Samsung and Google unite to take on Dolby Atmos with Eclipsa Audio

One of the potentially most significant things from CES 2025 to date is that Eclipsa Audio will be available across Samsung’s 2025 TV lineup, from Crystal UHD to Neo QLED 8K.

Samsung has never been a great supporter of Dolby when it comes to its own TV sets. It chose to ignore Dolby Vision in favour of HDR10 Plus, and now it look set to turn its back on Dolby Atmos with the introduction of Eclipsa Audio. Co-developed with Google, Eclipsa Audio provides the same sort of 3D audio support that Atmos provides listeners and is going to be embedded in the company’s 2025 TV and soundbar lineup.

Eclipsa Audio effectively allows creators to adjust audio data such as the location and intensity of sounds, along with spatial reflections, to create an immersive three-dimensional sound experience. So much so Atmos, but crucially this one is free. Every manufacturer, Samsung included, has to pay Dolby to license Atmos technology, following the same business model that the company has pursued since time immemorial. Eclipsa Audio though was always meant to be open source and was adopted by the Alliance for Open Media the same organisation pushing the free AV1 codec, under its previous resolutely non-marketing friendly name IAMF (Immersive Audio Model & Format) back in 2023.

The spec is currently on v1.1 and Samsung and Google are working with the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) to create a certification program for devices using Eclipsa Audio. Given how hard it is to make money selling TV sets (lots of competition = wafer-thin margins), there is likely to be a degree of enthusiasm for this from the manufacturers, though skeptics point out how long it's taken for AV1 to get any real traction in the marketplace. 

Either way, having Google in the camp definitely helps, with the company saying that creators will be able to upload videos with Eclipsa Audio tracks to YouTube starting at some point this year. And if the world’s biggest manufacturer of TV sets and biggest streamer of video can’t unite to move the dial in the market and eat into Dolby’s hegemony, it would be rather surprising…

tl;dr

• Eclipsa Audio, co-developed by Samsung and Google, will be integrated into Samsung's 2025 TV lineup, offering an alternative to Dolby Atmos for enhanced 3D audio experiences.
• Unlike Dolby Atmos, which requires licensing fees, Eclipsa Audio is designed as an open-source solution, potentially lowering costs for manufacturers and encouraging adoption.
• The technology allows creators to manipulate audio data for immersive sound, similar to Atmos, but without the associated expenses.
• Google plans to support Eclipsa Audio by enabling creators to upload videos with Eclipsa Audio tracks to YouTube, which could help drive its adoption in the market.