Right about now, Asian indie production house, Beach House Pictures, and sister post facility, Space Lion, are putting the finishing touches to Southeast Asia’s first near-field Dolby Atmos sound studio, paving the way for a quantum leap in the ability to deliver immersive in-home entertainment experiences.

Located in Singapore, the studio is part of sweeping tech upgrades driven by everything from the spike in consumption and creative vision to features that extend TV screen functionality to, for instance, home-based learning.

“The pandemic has brought about myriad changes in the way we consume content,” says Ashim Mathur, Dolby Laboratories’ senior regional director, Japan and emerging markets. 

Consumer demand for quality, led by picture/sound enhancements, has risen along with the willingness to invest in entertainment experiences. Mathur quotes a Wakefield Research study that shows 97% of consumers in India have increased spend on entertainment content. 

Part of this trend is that consumers are demanding more from their screen hardware.

Sony is seeing an increase in sales of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision TV sets as customers spend more time at home and demand higher-quality entertainment. 

Content providers are in sync with this, as can be seen by the amount of content featuring these standards, Sony says. 

LG also says TV sets with Dolby Vision and Atmos are in demand as they offer an immersive experience in the home environment.

Samsung’s new 2022 Micro LED TV sets will include Dolby Atmos. “Dolby Atmos delivers a premier immersive audio experience with top, side and bottom channel speakers for breathtaking, multi-dimensional sound,” the company says. 

“With more and more Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content available, consumers are enjoying a spectacular entertainment experience in their homes,” Mathur adds. 

And that’s not just in the living room. In addition to TV services, screen uses in the home have exploded across activities such as gaming, surfing the web, exercising and video calls.

Samsung’s TV Awareness Study across eight APAC markets in August 2021 found that a majority of homeowners owned multiple smart TV sets, often placed in living and bedrooms. 

Device manufacturers are both driving and satisfying new demand in a big way, morphing screens into high-end entertainment centres with extended functions. 

In addition to its focus on picture and sound quality, Samsung, for instance, recognised demand for digital art with its gallery function along with USB webcam functionality and an 830-gram device that decouples content from traditional screens. 

“More people are using their screens beyond entertainment in a home setting,” says Steven Koh, Samsung Electronics’ director consumer electronics business (TV/AV). 

Lee Chang-ha, LG Electronics Singapore’s home entertainment product director, talks about myriad initiatives to tap consumer demand, from the 27-inch portable screen to the latest smarter TV sets with boosted brightness and higher clarity, among other features such as intelligent processors and deep learning. 

Alex Chong, APAC associate director for Panasonic appliances marketing, says key upgrades enhance the user experience. The mission, he says, is “to deliver ultimate entertainment pleasure”. Panasonic TVs feature both Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos. 

As part of its commitment to immersive experiences, Sony has, among other things, introduced cognitive intelligence tech designed to replicate the ways humans see and hear, says Shinya Deguchi, Sony SE Asia’s head of product marketing, TV marketing. 

All the new bells & whistles are not the sole preserve of multinational giants.

100% Singapore-made brand, Prism+, has gathered an enthusiastic local following as much for its value proposition as for its evolving range of products and features. Dolby Vision/Atmos were integrated into TV sets for the first time in July 2021, says MD Jon Ng, adding: “Customers are spoilt for choice”. 

Sponsored content. Published in ContentAsia 7 March 2022 eNewsletter