Samsung Newsroom took a closer look at the technology behind Eclipsa Audio and how it delivers lifelike 3D spatial audio.

Developing 3D Spatial Audio Technology

In 2023, the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) — a global consortium that includes Samsung, Google, Netflix, Meta and other leading companies — officially adopted Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) as the industry standard for 3D audio. Developed by Samsung and Google, this innovative 3D audio format is currently available to content creators under the brand name Eclipsa Audio.

Eclipsa Audio establishes a shared protocol between different types of media content and the devices that play them. The format delivers a deeply immersive listening experience by optimizing and adapting audio positioning, intensity, spatial reflections and other sound elements to various output environments, such as cinemas, home theater systems, gaming consoles and mobile devices.

Depending on the output device, the technology can render sound from multiple directions — including from the front, back, left, right, above and below — to create a sense of spatial depth and presence within the scene being watched. In a concert video for instance, Eclipsa Audio presents the artist’s performance in crystal-clear detail while also capturing the energy of the audience, making the viewer feel as if they are physically there.

Designed for Optimal 3D Audio in Everyday Life

Among the growing range of technologies enhancing 3D sound — including surround sound, immersive audio and spatial audio — Eclipsa Audio was specifically designed to provide a 3D audio experience optimized for everyday listening.

Traditionally, 3D audio content is created with the assumption that it will be played in environments equipped with multiple surround speakers. However, most home entertainment setups primarily consist of a TV and a soundbar — making it challenging to accurately replicate the content creator’s intended spatial audio effects. Eclipsa Audio overcomes this limitation by automatically analyzing sound elements in each segment of a film — from whispered dialogue to the roar of fighter jets in the background — and delivering a dynamic 3D audio effect fine-tuned for the viewer’s home environment.

Building a 3D Audio Ecosystem With Open-Source Technology

Eclipsa Audio’s open-source framework sets it apart from other 3D audio technologies by allowing anyone to create 3D audio content without paying royalties. Following its debut at CES 2025, the technology has been met with enthusiasm from content creators and has gained momentum across media platforms and online communities.

In this way, Eclipsa Audio serves as an open vessel in which content creators can integrate 3D audio elements from all directions without restrictions. By democratizing spatial audio, Eclipsa Audio empowers content creators and ensures that consumers experience sound as intended — regardless of their audio setup.

Eclipsa Audio on Samsung TVs

Eclipsa Audio’s immersive 3D sound performs at its best when paired with exceptional hardware. To make that peak performance a reality, Samsung and Google have worked tirelessly to provide consumers with Eclipsa Audio-supported 3D audio content — soon to be available via the YouTube app on Samsung’s latest TVs. Eclipsa Audio is set to roll out across the company’s entire 2025 TV lineup from the Crystal UHD series to the premium flagship Neo QLED 8K models.¹

Most Samsung TVs are equipped with stereo speakers at the bottom of the screen, and for QLED 4K models and above, additional speakers are positioned at the top. Flagship models, though, come with extra benefits. Besides surround speakers added to the rear of the sides, their top-positioned speakers are specially designed for height perception. Eclipsa Audio reflects sound off the ceiling with these special speakers, creating an effect that allows viewers to experience upward-directional audio — such as the sensation of an object flying overhead. Pairing the TV with a soundbar further enhances the experience, producing richer and more expansive 3D spatial audio.

Eclipsa Audio has established the foundation for a 3D audio content ecosystem by bringing industry leaders — from device manufacturers to content platforms — together under a unified standard. In an era where streaming services blur the line between content creation and consumption, Eclipsa Audio unlocks new possibilities for immersive sound that Samsung is determined to further expand.

¹ Rollout schedule and service details may vary depending on the TV model.

Steven Macenski, Samsung Research America

In his recent paper, Macenski introduced ROS2’s architecture and current state-of-the-art technologies along with its various use cases in ground, sea and air. Especially, Macenski covered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s VIPER² Lunar project which will be launched by November in 2023, with respect to its ongoing ROS2-based simulation, operation and ground-based perception technology. The paper clearly and thoroughly explains the technologies of ROS2, an open-source software development kit for robotics applications, so many researchers and developers can refer to it in future work.

While collaborating on the development of robotics software technologies in ROS2, Macenski represents Samsung Electronics as an Open Source Maintainer responsible for the review and approval of source code as well as regular releases. He also participates as a board member of the Technical Steering Committee (TSC), ROS2’s top decision-making body. More notably, Macenski has won the annual Best Developer Award for ROS2 for two consecutive years since 2020. The TSC includes more than 20 major companies around the world, including Samsung Electronics, Open Robotics, Toyota, Intel, Wind River, iRobot and Bosch.

