HITS

Dolby Labs and Littlstar today announced that Dolby Atmos® audio is expected to be available through the Littlstar™ VR application in the Oculus® store, SteamVR™, Apple® App Store®, and Google Play™ store this fall. Dolby Atmos gives content creators the creative freedom to design and deliver high-quality linear VR experiences using precise, spatial audio in a three-dimensional space. As a result, consumers will feel as if they’re inside the story—with VR content in Dolby Atmos that’s more natural sounding and immersive than ever.

“Littlstar has always been at the forefront of developing the best VR experiences for viewers,” said Tony Mugavero, CEO and Founder, Littlstar. “By being among the first to incorporate Dolby Atmos into a global VR content network for distribution, consumers as well as studios, brands, and content owners using Littlstar will have access to the best VR-optimized spatial audio in the industry.”

Dolby and Littlstar collaborated to incorporate Dolby Atmos for VR Applications—a software development kit (SDK) that includes the VR-specific Dolby Atmos decoder and headphone renderer—into the Littlstar application across all major VR platforms. In addition, Littlstar’s encoding infrastructure has been enhanced to support Dolby Atmos as an audio format for immersive videos. Dolby Atmos content can be created using the Dolby Atmos VR Production Suite, now in beta, which allows content creators to precisely place audio objects, move sound anywhere in a scene, choose options for head tracking, and, ultimately, guide viewers through a more compelling VR story.

“Dolby is committed to providing the most breathtaking experiences in media old and new,” said John Couling, Senior Vice President, E-Media Business Group, Dolby Laboratories. “With the integration of Dolby Atmos in the Littlstar app, a new dimension of audio is unlocked for audiences, and VR experiences feel more visceral than ever before.”

To experience Dolby Atmos in VR this fall, users must simply install the Littlstar application and run it on supported playback devices with a VR head-mounted display, including:

A supported Windows® 10 PC with Oculus Rift® or HTC Vive™
A Samsung Galaxy® smartphone with Samsung Gear VR®
A supported iOS or Android™ device with Google® Cardboard™

At launch, Littlstar will feature three pieces of Dolby Atmos content from Light Sail VR, Studio Transcendent, and Bento Box Entertainment:

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension 360
Rapid Fire: A Brief History of Flight
Bob’s Burgers 360—Dancin’