We heard our first rumbling about Dolby Atmos FlexConnect in fall 2023 . And when I first hear about it , I wrote about my numerousquestions and concerns .
Well , I have proficient news . I give Dolby a sojourn while atCES , and not only did I get some answers , but the ride I take to and from that visit with Dolby , well , that ’s a whole story unto itself that we ’ll get into here .
Dolby is quick to divvy up more about FlexConnect . And while some new questions have popped up since that Las Vegas visit in January , those interrogative sentence are less about how the engineering works and more about when we ’ll really get it .
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I ’m get going to portion out what I ’ve learned about this potentially game - changing technology , but I ’m operate to sandwich it between a couple of slices of Dolby Atmos Music awesomeness I got to relish on the way to and from Dolby ’s retinue at the Nomad Hotel in Las Vegas .
Riding in sonic style
Dolby was my first halt of the first light . And to make it easy , Dolby bid to send a car to pick up my cameraman , Zeke , and me .
The railway car they sent was aMaybach .
I observe this not because I want to show you how fancy I got to stray across the strip that good morning . I mention it because that Maybach was outfit to the hilt with an unbelievable in - car Dolby Atmos Music system . We got a little taste of it , and it vocalise incredible . And more significantly , it was a impertinent monitor ofwhat Dolby Atmos can dowhen set up properly — even in a automobile .
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This would rick out to be pretty important as we propel into Dolby ’s display at the hotel .
Atmos in every form
Dolby had a few rooms to savour . One was a show of all the mobile twist on which Dolby Atmos is uncommitted , along with a wide raiment of headphones with which to enjoyDolby Atmos Musicand Dolby Atmos moving-picture show . I had a listen , which was another refresher on how Dolby Atmos can sound , depend on how it is apply .
Another little way was fit with the kind of Dolby Atmos speaker system you might find in someone ’s home , but scale to serve just one or two listeners . Again , I mind carefully .
Then , there was a way with commercial-grade - ground level speakers filling a much larger , party - trend blank space where Dolby Atmos music and movies could be demonstrated to a large group of people . It was not exactly an stadium - sized exposition , but certainly more on the commercial-grade and professional scale . This stop , in particular , was a fun listen .
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A fixed and finicky setup
Except for the headphones show , all of these experience — the car , the living room , the large - scale auditorium — all shared something in vulgar : carefully place verbalizer .
There were front left , midpoint , front right , side surround left , side surround right , rear surround left , rearward surround right , subwoofer , and anywhere from two to six summit speakers placed up richly , if not right above , the listening area .
If you ’re trying to do Dolby Atmos at dwelling house the way they do it in the dramatics , even at a small scale , this is how you do it . The only variable is whether you rate actual speaker above you or practice speakers to bounce sound off the ceiling and back down to you .
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Even aSamsung Dolby Atmos environment soundbarfollows these principle . You need a soundbar full of speakers at the front , a surroundings unit toward the back ( also loaded with speakers ) , and a subwoofer , as well . Samsung ’s system is even capable of using a Samsung TV ’s build - in verbaliser to enhance the overall experience .
Dolby developedFlexConnect , a platform that aims to make a skillful hearing experience uncommitted to just about anyone .
That ’s a lot of speakers . And they involve to be placed in specific positions comparative to where you sit to keep an eye on TV . And if you do a conventional arrangement that uses anAV receiveror multichannel amplifier along with a bunch of independent verbaliser ? Well , now you also have the challenge of speaker wires to deal with . Even the wireless surrounds with the Samsung soundbar system need to be plugged in and , well , you’re able to imagine what sort of wire mess you ’d be dealing with .
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FlexConnect flexibility
That sort of barrier to entrance is why more people are n’t enjoying Dolby Atmos at home , and Dolby knows it . So , Dolby developedFlexConnect , a platform that aims to make a better hearing experience uncommitted to just about anyone .
The key parole there is chopine . Dolby has designed the underlying processing technology and is name it available to a bunch of different manufacturing cooperator . Now , it ’s up to telly brands and speaker brands and whoever else might desire to get in on the action to begin making gear wheel that works on the platform .
I ’ll spill the beans more about that in a moment . But first let me tell you a little spot about the demonstration I experienced .
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FlexConnect in action
I was in was a hotel entourage . It ’s a nice space , but not really designed for a home entertainment system — and that was the point . This space could be anyone ’s living room . There ’s a television set with the brand name name covered in taping . As I sit on the lounge facing the goggle box , there ’s a utterer way over on the veracious side of the room , and another much closer to me , on the leftfield , insert on a shelf . There is also a subwoofer in the way .
None of these speaker unit are put in a way that would make sense for a conventional speaker system . The one on the right is n’t in the correct spot to be a front right speaker , and it is n’t in the ripe spot to be a good surround speaker . The one on the left field feels a second too cheeseparing to me , and it ’s also just frontwards of where I ’m sit , so again , not really a front speaker or a surround speaker .