For his Science Robotics paper, Macenski teamed up with research luminaries in ROS2, such as the CEO of Open Robotics Brian Gerkey and ROS2’s guru-level developer Tully Foote.

¹ Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its Device eXperience division

² Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) is a lunar rover developed by NASA and is currently planned to be delivered to the surface of the Moon in November 2023.

Over a term of office that begins this April and extends through to 2023, Samsung is set to play a key role in the decision-making undertaken by the O-RAN open source project’s TOC.

Active Participation for the Future of Telecommunications Technologies

Through its participation in the O-RAN Alliance, Samsung has been expanding its influence in the Open RAN domain, an area that is currently in the spotlight thanks to its potential to be the next generation of radio access network (RAN) technology. Over the past two years, the company has been continuously developing open source code for RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC).

Thanks to this pioneering work, Samsung has been elected as an official member of the TOC, the top voting body of the O-RAN SC, along with 11 other companies. JinGuk Jeong, Vice President and Head of Advanced Solutions Team at Samsung Researchh¹‘s Advanced Communications Research Center has now begun his term as the company’s representative to the TOC following the membership offer.

▲ JinGuk Jeong, Vice President and Head of Advanced Solutions Team at Samsung Research’s Advanced Communications Research Center

Setting Standards for Global Specifications and Open Source Software

The O-RAN SC TOC has twelve seats comprised of six global telecommunications operators — AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, NTT Docomo and TIM — and 6 telecommunications equipment and components providers — Samsung Electronics, Ericsson, Nokia, Windriver, Radisys and Viavi.

O-RAN SC is sponsored by O-RAN Alliance, which releases specifications, and it develops and releases their specification compatible software as open source. As a member of the TOC, Samsung is set to play a role in the final approval of the bi-annual open source code release, the establishment of a development roadmap, and in making decisions necessary to ensure alignment with the O-RAN Alliance.

Through the open source leadership secured with this TOC membership, Samsung plans to continue strengthening its advanced research in Network AI (Artificial Intelligence) / ML (Machine Learning) based on O-RAN technology as it expands its influence in other related industries.

¹ Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its Device eXperience division

The OpenChain Project began in 2016 as an initiative of the Linux Foundation, a non-profit organization in the United States. It aims to establish an effective and consistent open source compliance system.

The OpenChain Project was adopted as an ISO / IEC international standard in 2020. The project evaluates each company’s open source compliance capabilities and grants certification if they met the criteria.

“Samsung Electronics leads the adoption and use of open source technology to create innovative products,” said Seungbeom Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D Strategy Team at Samsung Electronics. “Underlying this are organizations and processes specifically established to safely and efficiently utilize open source. Our adoption of OpenChain ISO 5230 reflects our ongoing commitment to excellence in our field. Samsung Electronics is expected to enhance its credibility by receiving recognition for its capacity to utilize open source through this certification. We look forward to collaborating with other industry leaders around this standard.”

“Open source provides an unmatched platform for innovation,” said Shane Coughlan, General Manager of OpenChain. “To get the most out of this platform, the key is to have effective, efficient processes. OpenChain ISO 5230 delivers this for license compliance activities. We are delighted to welcome Samsung Electronics to our community of conformance. Their leadership in this area will help accelerate our mission throughout the supply chain.”

Since 2012, Samsung Research, Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub that leads the development of future technologies for its consumer product business, has been conducting various activities for safe and efficient use of open source with specialized organizations and systems. The company has established a global integrated open source policy with global research institutes, and established a system to identify open source licenses and comply with obligations at the stage of development from software planning to implementation and verification, and have operated online / offline education programs to enhance the understanding of developers.

Since 2013, Samsung Electronics has been a board member of the world’s largest open source community, the Linux Foundation. In addition, Samsung Research, the company’s advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its SET Business, has demonstrated its deep commitment to promoting the advancement of open source software by hosting its annual Samsung Open Source Conference (SOSCON) in Korea.

(From left) Samsung Research engineer Seo-Young ‘Isabelle’ Hwang, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D Strategy Team Seungbeom Choi and Engineer Yoonhwan Jung

What do the researchers leading open source development at Samsung Research think of the state of open source today? To find out, Samsung Newsroom invited Seungbeom Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of the R&D Strategy Team at Samsung Research, as well as Seo-Young Isabelle Hwang and Yoonhwan Jung, Engineers from Samsung Research’s Open Source Group, to take part in a wide-ranging and informative Q&A session.

