Samsung and Google’s new spatial audio format will tackle Dolby Atmos this yr

Samsung and Google are able to push a brand new commonplace, Eclipsa Audio. This format will allow 3D audio experiences on sure YouTube movies later this yr, with assist obtainable throughout Samsung’s 2025 lineup of TVs and soundbars. Over time, Samsung notably hasn’t supported Dolby Imaginative and prescient HDR for dynamic HDR metadata, selecting as a substitute to advertise its most well-liked various, HDR10 Plus. Now, it appears able to make the same aggressive push for open-source 3D audio assist.

Eclipsa Audio may finally function a free various to Dolby Atmos, the dominant 3D audio format that {hardware} makers like Samsung pay to license for TVs and different tools. Samsung says that just like Atmos, this audio format helps adjusting “audio information akin to the situation and depth of sounds, together with spatial reflections” to create a 3D expertise.

The 2 corporations first introduced a partnership to develop spatial audio know-how in 2023, initially calling it Immersive Audio Mannequin and Codecs (IAMF). On the time, Samsung spatial audio head WooHyun Nam stated the format would supply “an entire open-source framework for 3D audio, from creation to supply and playback.”

The IAMF spec has additionally been adopted by the Alliance for Open Media, a gaggle that has been pushing for royalty-free codec assist since 2015 and counts corporations like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix — together with Samsung and Google — amongst its members. If in addition they add assist for this audio format, it may assist it catch on, though it’s already taken years for his or her AV1 video codec to see extra use.

Samsung and Google are additionally making a certification program with the Telecommunications Expertise Affiliation “to make sure constant audio high quality” throughout gadgets utilizing the format, which additionally sounds just like the way in which corporations like Dolby and THX handle the labeling for his or her specs. We anticipate to listen to extra about Eclipsa Audio within the coming days, as CES 2025 kicks off subsequent week.