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Samsung and Google are ready to push a new standard, Eclipsa Audio. This format will enable 3D audio experiences in some YouTube videos later this year, with support available across Samsung’s 2025 TV and soundbar lineup. Over the years, Samsung in particular has not supported Dolby Vision HDR for dynamic HDR metadata, choosing instead to promote its preferred alternative, HDR10 Plus. Now, it seems poised 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 adding “audio data such as the location and intensity of sounds, with spatial reflections” to create a 3D experience.
Both companies previously announced a partnership to develop spatial audio technology in 2023, initially calling it Immersive Audio Models and Formats (IAMF). At that time, Samsung spatial audio head WooHyun Nam said The format provides “a complete open-source framework for 3D audio, from creation to delivery and playback.”
The IAMF specification has also been adopted by the Alliance for Open Media, a group that has been has been pushing royalty-free codec support since 2015 and counts companies such as 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 them catch on, even if 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 all devices using the format, which also sounds similar to the way companies like Dolby and THX they manage the labeling to their specifications. We look forward to hearing more about Eclipsa Audio in the coming days as CES 2025 kicks off next week.
