply’re capable of get even with lapel mics.”

Apparently, whereas the first judgement of the outcomes is made by “the golden ear” of Apple acoustics lead Ruchir Dave, additionally they check the totally different mixes with extraordinary iPhone customers.

Versus simply having one particular person with ear tune the iPhone’s audio, Apple has various testers take a perceptual audio check after which makes use of these outcomes to calibrate what you hear performed again in your iPhone. I even acquired to be certainly one of these testers whereas I used to be there and ran by way of a portion of the expertise […]

Apple makes use of comparative testing like this a lot in the identical manner a watch physician may need you choose between two totally different lenses in a watch check. With out one thing to match the audio to, it’s extra of a problem to guage a recording. The outcomes from the perceptual testing assist affect how the totally different facets of the iPhone 16 Professional’s audio works, together with Audio Combine.

For video testing, Apple has what it calls a video verification lab – primarily a manner to make sure the tip outcome will nonetheless look good when seen beneath many various real-world situations.

“We use this theater to tune the video playback experiences in order that whenever you play again these movies in a darkish room, in an workplace setting and even beneath the solar, that you simply get the identical perceptual expertise you’ll get as if you happen to’re watching a video within the theater,” Sean Yang, director of video engineering at Apple, instructed me.

The entire piece doesn’t share any deep secrets and techniques, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an attention-grabbing have a look at simply how a lot care Apple takes to sweat the small stuff.

Photograph: Apple