Panasonic Avionics and HEAR360 have agreed to bring Spatial Audio – a 3D theatrical surround sound experience – to airline passengers.

Now all inflight entertainment (IFE) content, whether live or on demand, including movies, music, live television, sporting events, and games, will be presented in 3D Spatial Audio in real time using HEAR360’s proprietary audio technology, and can be delivered seamlessly over any wired or Bluetooth wireless headphones or earbuds.

Spatial Audio will be available initially as a standard feature with Panasonic Avionics’ new Astrova IFE solution, complementing its 4K OLED screens, and enhancing the cinema grade experience it delivers.

With Spatial Audio as part of their IFE offering, airlines will not need to change their media procurement processes or deliverables, as no special media encoding or file types are required, thereby ensuring no increase in their media spend.

Andy Masson, Vice President, Product Management of Panasonic Avionics, said: “Spatial Audio provides passengers with a comparable experience to a home theatre system they would enjoy on the ground, while enabling airlines to offer premium audio and remain efficient with their media spending.”

“The launch of Spatial Audio represents the latest evolution in the industry leading 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.”

Becoming a standard for all forms of entertainment including streaming of movies and music, this is the first time Spatial Audio will be offered to passengers for IFE. Spatial Audio is integral to the next phase of Panasonic Avionics’ continued innovation efforts to offer state-of-the-art systems for all cabin experiences.

Matt Marrin, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of HEAR360, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Panasonic Avionics to give all passengers an unparalleled immersive and engaging inflight experience using our revolutionary audio technology. Being content and device agnostic not only means we democratize best-in-class audio for everyone to enjoy, it provides Panasonic Avionics and its airline customers with immediate scalability in a cost-effective manner.”