Read on to find out what the experts asked one another, and what they see as the future of open source innovation.

Open Source Group Engineers’ Questions for Choi

Q: How would you define ‘open source’ in a single sentence?

Q: As the head of R&D Strategy team that leads Samsung’s open source research, open source is an integral part of your daily work. What were some of your first impressions of open source software?

In the course of advancing projects as the Head of Samsung Research’s R&D Strategy Team, I came to realize just how important of a role open source plays in advancing Samsung technologies, and saw it as something that we could not go against.

Q: You’ve referred to open source as being reflective of the times in which we live. Why do you believe open source innovation is so important?

When it comes to open source, there are two key benefits, per se. First and foremost, it allows you to access verified code for free. By making proprietary technologies open source, a company can establish itself as a standard-setter and technological leader. On top of that, open source competition – spanning areas such as mobile and IoT (the Internet of Things) in the past and, more recently, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and advanced network technologies – is becoming progressively fiercer. This means that companies should not view an open source strategy as something that is nice to have, but that they must have.

Q: When did Samsung Electronics begin to take note of open source?

A number of companies have started to unveil proprietary open source technologies in an effort to take the lead in this particular area. In keeping with this trend, Samsung Electronics began to introduce its own open source technologies in the form of Tizen.

With Tizen coming along, Samsung went to great lengths to contribute to the open source community by establishing the Open Source Office, a specialized task force, and run open source educational programs for in-house developers. In 2013, Samsung created an organization dedicated to advancing open source overseas, and nurtured developers. Since 2014, Samsung has hosted SOSCON in Korea with a view toward fostering open source innovation locally. In all, Samsung has introduced over 130 open source projects, thereby playing a pivotal role in driving open source forward.

Q: With the field of open source development continuously expanding, it underlines a need for more bright minds. What makes for great talent in this area?

Open source is a relatively new field that encompasses a wide array of jobs spanning multiple areas, including development. With this in mind, I believe it is important for individuals to actively figure out what kind of role best suits their skills by taking on new tasks with confidence and not being afraid of failure.

Communication skills are especially important in this field. Open source is basically about sharing and collaboration, which means the ability to communicate effectively with businesses and third-party developers is a valuable skill. If you’re proactive about taking on tasks and you have great communication skills, you have the potential to become an open source specialist.

Q: We, too, hope that lots of great minds will be drawn to working in open source. What do you see as the future of software, and what role will Samsung Research play?

I cannot overstate just how integral software has become to our daily lives. ‘Solid’ software requires continuous commitment. As such, Samsung Research needs to play an active role in enhancing software’s capabilities long-term. Going forward, we will do our best to promote open source development and cooperation.

Choi’s Questions for Open Source Group Engineers

Q: In a nutshell, how would you sum up the Open Source Group?

I would say that working within the Open Source Group creates a window of opportunity. We’re tasked with handling a variety of jobs, including development, which enables us to obtain a wealth of experience and a level of expertise that makes us experts in our field. On top of that, open source is a very attractive field to me personally because it’s about driving technology forward based on open collaboration.

Q: As open source development entails great cost and commitment, some are not entirely convinced as to why we need to release software this way. How would you address those concerns?

When I first started working in open source, I received lots of questions asking why we needed to make technologies openly available. In fact, not every technology needs to be made available open source. There are time when you would choose to reveal a technology as part of a strategic move, but there are also times when you should keep the technology confidential for the sake of acquisition.

We especially need to make technologies available open source in cases where spreading those technologies will help us establish our leadership in a certain field. In line with these efforts, Samsung Electronics created IoTivity, an IoT-based open source project that’s part of the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) and features hundreds of member companies. If Samsung were the only company that possessed a certain IoT technology, the products we developed would not be compatible with those of other companies, and would therefore be less usable. This is why an open source approach is essential when it comes to spreading technologies and becoming the leader in a given field.

Q: Since 2013, the Open Source Group has been on the board of the Linux Foundation, the world’s largest open source organization. What led you to engage in such a collaboration?

The Linux Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that runs open source projects in a neutral manner. In 2012, Samsung Electronics introduced Tizen in cooperation with the Linux Foundation. Since then, Samsung has actively collaborated with the Foundation and proposed various projects.

In recognition of our significant contribution to the promotion of open source, we were invited to serve as a member of the Foundation’s board. Board members participate in the Foundation’s general affairs, encompassing tons of projects, and exercise voting rights when needed. This makes Samsung a major part of the board.

