An upgrade to Dolby Atmos is coming, promising a more immersive, compact surround sound experience no matter your setup.
Dolby Atmos FlexConnect Impressions | Surround Sound for every room
A number of modern electronics have embraced Dolby Atmos, from smartphones to home theater systems, but the simplified (and sometimes simulated) surround-sound format is still growing in popularity. Now, Dolby plans to make Atmos adapt to your wireless speaker setup with a new feature called Dolby Atmos FlexConnect.
FlexConnect will be coming to TCL TVs starting next year, but it's implied that we'll likely see it appear on other sets and devices in the future. Either way, once you have access to a FlexConnect-enabled TV, Dolby claims you'll no longer have to worry about figuring out the optimal speaker placement, no matter how many (or few) you own. So rather than requiring a more precise (sometimes untenable or ugly) speaker layout, Dolby says you can place them anywhere and let the system figure it out for itself.
Microphones built into your TV are the key. Dolby uses them to create an “acoustic map” of each connected wireless speaker. And once all the speakers are mapped, FlexConnect optimizes the audio output based on location and individual speaker performance. So even if you use a hodgepodge of wireless speaker models from different manufacturers, your home theater audio should still sound strong.
