Swedish digital audio company Dirac and U.S-based Dolby Labs, a global leader in immersive entertainment experiences, have announced a collaboration to demonstrate a high-quality immersive automotive audio experience. The combination of Dirac and Dolby’s complementary technologies create an immersive in-car music listening experience, establishing what the two companies view as a new standard in automotive audio.
Both Dirac and Dolby have invested decades in developing technologies that deliver the best possible sound experiences in all spaces, connecting with artists and listeners, whether it is at home or in cars. With this collaboration, the two well-respected companies in the audio industry are now showing how the combination of their technologies, Dirac’s patented audio optimization algorithms and Dolby Atmos immersive audio, enables the ultimate immersive in-vehicle audio experience, which will now be showcased in both Dolby’s and Dirac’s demo vehicles across the globe.
To date, the two companies have addressed the challenges in automotive audio from different directions. Dirac uses digital signal processing to upgrade the sound system performance and overcome acoustic challenges inherent in cars, such as suboptimal positioning of loudspeakers and reflective surfaces that muddle the sound, assisting an audio system to faithfully reproduce content without any unwanted colorations, and without requiring any hardware upgrades.
Dolby Atmos has changed the way artists create music. Rather than recording in stereo, with a limit of two channels, Dolby Atmos allows for each instrument or vocal to be placed anywhere in three-dimensional space in the recording. Dolby Atmos allows for an immersive listening experience in cars, fully engaging drivers in the music they love.
“The car is a natural place to listen to music, but vehicle cabins are also the most acoustically challenging listening environments,” stated Lars Carlsson, Head of Business Development, Automotive, at Dirac. “For 20 years, Dirac has been developing tailored solutions for some of the world’s leading auto manufacturers, optimizing sound systems to achieve entirely new levels of audio performance. Now, through this collaboration with Dolby, we’re for the first time combining the world’s most sophisticated audio algorithms with the world’s most immersive content to quite literally, establish a new standard in automotive sound.”
“‘Reproducing a faithful Dolby Atmos experience in a car that translates well from the point of creation in the studio into the challenging acoustic environment of a car cabin is a lofty task,” said Andreas Ehret, Director Automotive at Dolby. “The Dirac technology is a great solution for car makers to optimize this experience. We have found that in our demo cars, the results were excellent – with excellent detail, accurate staging, and a well-balanced sound field in all seating positions. Dolby works hand in hand with the entire automotive supply chain, to deliver an authentic entertainment experience inside the car.”
Dolby and Dirac will leverage the Dirac automotive audio solution to optimize the sound system performance in Dolby and Dirac’s demo cars, which are used around the world to showcase to automotive manufacturers and the consumer public the immersive power of Dolby Atmos in cars.
The NIO ET 7 will be the first vehicle to feature Dirac audio optimization algorithms and Dolby Atmos, and will enter the European market later in 2022.