Q: With open source becoming the norm, more and more professionals are paying attention to this field. Would you recommend open source to them?

Absolutely! Open source experience is prized around the world, and serves as one of the most objective and reliable measurements of one’s software expertise. The Open Source Group is dedicated to developing its members into project leaders by offering them a variety of support. Not only does working in open source offer a great opportunity to boost your software skills, it also offers a chance to make your name known to the world.

Q: Do you believe, as I do, that open source is a very promising field?

Yes, I am with you. Open source is something that the industry takes for granted, and taking it to the next level will require us to focus not just on software but also hardware and data. This is because open source’s values of openness and collaboration are beginning to spread beyond individual companies.

Though their years of experience, fields and job titles differ, the experts unanimously agreed that open source is becoming wider in scope, and that sharing and collaboration will be key to developing technologies that truly benefit the future. After corresponding with one another, they emphasized their shared commitment to advancing open source for the betterment of society.

From May 16–17, San Francisco’s Hilton Union Square Hotel will welcome developers from around the world for the Tizen Developer Conference (TDC) 2017.

Attendees of the event can look forward to illuminating presentations delivered by tech industry leaders, as well as a wide range of hands-on sessions that emphasize Tizen’s ability to advance the development of IoT devices.

The conference’s keynote will include discussions on Tizen’s ecosystem and latest update, as well as IoT partnerships and a newly developed module for the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform.

Keynote speakers include:

• Hyogun Lee, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics and Chair of the Tizen Technical Steering Group, who will address what developers can expect to see in Tizen 4.0.
• Adam Tom, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer, Samsung Electronics, who will discuss how Samsung’s Smart TVs leverage the Tizen ecosystem.
• Chris Park, Vice President, Partner Platform, Glympse, who will discuss the location-sharing platform’s experience utilizing Tizen to integrate new mobile, wearable and living room experiences across Samsung devices.
• Hongseok Kim, Vice President of Software R&D Center, Samsung Electronics, who will outline Samsung’s efforts to provide Tizen developers with an ideal app development experience.
• Immo Landwerth, Program Manager, .NET team, Microsoft, who will discuss Microsoft’s experience developing with Tizen.
• Curtis Sasaki, Vice President of Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC) who will share IoT trends, as well as the SAMSUNG ARTIK integrated IoT platform.

The two-day event will also feature a total of 40 specialized sessions that will explore the keynote’s topics in further detail and inspire attendees to innovate.

The exhibition hall will showcase Samsung’s latest Tizen devices and partnerships. The tutorial zone will offer attendees the opportunity to hone their skills with Visual Studio Tools for Tizen.

There’s still time to register for TDC 2017 via the conference’s official website, where developers, media and anyone interested in Tizen can also find additional information.

Samsung, a member of the Tizen Project and sponsor of the Tizen Developer Conference (TDC) 2017, has announced that registration for TDC 2017 is now open. The event will be held from May 16 to May 17 at Hilton Union Square Hotel in San Francisco.

Now in its fifth year, the Tizen Developer Conference brings together Tizen developers, app developers, open source enthusiasts, platform designers, IoT device manufacturers, hardware and software vendors, ISVs, operators, OEMs, and anyone engaged in the Tizen ecosystem.

Centered around the theme “Ready to Connect! Get Involved!”, TDC 2017 offers an excellent opportunity to explore the new and exciting possibilities Tizen is creating in the Internet of Things era. 

This year’s conference will focus on Tizen platform and device and application development through a series of technical presentations. In addition, it will also emphasize how Tizen can enhance IoT devices through a hands-on lab and various showcases.

Registration is now open via the official TDC 2017 website, where developers, media and anyone interested in Tizen can also find more information. Please follow the link to take advantage of the savings of Early Bird registration, which runs through April 14^th PST.

Samsung Electronics today released the second preview of Tizen .NET, an application framework for Tizen app developers.

Last November, Samsung announced a collaboration with Microsoft on .NET open-source projects such as .NET Core and Xamarin.Forms, and released the first preview of Tizen .NET. An official version will be released in the second half of 2017.

The second preview supports TV application development in addition to the mobile support introduced in the first preview. Visual Studio Tools for Tizen has also been improved with several new features, including project creation wizards, manifest editors, emulator managers, an emulator control panel and a certificate manager. Tizen .NET developers can now apply their skills with C#, standard APIs, Xamarin.Forms and Visual Studio to build both mobile and TV applications.

