The Current State and Future of Immersive Audio

Formats like Dolby Atmos among others have gained widespread traction with various major streaming platforms using it as their spatial audio format. Spatial audio has also become a standard audio format for interactive audio in virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. Needless to say, the industry is undergoing a dramatic transformation shift.

To better understand this shift, I sat down with Atharva Dhekne, a Mastering Engineer and Immersive Engineer at the renowned Sterling Sound and Engineer at Eventide Audio. Atharva brings a distinct combination of technical aptitude and creative insight, and offers a well-rounded take from someone working first-hand in the music industry on where immersive audio is heading and what challenges still lie ahead.

A New Dimension in Sound

"When you move into immersive audio, your entire production and engineering approach changes," Dhekne told me. "You're no longer thinking in terms of stereo left and right channels. You have a three-dimensional room and you're manipulating sonic cues in the whole space."

This technological expansion allows for new ways of storytelling and expression through sound. Instead of layering instruments across a flat stereo image, artists and engineers can position elements anywhere in a three-dimensional environment. “But it’s not just about sending the guitar flying above your head ust because you have the ability to do so.” According to Dhekne, the point is to serve the music and enhance the narrative. "The best immersive mixes aren’t supposed to be flashy—they make the listener feel more connected to the sound and the music feels natural."

Musicians and audio engineers are starting to realize the creative liberty this technology offers and they’re starting to develop newer and better techniques to tame spatial audio. Imagine hearing percussion swirling around your head, or background vocals and their reverb sounds behind you as if you're inside the recording studio or on a live stage. The technology offers an unprecedented ability to build emotion and intimacy through sound.

Overcoming Technical Roadblocks

As with any emerging technology, there are obstacles. Tools and workflows for immersive audio are still catching up to the creative ambition. "A lot of what we use in stereo mixing and mastering just doesn’t apply to spatial formats," Dhekne said. "We’re constantly adapting, creating and improving new standards as we work more with spatial audio."

Deliverables are another issue. With so many platforms using slightly different specs, mastering for immersive audio requires a careful, customized approach. Dhekne has spent time at Sterling Sound helping to streamline this part of the process. "Right now, it's a bit like the early days of the shift from analog to digital audio. There’s a lot of experimentation and less standardization throughout the industry. Almost every hardware OEM has had their own spatial audio format at one time; moreover, the tools we use to mix and master music didn’t necessarily have the same uniform standardization, let alone the streaming platforms.” Dolby Atmos has greatly standardized the entire process from start to end to reduce these hassles. 

Moreover, playback systems themselves vary greatly. "You might create a beautiful Atmos master," Dhekne pointed out, "but how it sounds will depend heavily on whether the listener has a compatible surround system, a pair of headphones, or just phone speakers." These factors are among the biggest ones facing widespread adoption. OEMs and streaming services have to pay for licensing fees to Dolby to implement their Atmos technologies on their hardware and platforms. Those who don’t necessarily want to do that have developed their proprietary spatial audio formats such as Sony’s Reality360, Google and Samsung's Eclipsa Audio, MPEG-H, DTS-X and so on.

Building the Tools for Tomorrow

Through his work at Eventide Audio, Dhekne is also part of the team testing and developing the immersive audio plugins for these new spatial formats. "We’re looking at plugins that respond to space—not just to frequency or amplitude," he explained. "Things like adaptive reverb or dynamic positioning that respond to a sound’s location."

Many traditional audio tools were built around a two-channel stereo mindset. Immersive audio demands rethinking not only how these tools work but what they should be capable of. "It’s not enough to just spread sound around," Dhekne said. Dhekne believes the next wave of innovation will come from tools that make spatial mixing and mastering more intuitive. "If we can make the process feel natural for the artist or engineer, we’ll see a lot more adoption. Right now, there’s a financial hindrance and educational learning curve, and not everyone has the time or resources to climb it."

Beyond Music

Immersive audio’s influence is steadily spreading beyond traditional media. It has especially been integral in gaming, with more adoption in virtual and augmented reality, and even workplace tech. Film and movies have long been mixed in spatial audio too. "When you're in a competitive first person shooter game and someone walks from your left side, you hear their footsteps to localize their position. That's spatial audio doing what it’s meant to do," Dhekne said.

This crossover into other industries highlights how sound is becoming a critical part of digital interaction. And for someone like Dhekne, who bridges both the technical and artistic worlds, it’s a time of possibility. "I think we’ll see more collaboration between audio engineers, software developers, and even UX designers. The future of audio isn’t just about sound—it’s about the spatial experience. Which is why we’re seeing big tech companies invest huge amounts of capital in spatial computing and inherently spatial audio."

Marketing and branding are also tapping into spatial sound. Retailers are starting to explore using localized audio to direct customer attention within stores, and theme parks are embedding immersive soundscapes into attractions. As these applications expand, the demand for expertise in spatial audio is likely to grow significantly.

The Road Ahead

Despite the progress, there’s still plenty of ground to cover. Tools need to become more accessible. Workflows need to be refined. But the interest is definitely prevalent, and the excitement is building.

"We’re just scratching the surface of what immersive audio can do," Dhekne said. "It’s not just another format. It’s a complete shift in audio consumption."

One major hope among audio professionals is that educational institutions will adapt their curriculums to better prepare the next generation of engineers. "It’s critical that young audio engineers learn immersive formats from the ground up, rather than retrofitting stereo techniques," Dhekne emphasized. “Recording in stereo and then mixing it to conform to immersive audio is always going to limit the possibilities of any spatial format. Whereas if you record something with the intention of making it an immersive track, then it could be adapted to spatial, binaural, as well as stereo.”

With large companies like Apple, Amazon, and Netflix investing heavily in spatial content, there’s little doubt immersive audio will become an industry standard. Yet its success will depend on continued innovation—and on the talented individuals shaping its development.

As someone working at the intersection of creativity and code, Atharva Dhekne offers a grounded but forward-looking view of the field. Immersive audio may still be finding its footing, but with people like Dhekne guiding its evolution, the future is sounding better every day.