Google vs Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision: The company wants to launch two new media formats to offer HDR video and 3D audio under a new brand name recognizable to consumers without the licensing fees manufacturers currently have to pay Dolby hardware. Google has shared its plans for the media formats, which are internally known as Project Caviar, at a closed-door event with hardware manufacturers earlier this year.
In a video of her presentations leaked to Protocol, the group's product manager Roshan Baliga describes the project's goal as building a "healthier, broader ecosystem" for premium media experiences. The company's main focus for Project Caviar is YouTube, which currently doesn't support Dolby Atmos or Dolby Vision. However, Google also aims to involve other industry players, including device manufacturers and service providers. That would make Project Caviar one of Google's most ambitious pushes into today's open media format since the company began working on royalty-free video codecs a decade ago.
Google's open media efforts so far have focused primarily on codec development. The company acquired video codec maker On2 in 2009 to provide open source as part of its technology. He was also instrumental in founding the Alliance for Open Media, an industry consortium that oversees the royalty-free AV1 video codec. Project Caviar differs from these efforts in that it's not just another codec. Instead, the project focuses on 3D forms sound and HDR video that existing codecs use, but enable richer and more immersive experiences thantreatmentmultimedia, as Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision do. Baliga didn't mention Dolby by name during his presentation, but made it clear that the company was trying to create alternatives to the Atmos and Vision formats. "We realized there are premium media experiences where there aren't great royalty-free solutions," he said, adding that licensing costs for premium HDR video and 3D audio "can hurt manufacturers and consumers."
Η Dolby κερδίζει τα περισσότερα χρήματα μέσω των τελών αδειοδότησης από τους κατασκευαστές hardware. Η εταιρεία χρεώνει τους κατασκευαστές τηλεοράσεων $2 έως $3 για την άδεια χρήσης Dolby Vision, σύμφωνα με τον Giles Baker SVP της Cloud Media Solutions. Η Dolby δεν έχει αποκαλύψει δημόσια τα τέλη αδειοδότησης για το Atmos. Χρεώνει τους καταναλωτές που θέλουν να προσθέσουν καθηλωτικό ήχο στις κονσόλες Xbox τους 15$ ανά άδεια, αλλά η χρέωση που πρέπει να πληρώσουν οι κατασκευαστές hardware λέγεται ότι είναι σημαντικά χαμηλότερη. Ωστόσο, σε έναν κλάδο που εδώ και πολύ καιρό αγωνίζεται με λιγοστά περιθώρια κέρδους, κάθε επιπλέον δολάριο έχει σημασία. Αυτό ισχύει ιδιαίτερα επειδή η Dolby χρεώνει ήδη σχεδόν όλους τους κατασκευαστές συσκευών ένα τέλος για την άδεια χρήσης των κωδικοποιητών ήχου παλαιού τύπου. Ένας κατασκευαστής streaming boxes που πωλούνται χονδρικά για 50$ πρέπει να πληρώσει περίπου 2 $ ανά μονάδα για το Dolby Vision και το Dolby Digital, according to a document that shared with the Protocol an industry official.
