As spotted by What Hi-Fi, the addition of spatial audio to AirPlay was practically a footnote, appearing at the very end of the Apple’s press release detailing its tvOS 18-based home entertainment enhancements.
The news could be a big deal for anyone who wants to hear spatial audio content, like Dolby Atmos Music, from a compatible wireless speaker. Though it may seem counterintuitive, even though AirPlay currently lets you stream any audio from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to an AirPlay-enabled speaker, there are still limitations. For instance, AirPlay only supports up to CD-quality, 16-bit/44.1kHz lossless audio — it doesn’t work with any hi-res audio sample rates or bit depths. And if you try to stream Dolby Atmos, say, from Apple Music — even if you stream it to a Dolby Atmos speaker like the Sonos Era 300 — that audio will be down-mixed to stereo before it ever leaves your Apple device.
This limitation of AirPlay has meant that the only way to get spatial audio to a standalone speaker is directly from the source. In other words, Sonos must access Dolby Atmos streams directly from Apple Music in order for the Sonos Era 300 (or Sonos Arc, or Sonos Beam Gen 2) to play it correctly. The same is true for any other Dolby Atmos-capable speaker.
This can create a challenge for builders of spatial audio speakers. Unless they build a companion app, and add support for direct streaming from every music service that provides Dolby Atmos content, there’s almost no reliable way to get the speaker to play Dolby Atmos as it should sound.
With the addition of spatial audio compatibility to AirPlay, any Dolby Atmos speaker that works with AirPlay will be able to receive Atmos wirelessly from any Apple device — regardless of the streaming app in use.
The impact on the audio world could be significant. Audio companies that have been resisting the idea of making a Dolby Atmos speaker now have a major roadblock out of their way. And as the speaker ecosystem responds with more Atmos-capable products, recording artists and music streaming services will respond with more and more spatial audio content.
Unfortunately, since AirPlay remains an Apple device exclusive, we still need a solution for Android and Windows. Adding spatial audio support to Chromecast would address part of this problem. A much better (and more universal) solution would be for the entire industry to throw its weight behind Matter Casting, a open-source alternative to both AirPlay and Chromecast. Once Matter Casting works with spatial audio, we’ll be able to stream any audio from any device to any other device.
Apple has upgraded the AirPods Pro with lossless audio, sort of
Amid the slew of new Apple products launched today, only the tiniest mention was made of the fact that Apple has also given the AirPods Pro Gen 2 wireless earbuds a not-so-minor refresh. Along with the expected addition of USB-C, making the AirPods Pro the first Apple headphones to ditch the Lightning connector, Apple has also given the iconic white noise-canceling earbuds the ability to do lossless audio wirelessly -- something that has never been seen on the AirPods family before, and is even a rarity among non-Apple wireless audio devices.
There is, however, a catch. The "groundbreaking wireless audio protocol" that allows for lossless audio at 20-bit/48 kHz (a better-than-CD-quality resolution) is powered by the AirPods Pro's H2 chip, but for now, it only works when paired with the upcoming Apple Vision Pro headset. At the moment, Qualcomm's aptX Lossless Bluetooth codec (when used with compatible wireless headphones and smartphones) is the only technology that supports lossless audio wirelessly, and even that technology is limited to 16-bit/48kHz.
DTS Play-Fi wireless audio adds support for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X
DTS Play-Fi, the wireless multiroom audio platform that can be used to set up a fully wireless home theater sound system, has expanded from its previous 5.1-channel limitation to 12 channels, which can support surround sound formats like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, or IMAX Enhanced in up to a 7.2.4-channel configuration.
The news comes two days after the announcement of Dolby Labs' Dolby Atmos FlexConnect technology that will provide a similar level of wireless speaker flexibility for owners of compatible TVs.
Dolby Atmos FlexConnect could eliminate home theater soundbars and HDMI cables
Dolby Labs has a new home theater technology called Dolby Atmos FlexConnect. The company says it will let people with a compatible TV place wireless speakers anywhere that's convenient, and the TV's built-in microphones will automatically calibrate them to work with the TV's speakers while ensuring the whole setup produces optimal sound. The technology will make its debut in the 2024 TCL X955 QD mini-LED 4K TV, but Dolby anticipates that other companies will also announce support for Dolby Atmos FlexConnect.
Because Dolby Atmos FlexConnect works wirelessly and uses a compatible TV's built-in hardware and software, you'll be able to set up a Dolby Atmos audio system that doesn't require a soundbar or AV receiver as its central unit and doesn't need an HDMI cable to send an audio signal to an external device.
