My editor insisted that I can't call an atmosphere in the Catmos car. However, catmos is the latest implementation of environmental technology based on Dolby objects. We talked about it earlier How well can you add the height of the movie sound in the cinemalike most Sound stripes with the sound of medium and height have a certain functionality of atmos Even some headphones Is it embedded. But in a car?
Well, yes, in fact. These days the car is where most people hear the most music. In a way, it is also a great place to convincingly create surround audio, as listening positions are fixed, and the system is designed to turn on and compensate exactly where the speakers are. None of those things are possible at home, and even in the theater is so focused.
One of the biggest problems with the most audio of the car is the noise in the surroundings. One way to drastically reduce that problem is to completely remove the engine. The high-level electric vehicle makes the best scenario in the mobile sound system, and for that purpose I was invited by Rivian and Dolby to hear their system with nearly 1,000 watts, 18 atmos. R1s water At an event in Venice, California, conveniently 15 miles from where I live. It's la, so just shy of 2 hours later, I was all ears.
Atmosphere-on-walking
With the atmosphere (right), sound designers can point out exactly where in the theater, any theater atmosphere, they want to “sound sound”. This includes overhead, or indeed, almost any place in the entire cinema space.
Let's get back to a second and Talk about the atmosphere. It is a fascinating technology, and its “Based on Objects” approach provides a different way of mixing movies and music. The traditional way of audio mixing, which has been for decades, was to assign a sound or instrument to one of the five surround channels or subwoofer – also known as 5.1. Three forward, two in the back or sides. Some films had even more channels, with seven channels becoming quite common, allowing side and rear canals.
Atmosphere changes it all with the possibility of treating a sound or instrument as a “subject”. In the mixing process, the sound designer can move that item everywhere, and the atmospheric coder would understand where the sound designer intended in the physical space. Atmosphere, in the theater, to say, creates a virtual map of the system speakers and can translate “door door to the back left corner”, so the audience hears it from that position. This accuracy was difficult, if not impossible, before atmosphere. The designer might want to set a sound at a particular location, but there will be no way to adjust what meant in a five -seat theater, 50 or 500.
Rivian R1s SUV.
Thanks to this more accurate way of moving sounds around, height speakers were far easier to use. Now the sounds can go more convincingly from behind the screen, over your head and “ground” somewhere behind you. Made properly, it is extremely submerged. If the theater had no speakers for the height of the ceiling, the atmosphere would still work, with the decoder avoiding the sounds of the sides. So, it will still pass you, not as convincing as there would be a more detailed system. The process of decoding the atmosphere is “smart”, essentially understands what the speakers and space are, and adapt to make the best they could with what it had.
Built on the same platform and sharing most of the parts, the R1T is basically the same as the R1S minus roof over the back. It also loses 2 speakers in the audio system.
The two -edged sword in this case is that the atmosphere can work, at some level, in any case, with far less complex systems. That's why there are single unit sound lanes, and even TVs with “atmosphere”. They at best have speakers up-and, more often, extensive processing to simulate that sound sound with a different level of success.
That brings us back to the atmosphere in the car. Listeners are in familiar places, there may be speakers for height, and it is easy to have rear speakers because all modern cars-especially SUV-everything in any case with the size of the auditorium.
Rivian Premium Audio with Dolby Atmos
Driver's locations in the R1S rivie. Wuffers are located in the doors, the tweets of the pillars and above. The subwoofer is in the trunk, above and behind the right rear wheel.
The 2025 R1s Gen 2 I saw that he boasted a Dolby Atmos system with 18 drivers, which were powered by 960 watts. Setting up for most of these speakers was quite typical, with some in the dash, including a central channel in the middle, doors in the doors and subwoofer in the trunk.
What is less common is Twitter on the roof, above the doors, but under the glass roof. R1s is a huge vehicle, so they could be considered as speakers for height for all many, and if you are high enough that these are ear levels, you could not see the windshield.
Like most electric vehicles, the R1s has several buttons or dialing. Almost everything is controlled through the touch screen.
You need an atmosphere content to get a real experience with atmosphere. To that end, the car entertainment system integrated Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music and Sound. During my demo, we heard several trails, including 7 rings of Ariana Grande and as it was from Harry Stilis.
The trail that took advantage of the whole advantage of the atmosphere was Pink Floyd's money: the iconic hole that clearly started somewhere behind the rear door of the passenger, and then advanced to the control panel, and then working on the road around the interior. The real instruments then filled the space in a way that the traditional stereo would fight (this mixture of atmosphere was painstakingly approved by the group). I can't fully judge the sound quality based on the demo from warning music, but in general, the high height was clean, and bass pinks, especially with the Stylish track.
One of the speakers for height, notice its location near the grabbing handle. The “sky” of this image is literally the sky, as seen through the panoramic roof.
While there are aspects of a car that are good for surround sound and others not. I mentioned above for the noise on the road. Since R1s is electrical, I guess the noise on the road is less than, say, My Mia. The other is both positive and negative. On the one hand, engineers know exactly where potential listeners are and, approximately, how much. The fact that they are widespread, close to the “Wallsids”, not to mention widely different distances to the speakers, all add non -insignificant challenge. The R1S mixture is biased towards the driver and the front passenger, which is not too surprising because you will always have at least one of them. The rear listeners will still get the effect, there are speakers for height there, but to a lesser extent. Cheap seats, if desired.
Drivers in A-Stolb and Dash.
Based on my demo with three songs, I can't say where Rivian's system folds between high -car audio systems I heard (which is a few). However, I can say that the surrounding aspect was pronounced and more natural than everything I heard before. So, perhaps unexpected for some, it was one of the better demo of the atmosphere I've heard outside the theater.
Settings screen. I had no chance to mess with the sound during my demo.
They hear me rolin, iousubopitic
Rivian is not the only company, including fun in the Dolby car. There are also installed atmosphere systems, or planned for models of Cadillac, Lotus, Lucid and Chinese carmaker Lee. One obvious trend among all is that Dolby's atmosphere does not come inexpensive. Rivian's R1S vehicle is in the premium SUV and can easily cost over $ 100,000 (that is, with fairness, which cost most of these large electric trucks). The premium audio system is combined with the glass roof as part of the $ 2,500 Sound + Vision package. You need a subscription to one of the aforementioned streaming services and Rivian Connect Plus, which costs $ 15 a month or $ 150 a year. This also includes data connection and can turn your R1 into a hotspot as well as some other features. For such an advanced vehicle, it is disappointing that there is no Apple Carplay or Android Auto.
The rear seat (or, technical, midfield), listeners can have some control over what the pilot and pilot hear.
So is it worth it? I only had a short demo, in a stationary car. I am also too cheap, not to mention that I am a broken writer (Buy my book!), to Spend Around $ 100K on a Vehicle, but $ 2,500 for some great Sounding Audio, not to feat the total price. So probably?
Will we see an atmosphere in lower -end vehicles? Maybe. Automotive companies have long joined with audio companies, and while these days it is usually a bose or a little taste of HarmanCar manufacturers know that there is a chance of profit in better sound. Will they pay for additional engineering and setup so they can work properly? Or even just work? Marks may be a higher end, but it's unlikely to see a system of atmosphere with height speakers in something like Nissan Versa.
Then again, if there is demand, who knows. I'm sure there are some executions there who want an atmosphere and wants to put it in a more car car. Type of modern Pontiac GTO – Except instead of a huge V8, there is catmos. (You are fired. – –You)
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