Given its immersive nature, a car seems like the perfect environment to experience Dolby Atmos, the multi-speaker audio system that can position sound all around you. Which brings us nicely to the Lucid Air, a luxury EV that’s become the world’s first vehicle to integrate it.
This is thanks to the car’s 21-speaker Surreal Sound system, which comprises front, rear, side and height speakers. These are precisely positioned so that the driver and passengers can feel the relative movement of individual sounds as they move around the cabin.
The system was tuned in collaboration with Dolby, using Capitol Records Studio C as the reference design.
As well as being used for music, the Surreal Sound system also focuses on safety, enabling enhanced driver aids. Notifications, indications, warnings and other ‘in-car audio’ is appropriately positioned; a seatbelt warning will be heard by the driver from the direction of the unbuckled belt, for example.
Blind spot detection sounds are also spatially positioned, as are the sounds of the indicators.
“From reimagined classics to some of today’s biggest chart-topping hits, Dolby Atmos Music has been positively embraced and viewed by the music community as one of the industry’s biggest paradigm shifts within the past 50 years,” said Tim Pryde, Director of Music, Dolby Laboratories.
“As a company, we are fully committed to bringing immersive audio to all the ways in which music is enjoyed. Automotive is a natural extension for the incredible experience of music in Dolby Atmos, and we are excited to bring this to the world with Lucid.”
Find out more on the Lucid Motors website.
