Samsung & Google Unveil Eclipsa: A New Royalty Free Immersive Surround Audio Format!

‘Eclipsa Audio’ Immersive Format Arrives On 2025 Samsung TVs and Soundbars

Back in 2023, Samsung and Google announced that the two companies would collaborate on a project called Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF). Samsung described IAMF as “a complete open-source framework for 3D audio, from creation to delivery and playback.” Now, the technology is being put to work in a new audio format called Eclipsa Audio, which is being integrated into Samsung’s 2025 TV and soundbar lineup. Samsung Electronics America made the announcement at CES 2025, calling Eclipsa Audio “a groundbreaking 3D audio technology” that would enable content creators to “craft dynamic, immersive audio content which can seamlessly playback on Samsung TVs and soundbars.” According to Samsung, the integration of Eclipsa Audio into the company’s 2025 AV products “brings truly captivating 3D audio and visual experiences closer to consumers than ever before.”

What is Eclipsa Audio?

Essentially, Eclipsa Audio is like Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, in that it allows creators to adjust audio data, such as “the location and intensity of sounds, along with spatial reflections,” according to Samsung. If the content includes an audio track encoded with Eclipsa Audio, and the playback gear can decode and reproduce the audio data, the user should experience immersive, three-dimensional audio, similar to what we have come to expect from Dolby and DTS. But Dolby Atmos and DTS:X are proprietary systems; both content creators and AV manufacturers must pay in order to use and support them. Eclipsa Audio’s biggest differentiator is that it is an open-source system, so it is free for anyone to use.

Eclipsa Audio dynamically adjusts audio levels for different scenes, ensuring optimal sound quality. Additionally, it offers customization features that allow listeners to tweak the sound to their preferences, helping to ensure that every listening experience is personalized and unique. An Eclipsa Audio bitstream can contain up to 28 input channels, which are rendered to a set of output speakers or headphones. These input channels can be fixed, like a microphone in an orchestra, or dynamic, like a helicopter moving through a sound field in an action movie. Eclipsa Audio also features binaural rendering, which is essential for mobile applications when delivering immersive audio through headphones. Finally, the new audio technology supports content creation across consumer devices, enabling users to create their own immersive audio experiences.

— Arm Newsroom

We are proud to lead the industry with the integration of Eclipsa Audio into our 2025 TV and soundbar lineup. This innovation opens new possibilities for immersive audio experiences and reinforces our commitment to shaping the future of home entertainment.

— Taeyong Son, Executive Vice President and Head of the R&D Team, Visual Display Business, Samsung Electronics

Samsung’s 2025 TVs, from the Crystal UHD series to the premium flagship Neo QLED 8K models, will all support Eclipsa Audio. Samsung boasts being the number-one global TV brand for 18 years running, and it’s no surprise that the company is the first to integrate a new audio technology that it helped develop (alongside Google). But even though Samsung is a powerhouse company in the world of TV manufacturing, Eclipsa Audio won’t take off unless other brands begin supporting it too. So why is Samsung putting so much effort into developing an open-source technology? It all has to do with the licensing costs associated with Dolby Atmos.

Dolby Atmos has become a household name among those with even a casual interest in home entertainment. For years now, manufacturers of TVs and home theater audio gear have had no choice but to pay Dolby’s fees if they want to offer support for Atmos and other proprietary Dolby technologies, such as Dolby Vision HDR. In the case of Dolby Vision, most major players in the TV industry (including LG, Sony, TCL, and Hisense) all pay up in order to offer an enthusiast feature that some consider crucial to maximizing image quality. Samsung is the odd one out, choosing not to support Dolby Vision HDR. Instead, Samsung helped to develop HDR10+, an open-source alternative to Dolby Vision that claims to offer similar performance benefits. (Both systems rely on dynamic metadata to deliver the most impactful high-dynamic-range video possible.) And now, Eclipsa Audio is aiming to become the HDR10+ of audio. It’s an open-source alternative to Dolby Atmos, just as HDR10+ is an open-source alternative to Dolby Vision. Competition in the TV manufacturing industry is fierce at every performance level, and profit margins are slim. If Samsung can save money by incorporating open-source technologies like Eclipsa Audio and HDR10+ instead of paying fees to integrate Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, doing so might make a difference to the company’s bottom line.

What about Google?

It isn’t hard to see what Samsung might stand to gain by devoting resources to develop Eclipsa Audio and integrate the tech into its vast lineup of AV products, but what’s in it for Google? The motivation for Google may be as simple as improving the audio quality available on YouTube — both the traditional version of the popular video site, and the YouTube TV streaming service that allows cord-cutters to ditch cable TV while maintaining access to live TV, news, and sports. Starting this year, content creators will be able to upload videos with Eclipsa Audio tracks to their YouTube channels. At first, only the more tech-savvy content creators with sophisticated audio rigs will be likely to experiment with the format, but there reportedly will be AI tools available to convert standard audio tracks into immersive Eclipsa Audio tracks.  If it catches on, Eclipsa Audio might allow YouTube viewers to experience the kind of premium, three-dimensional audio that we normally associate with Hollywood movies. As soon as later this year, YouTube viewers with 2025 Samsung devices will be able to test the benefits of Eclipsa Audio for themselves.

Samsung and Google are working with the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) to create a certification program for devices using Eclipsa Audio, and the hope is that other AV manufacturers will embrace the format. The existence of a certification program should ensure consistent audio quality across brands and device categories.

We believe that Eclipsa Audio has the potential to change the way we experience sound. We are excited to see how the creator community uses it to create new and innovative audio experiences.

— Jim Bankoski, Vice President of Engineering, Google Chrome

It remains to be seen whether Samsung and Google can get enough momentum behind Eclipsa Audio for it to make an impact on the AV industry. There’s no denying that Dolby has more than a decade-long head start with Dolby Atmos. Not only is the technology widely embraced by filmmakers and device manufacturers, it also enjoys significant brand recognition among end-users. Will Eclipsa Audio’s royalty-free appeal be enough to make the tech world take notice, or will 3D audio continue to be dominated by Dolby in 2025 and beyond? Share your thoughts in the related forum thread below.