Samsung and Google’s new spatial audio format will take on Dolby Atmos this year

Samsung and Google are ready to push a new standard, Eclipsa Audio. This format will enable 3D audio experiences on certain YouTube videos later this year, with support available across Samsung’s 2025 lineup of TVs and soundbars. Over the years, Samsung notably hasn’t supported Dolby Vision HDR for dynamic HDR metadata, choosing instead to promote its preferred alternative, HDR10 Plus. Now, it seems ready to make a similar competitive push for open-source 3D audio support.

Eclipsa Audio could eventually serve as a free alternative to Dolby Atmos, the dominant 3D audio format that hardware makers like Samsung pay to license for TVs and other equipment. Samsung says that similar to Atmos, this audio format supports adjusting “audio data such as the location and intensity of sounds, along with spatial reflections” to create a 3D experience.

The two companies first announced a partnership to develop spatial audio technology in 2023, initially calling it Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF). At the time, Samsung spatial audio head WooHyun Nam said the format would provide “a complete open-source framework for 3D audio, from creation to delivery and playback.”

The IAMF spec has also been adopted by the Alliance for Open Media, a group that has been pushing for royalty-free codec support since 2015 and counts companies like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix — along with Samsung and Google — among its members. If they also add support for this audio format, it could help it catch on, although it’s already taken years for their AV1 video codec to see more use.

Samsung and Google are also creating a certification program with the Telecommunications Technology Association “to ensure consistent audio quality” across devices using the format, which also sounds similar to the way companies like Dolby and THX manage the labeling for their specs. We expect to hear more about Eclipsa Audio in the coming days, as CES 2025 kicks off next week.