“As Indians, all of us love our music, and we spend a lot time on the highway. So I believe that’s one of the best mixture we will consider.”
Ashim Mathur, Vice-President Advertising – APAC, at Dolby Laboratories can’t put throughout the enchantment of Dolby Atmos for the Indian market in less complicated phrases. A decade after Dolby introduced its immersive audio expertise to theatres, Atmos is now rolling out into automobile fashions the world over, together with Mahindra in India.
In 2024, Li MEGA turned the primary automobile to get Dolby Atmos and Dolby Imaginative and prescient powered by three OLED screens (two within the entrance console and one drop-down display within the rear) and a 21-speaker, 2,160 watts max output. Now, Mahindra has introduced that it’ll combine Dolby Atmos in its Electrical Origin SUVs – BE 6 and XEV 9e and also will have this immersive content material streamed through Gana.
“The entire foundation of Dolby Atmos, which is motion of sound from a content material perspective, is basically coming to life so far as vehicles are involved. We’re working throughout the auto chain and with streaming companions… the flexibleness which Dolby Atmos supplies on the content material and system facet helps us,” Mathur added. Citing the instance of Mahindra, he mentioned, the 16 audio system in a method optimise every passenger seat from an expertise perspective.
“There may be content material availability. There are quite a lot of tracks which can be found in numerous languages, which is so crucial in India. So, it’s touchdown effectively for us… but it surely’s nonetheless early days,” Mathur informed indianexpress.com, including that with the learnings Dolby has globally they do stand an excellent likelihood of actually succeeding on this side as effectively.
The automobile, with its insulated cabins, might be one of the best surroundings to devour audio content material in and to make sure one of the best expertise, Dolby has to work with corporations on the tuning in addition to the position of the audio system. “There’s a lot which fits on with every OEM, as a result of every automobile is totally different from that perspective. And we’ll ensure that it’s tuned accordingly, as per regardless of the configurations can be found for one of the best optimised expertise.”
Mathur says this isn’t a troublesome dialog although automobile corporations have been including audio in a sure method for many years. “It’s in all probability a barely totally different dialog, as a result of vehicles have been all about type, high quality, security. So leisure in all probability is essential, however in all probability not that a lot.” Issues are altering, although, with the proliferation of EVs. “There’s so many new issues which you are able to do in a fast body of time as effectively. It’s not that you’re depending on lengthy cycles of gestation and issues like that,” he mentioned, including how this new tempo of change is impacting adoption of recent applied sciences.
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“The realisation is setting in now that vehicles are multi-functional units like your smartphones and you are able to do a lot extra. And leisure is certainly again on observe… has its personal place and worth. That’s why applied sciences like Dolby Atmos are getting quickly adopted in these automobiles.”
“Individuals’s preferences and the way they devour leisure is altering quickly. They’ve time within the automobile, they need to use it in one of the simplest ways doable,” Mathur mentioned, including because of this corporations like Li Auto are providing Dolby Imaginative and prescient and Dolby Atmos collectively. “There are companies in China, for instance, that are streaming content material with Dolby imaginative and prescient and Atmos collectively. That is serving to our case and the content material will drive adoption.”
Mathur is hopeful that the partnership with Mahindra will assist open doorways with different Indian manufacturers. “Because the market grows and evolves there will probably be extra companions, as a result of there may be room for individuals to develop and this expertise to be broadly out there. We’re in talks with a couple of different companions as effectively and we’ll be asserting and sharing extra.”
Dolby Atmos for vehicles will not be going to be restricted to new vehicles. On the Shopper Electronics Present (CES) 2025 earlier this month, Pioneer showcased an immersive in-vehicle listening expertise that mixes Apple CarPlay, which now contains assist for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos, with a 4-channel resolution relevant to a majority of vehicles on the highway right now. “As soon as we get to that degree, that basically opens up the market. That might be an incredible risk to actually democratise the expertise.”
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On the way forward for Dolby Imaginative and prescient and Atmos, Mathur mentioned one factor they’re internally targeted on is the “hundreds of thousands of units nonetheless untapped”. “There may be big room for these applied sciences to develop and actually get to extra mass scale, depth and width with totally different companions the world over. And there’s a speaker enterprise which we’re actually bullish about. Smartphones from a Dolby Imaginative and prescient perspective are actually catching up. Dolby Imaginative and prescient seize and playback is one thing which is basically rising on smartphones together with the audio half as effectively,” he concluded.
