What seems to be the follow on from an announcement in July ’22, it has been publicised for the second time that Netflix will be adding AMBEO spatial audio—powered by Sennheiser—to some of its titles on the streaming platform.
After recent price hikes, it’s good to see Netflix adding additional value to the service. Albeit interesting to hear of a partnership between Sennheiser and Netflix, I don’t think this will be enough in the long run to ensure customer retainment. Further spatial audio formats—in addition to the already present offering from Dolby—are in danger of becoming ‘gimmicky’ if not done correctly and to a high standard.
Contrariwise, the collaboration has enabled the format to be made playable through standard stereo equipment. On a positive note, this opens up spatial audio to just about any Netflix service subscriber meaning that it has one up on Dolby Atmos (Atmos requires a compatible audio output device in the instance of Netflix streaming).
Furthermore, the audio format is already developed to a certain degree. The is due to the partnership carrying across preexisting spatial audio expertise from Sennheiser’s AMBEO division.
I will need to listen to compare how it sounds to more popular spatial audio solutions. It’s probably worth a look if you subscribe to Netflix.
SAR does a deep dive into 3D audio technologies in its Audio Software & IP Service.
