Announced as “an open source spatial audio format for everyone”, Eclipsa Audio will have a free plugin for AVID Pro Tools Digital Audio Workstation soon and an Android Open Source Project release is also planned.

Samsung started 2025 announcing that the company is redefining home entertainment with the integration of Eclipsa Audio across its 2025 TV, from Crystal UHD series to the premium flagship Neo QLED 8K models — and soundbar lineup, to ensure that consumers who want to experience this advanced technology can choose from a wide range of options.

Samsung is the first in the industry to adopt Eclipsa Audio, a technology developed in partnership with Google, and that is announced as “an open source spatial audio format for everyone”, meaning the goal is to make this groundbreaking technology accessible to more consumers than ever before. In fact, Samsung is not limiting it to TVs, the Samsung line of smartphones will also get Eclipsa Audio.

In the real world, we hear sounds from all around us. Some sounds are ahead of us, some are to our sides, some are behind us, and – yes – some are above or below us. Spatial audio technology brings an immersive audio experience that goes beyond traditional stereo sound. It creates a 3D soundscape, making you feel like sounds are coming from all around you, not just from the left and right speakers.

Free Eclipsa Audio plugin for AVID Pro Tools

Spatial audio technologies were first developed over 50 years ago, and playback has been available to consumers for over a decade, but creating spatial audio has been mostly limited to professionals in the movie or music industries. That’s why Google and Samsung are releasing Eclipsa Audio, an open source spatial audio format for everyone. Google and Samsung will be launching a certification and brand licensing program in 2025 to provide quality assurance to manufacturers and consumers for products that support Eclipsa Audio.

Developed by Google, Samsung, and other key contributors within the Alliance for Open Media (AOM), Eclipsa Audio is based on Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF), and released under the AOM royalty-free license. Because IAMF is open source, Eclipsa Audio files can be created by anyone using freely available audio tools, which support a wide variety of workflows. Google says that “an open source reference renderer  is freely available for standalone spatial audio playback, or you can test your Eclipsa Audio files right in your browser at the Binaural Web Demo Application.”

Soon creators will be able to upload videos with Eclipsa Audio tracks to YouTube, an important step to make the format popular. Eclipsa Audio allows creators to adjust audio data such as the location and intensity of sounds, along with spatial reflections, to create an immersive three-dimensional sound experience.

To simplify the creation of Eclipsa Audio files, later this spring Google will release a free Eclipsa Audio plugin for AVID Pro Tools Digital Audio Workstation. The company also plans to bring native Eclipsa Audio playback to the Google Chrome browser as well as to TVs and soundbars from multiple manufacturers later in 2025. Eclipsa Audio support will also arrive in an upcoming Android Open Source Project (Android AOSP) release.  Matt Frost, Jani Huoponen, Jan Skoglund, Roshan Baliga from the Open Audio team believe “that Eclipsa Audio has the potential to change the way we experience sound. We are excited to see how it is used to create new and innovative audio experiences.”