[Editorial] Google and Samsung Team Up to Launch Eclipsa Audio

Since we haven't had enough of new formats for "spatialized" or "immersive" audio, as they say, here comes Eclipsa Audio, produced by none other than Google and Samsung, in collaboration with Alliance for Open Media, a non-profit organization made up of both large companies and research centers. A list of those behind it can be found here.

The Alliance for Open Media, as the name itself suggests, is an organization that aims to develop open-source multimedia formats, that is, available to everyone for free without royalties. This is a big surprise, considering that - apart from rare cases - those who develop a type of media then grant its use in exchange for the payment of very hefty royalties, think of the CD, to name just one. It is easy to understand that a new standard, to establish itself, can only count on two aspects: 1) it is actually well-made and applicable on any platform and 2) it is open-source, that is, free of license costs. Will it really be like this? Let's find out.

Eclipsa Audio is Dolby Atmos' direct competitor, and coincidentally Dolby Laboratories is not part of the aforementioned organization (surprise surprise!). Starting in 2025, Eclipsa Audio content creators (anyone, actually, with their free software) will be able to upload their videos to YouTube. The first company in the industry to adopt Eclipsa Audio is Samsung, which is integrating the technology into its 2025 TV lineup, from the Crystal UHD series to the premium flagship Neo QLED 8K models. However, Google and Samsung will launch a brand certification and licensing program (oh!) in 2025 to provide quality assurance to manufacturers and consumers for products that support Eclipsa Audio (yeah, I know, it sounded too good to be true).

To make it easier to create Eclipsa Audio files, a completely free Eclipsa Audio plugin for AVID Pro Tools Digital Audio Workstation will be available this spring (2025). Google plans to integrate native Eclipsa Audio playback into the Google Chrome browser and into TVs and sound-bars from multiple manufacturers later in 2025. Eclipsa Audio support will also be available on an upcoming version of Android AOSP.

If you've read my previous columns on spatialized audio, you already know what I think. However, I'd like to quote what Google and Samsung said on the official Eclipsa Audio page, because it's dangerously significant:

In other words, it seems that this stereophonic sound really bothers them, because - always according to them - sounds in the real world come to us from all directions. Unfortunately, when it comes to music, all this is clearly FALSE. The music, in a concert hall, in a smoky pub, or in a stadium comes to us in front of us and does NOT surround us in any way, much less from above or below. Reflected sounds reach us, of course, but they still come reflected from the walls, the floor and the ceiling when we listen to it at home. And reflected sounds from the concert venue are easily picked up by microphones. I wonder if these gentlemen have ever attended a concert, of any kind. Maybe they only listen to music in a disco or in a car where, actually, sounds come chaotically from every corner.

The only vaguely positive aspect of this rush to audio fiction is the possibility provided by these new technologies to overcome the compromises of reproduction systems that are limited by their nature, such as headphones, sound-bars or the like. When stereophony is not given the physical space to generate its magic, even a fiction of this type is welcome.

Let's be clear: it's not about opposing the new out of prejudice, it's about opposing a technology that starts from wrong assumptions. It would be like creating a vision system that allows us to see simultaneously in front of us, behind us or to the side. It may even be useful, but it is against nature. What about food that tastes like real food but isn't real food? OK, wrong example, we already have it! :-)

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March 2025 Editorial

Google and Samsung Team Up to Launch Eclipsa Audio