Can a TV make a living room feel like a concert hall?

What the format actually carries

Eclipsa Audio is a 3D audio technology jointly developed by Samsung Electronics and Google. It sits on top of the open standard Immersive Audio Model and Formats, or IAMF. The standard is codec‑agnostic and royalty‑free. It is open.

Any content creator or device maker can adopt it without licensing fees.

Researchers built the IAMF‑based metadata framework. They also built the encoder and the playback engine. The Visual Display Business integrated that stack into 2025 TVs and soundbars and lined up musical content for Samsung TV Plus.

The format stores spatial coordinates for every sound object — vocals and instruments. Venue reverb and audience reaction get their own coordinates too. During playback the TV or soundbar reads those coordinates and renders them to its own speaker layout. A soundbar with up‑firing drivers can place the orchestra overhead. A TV with only down‑firing drivers folds the height layer into the front stage. Unsupported devices ignore the metadata and play a standard stereo mix.

A test in a 280‑seat hall

Engineers wanted proof that the pipeline works end to end. They booked a 280‑seat concert venue and a professional sound company. A live performance was captured with spatial microphones, converted to Eclipsa Audio, streamed live through a Samsung TV Plus channel and played back on a Samsung TV in real time. Woohyun Nam, head of the Display Innovation Lab at Samsung Research, says the test verified that music, vocals, audience reactions and venue acoustics were recreated accurately. The same pipeline now serves on‑demand musicals on the platform.

The ad break problem

Samsung TV Plus is a free ad‑supported streaming television service. That means immersive IAMF content must hand off to stereo advertisements inside the same viewing session. Joonhun Choi, head of Samsung TV Plus at the VD Business, calls this the biggest challenge.

The two teams designed transition policies that keep audio timing and lip‑sync stable when the stream switches between immersive and stereo. They also built a playback architecture that detects device capability on the fly. Supported hardware gets the full spatial mix. Everything else gets stereo automatically.

What viewers heard and what comes next

Early viewers said they felt like they were sitting in the audience. Some scenes felt more satisfying than a small theater seat. Choi recommends pairing a Samsung TV with a Samsung soundbar for richer multi‑channel rendering. He also points to the Multi‑Cam feature, which lets viewers switch between a full‑stage view and close‑ups during key moments.

The roadmap stretches beyond musicals. K‑pop concerts and classical recitals are slated for Eclipsa Audio. Movies and sports will follow. Nam envisions personalized audio: a music fan could boost vocals or isolate a cello. A sports fan could choose between commentary and stadium ambience. The slogan is “Spatial Audio for Everyone.”

Which 2025 sets and soundbars actually support it, and when the classical and sports catalogues arrive, the interview does not say.