Dolby Atmos is Dolby's object-based immersive audio system, which adds height and precise placement to surround sound. Instead of mixing only to fixed channels, it combines a channel 'bed' (commonly 7.1.2) with up to 118 dynamic audio objects, each tagged with positional metadata, and a renderer places those objects on whatever speakers — or virtualized headphones — the listener actually has. Delivery varies by context: Dolby TrueHD with Atmos on Blu-ray, E-AC-3 with Joint Object Coding (JOC) for most streaming, AC-4 IMS for broadcast, and binaural rendering on headphones and earbuds, increasingly with head tracking. Atmos is how 'immersive audio' reaches mainstream living rooms, cinemas, and Apple Music.
The book · Volume 5 of 7
Audio for Video: A Complete Guide to Sound in Video Products: From Jitter Buffers and Lip Sync to Atmos, Quality Metrics, and Neural Codecs
Dolby Atmos is where most teams discover that a 7.1.2 bed and moving objects behave very differently across soundbars, headphones and TVs. This volume works through Atmos in depth with spatial audio, object rendering, binaural playback, timestamps and quality metrics, so you can plan delivery formats and test renders with confidence. Written by Nikolay Sapunov, CEO at Fora Soft.
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