Dolby Atmos has some friendly competition this year, as Samsung and Google show what’s coming, complete with AI in audio.
Artificial intelligence is everywhere, and it’s about to be inside sound systems, too. Courtesy of all the fun AI stuff happening in home theatre this year, such as how it’ll be used to analyse scenes and improve the lighting, Samsung is readying a new version of 3D sound for its TVs and soundbars.
The technology has been worked on between Google and Samsung, and essentially brings the power of 3D audio to more places than movies, music, and Logic-based mixing desks, providing spatial audio support to content creators on YouTube, as well.
The obvious competitor here is Dolby’s Atmos, a technology you can find in music and films, and of course if you have a copy of the aforementioned Logic, not to mention some skills alongside it. However, you won’t find it on YouTube or other video sites, and that could be what Google is hoping for with the new Eclipsa technology.
In short, Eclipsa is Google’s take on Atmos, allowing you to place sounds in three dimensional space, able to be played back on TVs and soundbars, likely the new Samsung models heading to stores this year.
We already know some of those TVs, but Samsung has now offered up an idea on what Australians can expect in the world of soundbars for 2025, with two main models.
The main star of the show will be the successor to the Q990D, in the similarly designed Q990F, providing two active subwoofers working together as one in an 11.1.4 approach: 11 surround speakers, one big one for bass, and four spatial speakers including two for behind you, covering the bubble of sound you expect in sound systems today.
AI will help deliver audio optimisation, improving the bass, reducing background sound with dialogue, and when used with a Samsung TV or the Music Frame, optimising 3D sound based on distance and angle, using a neural processor to make it happen.
Don’t expect the Q990F to be inexpensive, but there might be a less pricey option waiting nearby in the QS700F, a 3.1.2 soundbar that will arrive with a built-in gyro sensor to pick up on how you set the speaker up, orienting the sound accordingly.
For instance, if you set the soundbar on furniture, the sound will be aimed slightly differently compared to when you mount the speaker on a wall. This sort of concept is new for Samsung, but not terribly new for other soundbar makers, with Sonos doing much the same in its Playbar years ago. Granted, the QS700F is an Atmos speaker, so it will work a little differently, but the gyro concept itself isn’t that new.
Pricing for the entire lot isn’t ready yet, much like Samsung’s TVs, but with availability expected in the first half of this year, it won’t likely be far off, either.
