Eclipsa Audio 2.0 Grows Through Certification, Not Channel Count

Samsung and Google’s Eclipsa Audio 2.0 still has no published channel count. In November 2025 the companies said the upgrade would improve object-based tracking and raise a ceiling then set at 28 channels, with the work arriving in the “near term.”

That number never appeared. The format still moved, through a paid badge, Android 16, LG sets, and concert streams on Samsung TV Plus, which is the part of the story a channel chart cannot show.

Samsung Briefed Eclipsa Audio 2.0 Without a Channel Count

Eclipsa Audio is the consumer name Google and Samsung put on IAMF, the Immersive Audio Model and Formats spec kept by the Alliance for Open Media. Samsung put it on 2025 TVs and soundbars. Google opened YouTube to IAMF files in January 2025 and, at I/O that May, said Android 16 would bring the format to Google TVs. Android 16 shipped on June 10, 2025.

A Suwon briefing in early November 2025 then sketched version 2.0. Object tracking would get stronger. The channel cap would rise. Samsung would not say to what, and it would not date the release beyond “near term.”

FROM THE FIRST TVS TO TV PLUS

1. January 3, 2025: Samsung says its 2025 TVs and soundbars will play Eclipsa Audio, from Crystal UHD sets to Neo QLED 8K.
2. January 15, 2025: Google publishes the launch note and points creators at YouTube.
3. June 10, 2025: Android 16 ships with Eclipsa Audio for Google TVs.
4. June 12, 2025: Google posts open-source DAW plugins and prebuilt binaries.
5. October 21, 2025: The Eclipsa Audio certification program opens.
6. November 2025: Samsung outlines 2.0, still without a channel number or ship date.
7. March 2026: LG adds the format to its 2026 TVs and starts firmware for some 2025 models.
8. May 27, 2026: AOMedia publishes a final Open Audio Renderer spec for IAMF mixes.
9. August 7, 2026: Samsung describes musicals and live shows on TV Plus in Eclipsa Audio.
10. September 26, 2026: Samsung TV Plus carries aespa’s Seoul tour date with Eclipsa Audio.

The 2.0 briefing still sits in the middle of that list with a blank where a channel figure should be. Hardware and a thin catalog filled in around it anyway.

The 28-Channel Ceiling in IAMF v1.1

The shipping rule is not a rumor. IAMF v1.1.0, an AOM final deliverable dated October 24, 2024, sets three profiles: Simple (0), Base (1), and Base-Enhanced (2). A Base-Enhanced sequence must keep at most 28 channels in total across the audio elements a compliant parser can read, and it must handle up to 28 elements. One example in the spec is 3rd-order Ambisonics (16 channels) plus 7.1.4 (12 channels).

WHAT SHIPS TODAY VERSUS WHAT 2.0 PROMISED

Google’s own YouTube walk-through is smaller than the cap: a 3rd-order Ambisonics bed (16 channels) plus a stereo narrative pair, 18 channels in one file, shown in stats as iamf.001.001.Opus. That is already enough to put crowd noise around a singer and keep dialogue in front, which is the job most TV nights actually need.

Device Makers Pay $10,000 a Year for the Badge

IAMF itself rides a royalty-free license from AOMedia. Anyone can encode it. The Eclipsa name and logo are a different product. Google and Samsung opened a certification and brand-licensing program so a TV or soundbar can wear the mark only after a lab pass.

The program site lists an annual administration fee of $10,000. Decoding boxes go to an Authorized Test Center. Capture devices and encoding tools may self-certify. Testing for the early wave was overseen by the Telecommunications Technology Association. Plugins for Pro Tools, Reaper, and Adobe Premiere Pro sit on eclipsaapp.com, with source on Google’s GitHub. FFmpeg 7.0 gained IAMF encode and decode. None of that requires the 2.0 channel bump.

THE CERTIFICATION STEPS

• Adopter sign-up: A company files and signs the agreement, then pays the $10,000 yearly administration fee.
• Program pack: Specs, test files, and mark-usage rules come next.
• Lab pass: A decoding device goes to an Authorized Test Center.
• The mark: A pass lets the maker use the Eclipsa Audio brand on that product.

That split is the business. The bitstream can be free. The living-room logo is a membership. It is the same shape Samsung already used with HDR10+ against Dolby Vision: keep the open file cheap, sell trust and packaging on top.

