Skip to main content

Dolby Atmos will support up to 34 speakers in high-end home theaters

It’s every home theater nut’s secret wish to fill a room with speakers packed so tightly together that you can’t tell what color the walls are painted. The only problem with that idea is that, aside from being prohibitively expensive (and possibly a catalyst for divorce), there’s been no practical benefit to doing so – modern-day home theater equipment only supports about eight channels of sound. But recent news from Dolby Labs indicates that such a “speakers everywhere” approach will not only be possible, but have practical benefits. According to Dolby’s own Director of Sound Research, Brett Crockett, Dolby Atmos surround for home theaters will ultimately support up to 34 speakers – and that might not even include subwoofers.

Once the initial excitement around the news that Dolby’s Atmos surround sound technology would be heading to home theaters later this summer began to simmer down, home theater buffs started asking questions: Do we have to put speakers in the ceiling? Will the stuff in my ceiling interfere with sound quality? Will Atmos be expanded to handle more than just four new speakers? Having heard the cry for more information, Dolby has provided a few more specifics about how Atmos will look, and where it’s headed in the near future.

Recommended Videos

One of our hardware partners is planning to release an A/V receiver with 32 channels,” writes Crockett in Dolby’s Lab Notes blog. “If you have the space and budget, you can build a Dolby Atmos system with as many as 24 speakers on the floor and 10 overhead speakers.”

Onkyo Atmos receiver TX-NR3030
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Crockett clarifies that Dolby Atmos isn’t built around the “channels” system that the theater sound industry has grown up with. Instead, Atmos is built on so-called ‘sound objects,’ which can be placed anywhere in a room using one or a combination of speakers. “Any sound heard in a movie scene—a child yelling, a helicopter taking off, a car horn blaring—is an audio object. Filmmakers using Dolby Atmos can decide exactly where those sounds should originate and precisely where they move as the scene develops,” says Crockett. 

It stands to reason, then, that as the number of speakers in a room goes up, so does the potential for impressive sound object placement and movement effects. Rather than just making extra noise, adding speakers will provide a distinct sonic advantage when it comes to enjoying Atmos- encoded movies at home.

Crockett also repeated a point he made early last week that existing Blu-ray discs and players as well as streaming video technologies were already capable of delivering Atmos to next-gen A/V receivers. Atmos-encoded Blu-ray discs are expected later this year, with plenty more scheduled in 2015.

Although Atmos can apparently be scaled to work with any number of speakers placed in various locations around a given room, Dolby does indicate that sound either sourced from or refracted off of the ceiling is a crucial element, as it adds an important new dimension to surround sound effects. Those rooms with flat ceilings fare better than those with vaulted or angled ceilings. Chandeliers, recessed lighting cans, and other ceiling fixtures are not expected to dramatically affect the Atmos surround effect.

The company stopped short of laying out any kind of timeline for the Atmos expansion, likely because it will be up to electronics manufacturers to develop A/V receivers and Pre-amp/processors with the necessary output channels to drive the added speakers. Currently the best A/V receivers offer no more than 11 channels of amplification, limiting Atmos setups for now to a 7.1.4 configuration, which involves a standard 7.1 setup with the addition of four ceiling-mounted speakers, or four Atmos speakers aimed at the ceiling.

To learn more about Dolby Atmos and its move into home theaters, visit our comprehensive explainer here.

Topics
Caleb Denison
Digital Trends Editor at Large Caleb Denison is a sought-after writer, speaker, and television correspondent with unmatched…
The ultimate guide to Dolby Atmos: what it is and how to get the best possible sound
A Marantz AV 10 receiver displaying Dolby Atmos text on front panel.

Dolby Atmos is the most immersive version of surround sound you can get at home. Though it took some time to catch on, the format is now everywhere, from movie theaters to Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, as well as the world's streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Disney+.

But what, exactly, is Dolby Atmos? How is it different from other kinds of surround sound? And perhaps most importantly: If you decide you want to experience Atmos at home, how can you make sure that's exactly what you're getting? Dolby Atmos can be awesome, but getting it is (unfortunately) a bit more complicated than simply buying a TV or a soundbar with the Dolby Atmos logo on the box.

Read more
My favorite Dolby Atmos songs from 2024 to add to your playlist
An iPhone 15 Pro Max on a wooden table displaying streaming apps Amazon Music, Qobuz, Apple Music, Tidal, Sonos, and Spotify.

I'll admit that as an audio reviewer, I have a tendency to listen to the same collection of songs whenever I review a pair of headphones. Even if they're a personal pair and I'm not reviewing them, I'll give a quick listen through snippets of four or five tracks to get a sense of things like frequency response, soundstage, and detail.

Why do I listen to the same songs? For one (or both) of two reasons: I've become intimately familiar with them over the years, or they've been recommended to me by other reviewers -- and in consequence, I've become intimately familiar with them over the years. But it's also good for the mind and the soul to keep things fresh, and with thousands upon thousands of songs being released every year, it's worth appreciating and adding new recordings to the mix.

Read more
Dolby Atmos FlexConnect gets its first competitor at CES 2025
Diagram showing Fraunhofer IIS UpHear Flexible Rendering.

Dolby Labs' Dolby Atmos FlexConnect platform is a clever concept. It's software that's designed to be built into a TV, where it performs some room calibration magic, ultimately letting you place your speakers anywhere you want, while still getting an Atmos experience. And now it has its first competitor: Fraunhofer UpHear Flexible Rendering.

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (better known as Fraunhofer IIS, or just Fraunhofer) -- the organization that created the ubiquitous MP3 music format -- will be demoing UpHear Flexible Rendering at CES 2025, exactly one year after the first demos of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect.

Read more