It’s taken a bit longer to get here than expected, but Samsung has announced ahead of its appearance at next week’s CES in Las Vegas that it will finally be rolling out the new Eclipsa Audio system to its 2025 range of TVs and soundbars.
Eclipsa is a new 3D audio technology Samsung has developed in partnership with Google, no less, in what looks like a concerted bid to provide some competition for the now well-established Dolby Atmos and DTS:X three-dimensional audio formats.
As with those two rivals, Eclipsa Audio seeks to create a three-dimensional sound space around the listener into which effects are placed, rather than sticking with the ‘old’ approach of effects sounding as if they’re coming directly from the position of your speakers. More specifically in Eclipsa Audio’s case, it (and I quote) “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”.
Samsung is the first AV brand to bring Eclipsa Audio to consumer products, but that hasn’t stopped it from immediately adding it to a surprisingly wide range of its 2025 TV and soundbar models. Details have not been provided yet on Samsung’s upcoming Eclipsa Audio-ready soundbars, but on the TV side Samsung has confirmed that the new audio feature will be available all the way from Samsung’s near entry-level Crystal UHD sets right the way through to its latest 4K Quantum Dot OLED TVs and flagship Neo QLED 8K models.
Fitting TVs and soundbars with the ability to play Eclipsa Audio tracks is only half the story, of course; we will also need to see content carrying Eclipsa Audio tracks in order to take advantage of the new sound format. On this front, in a reminder of how ‘open access’ Eclipsa is designed to be, Samsung states that starting in 2025 creators will be able to upload videos with Eclipsa Audio tracks to YouTube. There’s no news yet, though, of other major TV and film studios adopting the system.
Setting the right standard
In a bid to ensure that the Eclipsa system maintains consistently high standards right from its infancy, Samsung and Google are both working with the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) on developing a certification program for Eclipsa Audio-equipped devices.
“We believe that Eclipsa Audio has the potential to change the way we experience sound,” says Jim Bankoski, Vice President of Engineering, Google Chrome. “We are excited to see how the creator community uses it to create new and innovative audio experiences.”
For Samsung, Taeyong Son, Executive Vice President and Head of the R&D Team of Samsung Electronic’s Visual Display Business, had this to say: “We are proud to lead the industry with the integration of Eclipsa Audio into our 2025 TV and soundbar lineup. This innovation opens new possibilities for immersive audio experiences and reinforces our commitment to shaping the future of home entertainment.”
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