So , that ’s two randomly placed speakers , in what I would normally see terrible spot , and a subwoofer , plus the TV .
Next , Dolby loads up the FlexConnect app on a smartphone . The app communicates with the TV , and it receives signals that other speakers are in the elbow room . So , at this point , it knows there is a TV with verbaliser , then two other speakers somewhere , and a subwoofer somewhere .
The wizard takes us through the apparatus outgrowth . As sound is emitted through the verbaliser and find fault up by the phone ’s microphone , the app apply the phone ’s television camera to learn the elbow room and find out where the speakers are in the space . It ’s not just using acoustical cues , though it is scram those . It ’s commence visual cues from the television camera so that it can create an precise map of where the verbaliser are relative to the listener and the TV .
I want to be exonerated that it is possible for this to work without a human using a phone . If the TV has a built - in tv camera and microphone — as many of them do already — then the idiot box can do all of this study on its own with the insistence of a button .
Once the baseline information is gathered , some computational work goes on — this takes a matter of seconds — and the organisation is now set up . It knows where the speakers are . It knows where the sound is coming from — including that the two speakers that have up - firing drivers . The system is now set up to serve Dolby Atmos sound recording so that , combined , the tv set speakers , self-governing utterer , and subwoofer will bring together to create a Dolby Atmos experience using complex audio processing to sort of fill in the gap between the speakers .
Sony has something similar to this with its 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology . But this is different . The bit that ’s doing all this complex processing is work up into the video . And FlexConnect is n’t just optimize the auditory sensation of a rather schematic speaker setup . It ’s process the speech sound so that , purportedly , we ’ll try sound coming from places where there are no speakers .
Now , at this stop , I ’m feeling fairly proud of with myself because this is more or less what I cerebrate FlexConnect was travel to be . Seeing how it got set up , though , was first-rate informative and encouraging because now we know that , really , anyone can do it with a twist they probably already own .
At this point , all that remained was for me to hear it .
The audio experience
Now , I wo n’t oversell this as the most charming audio experience I have ever find out . It was n’t . Dolby Atmos FlexConnect can not agree the sound experience that you may get with a more conventional Dolby Atmos speaker system . But what it did do with what little it had to work with ? It was damned telling . advantageously than any soundbar - only system without environment speaker that I ’ve hear , save perhaps Sennheiser ’s Ambeo production . And even then , the Sennheiser ’s high quality is mostly in the audio fidelity department , not the surround sound burden zone .
I think Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is going to be ludicrously popular .
I think what do this organization so convincing , though , is its radical - low barrier of entry . It ’s a piece of cake to get it shape . It requires no proficient cognition at all . It ’s scalable , so it can be as simple and inexpensive or as heroic and expensive as you want it to be , and , supposedly , the only thing you really need to know is where your great power outlets are so you’re able to put a verbaliser close enough to one that you’re able to stop up it in .
So , sacrifice the combination of the sound experience you get with the rest of setup and implementation to get that experience , I consider Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is going to be ridiculously popular .
A soundbar killer?
I do n’t think it is going to kill the soundbar manufacture , the AV pass receiver manufacture , or the dwelling audio industry in general . No , this is a product meant to pass on hoi polloi who are n’t out there buying that sort of stuff anyway . They wo n’t purchase that clobber , but when they hear it ? They ’ll 100 % buy into Dolby Atmos FlexConnect . And the brand name that ’s last to sell the most is the mark that figures out how to spread the word and get this into as many ears as potential .
Because , from there , the technology really sells itself .
And that ’s all Dolby had to do . Now it ’s up to Hisense and TCL , which we already eff are prepare FlexConnect verbaliser and building FlexConnect into some of their TVs . And we ’ll definitely see other brands hop on board . And , folk , it ’s Dolby . I guess a lot of sword — from those we already know to some that have n’t even been make yet — are going to clamor to educate Dolby Atmos FlexConnect products .
We are n’t utter about getting a slice of an existing grocery store here . We ’re talking about an exclusively new market , made up of kinfolk who would never put a receiver or speakers , or perhaps even a soundbar , in their home . But they ’ll hide a distich of talker around the room if all they have to do is punch them in and iron one release .
Pretty smart , Dolby . passably smart .
Looking ahead
Now , after all of this , I crawled into another Mercedes and proceeded to get an in - automobile Dolby Atmos Music demo that spoil my socks off .
That , my friends , is cannon fodder for another clause entirely . But I will say it got me think about and mind to Dolby Atmos Music in a way I never have before , and I ’m excited to speak about that with you soon — and really , all the direction through the rest of 2024 .
For now , just know that Dolby Atmos FlexConnect may or may not be for you . But of this , there is no dubiety : It is an awful applied science , and I intend it is utterly run low to blow up . And the ripple burden it may have on the home amusement industriousness ? I ’m just startle to essay to wrap my head around that .
