Spatial Audio Issues

The Dolby.io Communications APIs platform spatially distributes participants in the conference using headphone virtualization.

When investigating spatial audio issues:

  • Make sure that the audio output device that you use supports stereo output. Do not use speakers to connect to a conference; use headphones or a headset instead.
  • Independently test the output device using a test track, such as this Dolby demo video, to ensure that you can hear a difference between left and right channels.
  • When using a 3.5mm analog headset, ensure that the wiring is compatible with the device it is being connected to. For information on the different standard TRRS wirings, see this Wikipedia page.
  • If using a Bluetooth headset or speakerphone, be aware that the Headset Profile and Hands-Free Profile only support monaural output audio. This means that whenever the microphone of a Bluetooth device is enabled, the output audio changes from stereo to mono, and the audio bandwidth also often reduces. An alternate way to use a Bluetooth headset is to use the headphones for output and a separate microphone, such as the built-in microphone on a laptop, for input. In doing so, the Bluetooth headset should operate in the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile and provide stereo and full-band audio. Alternatively, you can utilize Bluetooth headsets that provide a custom wireless link between the client device and the headset such as the Poly Voyage UC headset.

The platform also offers the Spatial Chat feature that allows placing conference participants spatially in a 3D audio scene to hear their audio from the given locations.

When investigating issues with the Spatial Chat feature:

  • Make sure that you are in a Dolby Voice conference and that you either use the Dolby Voice Client or Stereo Opus codec. Spatial Audio is not supported on Mono Opus clients.
  • Check whether you called the setSpatialPosition method and assigned a location to each remote participant. Remote participants who do not have a specified position remain muted.
  • Check the distance between participants. The loudness of a remote participant depends on the distance between the remote participant and the local participant. Remote participants' audio gets quieter as they get further away from the local participant and becomes inaudible when the distance is greater than 100m.

If further assistance is required, please contact the Dolby support team to report an audio issue.