More ‘Ambeo stereo’ now running on Netflix
We wrote recently on the announcement that an Ambeo 2-Channel Spatial Audio renderer will be used on selected Netflix stereo soundtracks. This made a highly prestigious debut on no lesser material than Stranger Things Series 4.
The basic idea is to take a full surround mix in Dolby Atmos or MPEG-H and fold it down, all but automatically, to two channels.
That’s nothing new in itself — any Atmosenabled two-channel soundbar can do that. Ambeo’s trick is to do it for the movie’s sound engineers, and to do it better.
The automatic downmixer offers a preview tool so the mixing team can compare stereo with Ambeo during post-production, able to adjust from a full Ambeo effect to a standard stereo mixdown, and to exclude specific channels. Industry reaction has been good, we gather, and Netflix now has more than 700 titles with Ambeo stereo — you can find them by searching Netflix for ‘Spatial Audio’.
But there’s a catch. The enhanced stereo soundtracks are available “to members on Netflix’s Premium plan using a stereo system”. Of course Netflix’s Premium plan includes access to Atmos and 5.1 soundtracks, and those will serve by default to any hardware which requests it — and that includes a great many modern TVs and media players. Only if you have a device which specifically defaults to stereo will you hear the Ambeo stereo mixes.
We pointed this out to Sennheiser, makers of Ambeo, who fairly responded that in fact a significant majority of Netflix members globally receive only stereo, and also most TVs request stereo, although many premium models will request 5.1 or Atmos, which is folded down.
There is an easy test for what your TV is requesting: look for the Atmos or 5.1 badges on the Netflix listings. If you see them, your device is requesting surround. If you see nothing, as below, then you are requesting stereo, and will be able to hear the Ambeo stereo. Originally this seemed to apply to even low-tier Netflix (indeed we dumbed down our subscription specifically to try it), but the current release implies only Premium stereo subscribers will hear them.