What is Dolby Atmos?
Dolby Atmos is one of the most significant developments in surround sound tech over the past decade. As a new object-oriented audio format, Atmos gives movie directors, audio engineers, and now music artists (with Apple Music’s spatial audio) the ability to add a sense of “height” or “elevation” to their presentation of sound.
Compared to traditional surround sound systems where you could have the left, right, center, side, and rear speakers all around you for two dimensions of surround — Dolby Atmos height speakers add overhead sound for a third dimension to your soundstage that is object-based. Before, they just had a balance to play with to position sound between the channels, but now there is a complete three-dimensional field that can place sound in an exact spot.
Read How Surround Sound Evolved Into Dolby Atmos for more Atmos history.
When you have a great movie, TV show, documentary, or soundtrack mixed in Dolby Atmos, it feels like we are right in the center of the action — and this draws us deeper into the storyline.
For movies, the engineers can actually capture the full immersion of footsteps creeping up from behind you or the eerie sensation of whispers floating above your head to completely cover you in the soundscape the director intends.
Another great example is the sound of a helicopter flying over you. As the helicopter flies over, you will hear the helicopter’s blades above you, and when the helicopter lands, you will hear and feel the sound traveling back down to your seating position — with a true three-dimensional sense of presentation that is exactly the way it is in real life.