LG TVs, Google TV, and Samsung Soundbars

Playback is no longer a Samsung-only demo, even if 2.0 is still a briefing. LG said in March 2026 that every 2026 set would play the format through its own speakers and over HDMI, and that firmware would add it to the 2025 C5, CS5, G5, and QNED9M. Google TVs picked it up with Android 16. Samsung kept it on 2026 sets after putting it across the 2025 range.

WHERE ECLIPSA AUDIO PLAYS

A set can decode IAMF and still skip the paid badge. The format and the logo are not the same license, which is why a living room can hear the mix on an LG panel while the certified-product finder still reads like a short list.

Early Catalog Lives on YouTube and TV Plus

Atmos became default because Netflix, Disney+, and the disc still carry it. Eclipsa Audio did not get those shelves. It got YouTube, then Samsung’s own free ad-supported TV Plus service.

Woohyun Nam, head of the Display Innovation Lab at Samsung Research, and Joonhun Choi, head of Samsung TV Plus, walked through that bet on August 7, 2026. Nam’s team built the IAMF metadata, encode, and playback path, including a stereo fall-back when a device cannot render the mix. They checked it in a 280-seat concert venue with a sound company, capturing a live show, converting it, and streaming it through a TV Plus channel onto a Samsung set.

Our vision is ‘Spatial Audio for Everyone,’ where anyone can enjoy Eclipsa Audio through Samsung TV Plus.

Woohyun Nam, Head of the Display Innovation Lab, Samsung Research, Samsung Newsroom interview

Choi’s harder problem was ads. TV Plus is a FAST service, so an IAMF show has to drop into stereo commercials without a hitch in time or lip sync. That is a programming constraint Atmos movie apps rarely face, and it is why the first public mixes are concerts, not a film library.

Samsung Korea then put a date on the strategy. On September 23, 2026 it promoted the September 26 Seoul date of aespa’s 2026-27 SYNK: COMPLaeXITY tour on TV Plus, with Eclipsa Audio as the 3D soundtrack.

aespa의 무대를 가장 가까이 만나는 순간.
2026-27 aespa LIVE TOUR – SYNK : COMPLaeXITY in SEOUL이 삼성 TV 플러스로 찾아옵니다.

더 선명한 무대는 삼성 TV 업스케일링으로.
몰입감 넘치는 3D 사운드는 Eclipsa Audio로.

9월 26일. 오직 삼성 TV 플러스에서. pic.twitter.com/bPULuhbBFe

— Samsung Korea 삼성전자 (@SamsungKorea) September 23, 2026

Nam said later work could let a viewer boost vocals or an instrument, or pick commentary versus stadium sound at a match. Choi named K-pop, classical shows, movies, and sports as the next TV Plus targets. None of those plans need a new channel cap in a spec. They need more files in the queue.

Music listeners already treat some YouTube Eclipsa mixes as the better headphone pass. Encoding shops have started wrapping Atmos beds into IAMF so one session can ride that path. Feature films on the big apps still leave the house as Atmos. Until a major streamer encodes IAMF, the format’s public life stays concerts, uploads, and FAST TV.

Object Tracking on a Soundbar, Then a Channel Number

The 2.0 briefing named two upgrades. One was a higher channel count Samsung still has not printed. The other was object tracking, which is the part a soundbar can use without a 24-speaker room.

IAMF already lets a file carry channel beds and Ambisonics scenes, then render to whatever speakers are present. Objects add moving sources with their own positions, so a mixer can send a cheer, a car, or a vocal around the listener instead of parking it on a fixed height channel. That is the gap Atmos built its brand on. Raising the bed from 28 to some unpublished figure mainly helps large arrays. Tracking helps the soundbar most people actually own.

AOMedia’s Open Audio Renderer specification, a final deliverable dated May 27, 2026, is the other quiet piece. It tells a device how to take channel, scene, and object elements and fold them onto speakers or headphones. A renderer spec does more for a Hisense Google TV than a theoretical 30th channel on a flagship Samsung.

iamf-tools v2.0.0, posted in August 2025, is easy to confuse with Eclipsa Audio 2.0. It is not the consumer format bump. It is tooling that encodes and decodes IAMF v1.1, including Base-Enhanced layouts. The consumer 2.0 channel figure remains unpublished since November 2025.

Samsung Korea still had a Seoul concert date to sell for September 26, 2026. The 2.0 channel figure still has not been published.