At WWDC 2021, Apple revealed it will update Apple TV 4K and M1 Macs later this year to allow AirPods Pro and Max owners to enjoy Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, but didn’t provide a lot of details about how it plans to implement the feature on those systems. Apple has now provided some more information to Engadget.
Apple told Engadget the feature will work with stereo, 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos content. Whether you’re using a pair of AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, the software that powers the feature will widen the soundstage so that it seems like the entire room you’re in is being filled with sound. When you sit down to watch a movie or TV show, the included head tracking feature will lock in after it detects you’ve been looking in the same direction for a while. Once you get up to walk around, it will reactivate…
When you’re near the device with your headphones, it will display a popup that will allow you to quickly connect, and you won’t need to dig into the settings menu.
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like Apple’s legendary ease of use – “It just works!” – is at work with Apple TV 4K’s Spatial Audio and dynamic head tracking, so users don’t have to.
It’s amazing that it took reporters this long to figure out that that’s how Spatial Audio has been working this exact way this whole time. Do an experiment with your iPhone: launch a TV show in the TV app and move the phone around your head while keeping your head still — there won’t be any change in the sound. Spatial Audio never uses the location of the source device! It’s incredible that people just assumed it does and never even bothered to check. Journalism much.
Isn’t the author of the article commenting on the head tracking feature of the iPods realigning the virtual sound sources based on the direction you are facing relative to the source device, and that feature only ‘resets’ when it detects a long pause after new head movement? So in your example, are you claiming that if you put your iphone down and turn around, the virtual sound sources would not be remapped to their relative locations in space based on your heads new orientation relative to the source device (your iphone)?