“Samsung is excited to release the second preview of Tizen .NET, and will release newer versions of previews every two months until the official version is shipped later this year,” said Hong-Seok Kim, the Vice President of Samsung Electronics’ Software R&D Center. “We are fully committed to delighting Tizen developers with .NET.”

Tizen is an open-source operating system based on Linux that is hosted by the Linux Foundation and open to all developers. The operating system powers 50 million Samsung devices, including Smart TVs, mobile phones, wearables and other IoT devices.

Learn more about Visual Studio Tools for Tizen here: http://developer.tizen.org/development/preview

Learn more about the Tizen open source project here: https://source.tizen.org

Learn more about the .NET Core open source project here: https://github.com/dotnet/core

Learn more about the Xamarin.Forms open source project here: https://github.com/xamarin/Xamarin.Forms

Learn more about the first preview of Tizen .NET here: https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-joins-the-microsoft-net-community-enabling-c-developers-to-build-applications-for-samsung-tizen-devices

Samsung Electronics today announced a collaboration with Microsoft on open source projects, such as .NET Core and Xamarin.Forms, to enable .NET support for Tizen. Tizen is an open source operating system based on Linux, hosted by the Linux Foundation, and open to all developers. The operating system powers 50 million Samsung devices.

Today, Samsung is releasing the first preview of Visual Studio Tools for Tizen, which will enable .NET developers to easily build Tizen applications for Smart TVs, wearables such as the Gear S3, smartphones, and IoT devices. Source code will also be contributed to Tizen and .NET open source projects.

The first preview supports mobile application development with device emulators and an extension to Visual Studio with full IntelliSense and debugging capabilities. Support for Smart TVs, wearables, and other IoT devices will be added in future releases. Tizen’s .NET support will be officially released and shipping on Samsung devices, including Smart TVs, in 2017.

“Samsung is excited to be a part of the .NET community. .NET has an extensive developer base and great potential,” said Samsung’s Executive Vice President and Deputy Head of Software R&D Center Seung-hwan Cho. “Through thoughtful and progressive collaboration with Microsoft, Samsung is expecting to create unique development experiences for both Tizen and C# developers, enriching the Tizen ecosystem.”

Since joining the .NET Foundation Technical Steering Group in June, Samsung has been contributing ARM support to .NET Core. Samsung is also contributing to Xamarin.Forms, enabling it on a variety of Tizen devices as the common UI and controls.

Learn more about Visual Studio Tools for Tizen here:

http://developer.tizen.org/development/preview

Learn more about the Tizen open source project here:

https://source.tizen.org

Learn more about the .NET Core open source project here:

https://github.com/dotnet/core

Learn more about the Xamarin.Forms open source project here:

https://github.com/xamarin/Xamarin.Forms

Samsung Electronics today announced that its Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV) media player will be available as an open source project named HbbPlayer on github, an open source developer community. This will enable broadcasters and application developers who are writing HbbTV applications to test and validate them on a platform which can be implemented on any HbbTV 1.5-compliant TV.

HbbTV “is a global initiative aimed at harmonizing the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment services to consumers through connected TVs, set‐top boxes and multiscreen devices.” * When broadcasters and application developers begin projects, they often face difficulties in meeting HbbTV requirements with their initial code. Some application developers may also experience hurdles in developing fully interoperable HbbTV media player applications – the HbbPlayer will address both of these challenges.

With this initial release, the HbbPlayer will support HbbTV 1.5 features, and is also planned for further developments to deliver an HbbPlayer that meets HbbTV 2.0.1 requirements. The HbbPlayer also includes support for DVB-DASH streaming for both live and on-demand content, as well as HTTP progressive download, which includes comprehensive support for advanced features, such as trick play control and time-shift.

Later this year, the HbbPlayer is slated to add support for the HbbTV subtitling for DASH-based content, known as EBU-TT-D. This will allow developers the opportunity to further broaden the scope and appeal of their content by adding robust state-of the-art support for accessibility features and services.

“Samsung recognizes that it is challenging to bring new HbbTV applications to market, and we hope to reduce the development time and number of problems for new applications by releasing our sample media player as an open source to broadcasters and application developers,” said Miyoung Yoo, Vice President of Visual Display at Samsung Electronics. “We hope that the HbbTV community takes the opportunity to develop and test their HbbTV applications with our HbbPlayer and that we can work together for a more integrated and robust HbbTV system.”
For access to the HbbPlayer, please visit https://github.com/Samsung/HbbPlayer.

*According to the HbbTV website (http://hbbtv.org/overview/)