Panasonic with Hear360 to Create Immersive Spatial Audio System for In-Flight Entertainment

Panasonic Avionics and Hear360 have reached an agreement to bring spatial audio (three-dimensional theatrical surround sound) to airline passengers, which marks the first time spatial audio will be offered to passengers as part of the IFE system. It will be available initially as a standard feature with Panasonic Avionics’ new Astrova IFE system.

With spatial audio as part of their in-flight entertainment (IFE) offering, airlines will not need to change their media procurement processes or deliverables, as no special media encoding or file types are required.

“The launch of spatial audio represents the latest evolution in the sound solutions Panasonic Avionics offers and follows our previous milestones including the introduction of HD audio in 2015, and full-cabin Bluetooth audio in 2021,” said Andy Masson, vice president, product management of Panasonic Avionics.

Matt Marrin, CEO and co-founder of Hear360, added, “Being content and device agnostic not only means we democratise best-in-class audio for everyone to enjoy, it provides Panasonic Avionics and its airline customers with immediate scalability in a cost-effective manner.”