Eclipsa Audio:
Why It Could Be the Future of Spatial Sound

Every few decades, audio reproduction takes a step that genuinely changes what is possible. Stereo replaced mono. Surround sound moved the listening experience off a flat plane. Now a new format, unveiled at CES 2025 and rolling out across consumer hardware throughout the year, is making a bid to put full three-dimensional sound into the hands of anyone who wants to create or experience it — without a licensing invoice.

It is called Eclipsa Audio, and it is the result of two years of collaboration between Samsung and Google, built on top of an open specification from the Alliance for Open Media called the Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF). The pitch is simple and strategically sharp: everything Dolby Atmos does, but open-source and free for everyone.

What Eclipsa Audio actually is

At its technical core, Eclipsa Audio is a spatial audio format based on IAMF, published under the Alliance for Open Media's royalty-free license. The Alliance — whose members include Google, Samsung, Meta, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft — is the same consortium behind the AV1 video codec that now powers streaming on virtually every platform. Eclipsa Audio follows the same playbook: an open, collectively maintained standard backed by the biggest names in consumer technology.

The format supports up to 28 individual input channels in a single bitstream, each of which can be either fixed (like a stationary microphone in a studio) or dynamic (tracking a moving object, such as a vehicle in a film chase sequence). Creators can adjust the position, intensity, and spatial reflections of every element in the sound field — the same fundamental control surface as Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. It also supports binaural rendering natively, meaning the same master file can deliver full 3D audio over a pair of standard headphones without any special hardware.

Crucially, Eclipsa Audio is codec-agnostic. It works with LPCM, AAC, FLAC, and Opus, meaning it slots into existing production and delivery workflows without forcing a wholesale retooling of how audio is encoded and distributed.

The open-source difference

To understand why Eclipsa Audio matters, you have to understand the economics of Dolby Atmos. Any studio mixing in Atmos, any manufacturer building a device that decodes it, and any streaming platform delivering it pays licensing fees to Dolby Laboratories. Those fees are not disclosed publicly, but they are significant enough that Samsung — one of the world's largest TV makers — has historically refused to support Dolby Vision on its displays specifically to avoid them.

Eclipsa Audio's open-source framework removes that gate entirely. Anyone can create 3D audio content in the format using freely available tools, without paying royalties. Any manufacturer can build a device that plays it back. Any platform can host it. An open source reference renderer is available for standalone playback, and a browser-based binaural demo lets anyone test Eclipsa files without dedicated hardware. Google has committed to releasing a free Eclipsa Audio plugin for Avid Pro Tools, and the format is already workable in Reaper and Logic Pro through available AU and third-party plugins.

For independent creators, smaller studios, and developers in markets where Dolby licensing is prohibitive, this is a meaningful shift. The tools to produce professional-grade spatial audio are no longer gated by a commercial relationship with a single company.

How it compares to Dolby Atmos

The honest picture is that in 2025 and into 2026, Dolby Atmos retains an enormous lead in content and hardware reach built up over more than a decade. Eclipsa is not yet at feature parity — object-based audio, one of Atmos's defining capabilities, is still being added via IAMF 2.0. But the trajectory is clear, and the backing is serious.

The ecosystem build-out

What makes Eclipsa Audio's momentum credible is the speed and scale of the ecosystem being assembled around it. This is not a startup format with a handful of boutique partners.

The road that brought us here

What this means for spatial audio creators

For anyone working in spatial audio — whether you're a field recordist working in ambisonics, a game audio designer, a music producer exploring immersive mixes, or a documentary filmmaker — Eclipsa Audio changes the delivery equation in important ways.

The most immediate change is the removal of cost barriers at every stage of the pipeline. You no longer need a commercial Dolby licence to mix in a professional spatial format. A free Pro Tools plugin, open-source encoders, and free monitoring tools handle the production side. YouTube handles distribution. Samsung hardware handles playback — at every price point, not just premium tiers.

The format's "one production, full-device rendering" design is also meaningful for working professionals. The same Eclipsa master file delivers full 3D spatial audio on a 7.1.4 home theatre, binaural immersion on headphones, and clear stereo on a phone speaker. That eliminates the parallel versioning work that currently makes spatial audio delivery complicated and expensive for smaller teams.

The connection to ambisonics

For readers of this site, there is a specific and important technical relationship to understand. Eclipsa Audio's Base Profile, the version optimised for streaming platforms like YouTube, supports up to 16-channel third-order ambisonics as a scene-based audio component. That means recordings captured with ambisonic microphones — from a Zoom H3-VR all the way up to a high-order Eigenmike — are native source material for Eclipsa Audio production. You don't adapt your recording practice; you extend your delivery options.

In Reaper-based Eclipsa workflows that have been documented by audio engineers, a common approach is precisely this: a four-track ambisonic session for the environmental layer, combined with additional mono or stereo object tracks for specific sound sources, exported as a single IAMF file ready for YouTube upload.

The honest caveats

Eclipsa Audio's momentum is real, but some practical limitations deserve honest acknowledgement. The format's content library in 2025 is still thin compared to the vast Dolby Atmos catalogue built over a decade of film and music licensing. Hardware support beyond Samsung and early Google TV partners is still limited, though it is expanding rapidly through Android AOSP deployment.

There is also a reasonable question about long-term commitment. Open formats succeed when their backers maintain sustained investment — the AV1 codec took years of ecosystem work before it achieved ubiquity. Eclipsa Audio is earlier in that arc, and some industry observers have noted that the early open-source release of tools, while welcome, could also indicate that Google and Samsung are hedging rather than going all-in. The certification program and THX involvement are positive counter-signals.

The most pragmatic reading in 2026: Eclipsa expands while Dolby Atmos remains the dominant legacy library. Devices that handle both are going to be the smart bet for the next few years, and the spatial audio creator who understands both formats will be better positioned than the one who ignores either.

Why this is the moment to pay attention

The history of audio formats is littered with technically superior challengers that lost to entrenched incumbents — DAT, SACD, DTS:X — because they couldn't assemble a content and hardware ecosystem fast enough. Eclipsa Audio is doing several things differently. It is open and free, removing the economic friction that killed past challengers. It has YouTube as a distribution pipe, meaning the content library can grow without Hollywood studio agreements. And it has Android AOSP as a platform vehicle, meaning adoption can scale to billions of devices without requiring individual manufacturer negotiations.

None of that guarantees success. But it does make Eclipsa Audio the most credible challenge to Dolby's spatial audio dominance that the industry has seen — and the most relevant new format for spatial audio creators to understand and start working with now, while the ecosystem is still being shaped.

The sphere of sound is getting bigger. And this time, everyone is invited to build inside it.