DTS Acquires SRS Labs, Expands Audio Portfolio

DTS knows a thing or two about immersive audio. DTS HD Master Audio technology is authored in uncompressed surround-sound goodness on plenty of Blu-ray discs, and in A/V receivers DTS upped the ante last year by throwing its 11-channel Neo:X processing into the fray.

This week DTS completed its acquisition of SRS Labs, thereby opening its potential to expand its enveloping audio footprint into more areas, which only makes sense as consumers continue to lean on more platforms than Blu-ray and set-top boxes to enjoy A/V.

While DTS clearly plays a dominant role in Blu-ray and home theater receivers/processors, SRS' technology - such as WOW, TruSurround and Circle Surround - penetrates markets such as mobile devices, PCs, automotive and headphones.

“This transaction combines two highly complementary product and technology portfolios," says DTS chairman/CEO Jon Kirchner. "In addition, this transaction further expands DTS’ already sizeable portfolio of audio-related intellectual property, creating one of the broadest in the industry. Ultimately, the addition of SRS to the DTS family will allow us to solve audio quality limitations caused by the trend toward thinner, smaller devices, which we believe will provide consumers with a high-quality audio experience anytime, anyplace, and on any device.”

Kirchner did not comment on any specific products that would emerge thanks to the acquisition, but during a conference call he estimated that DTS was probably looking at late 2013.

"If you look at the trends this past decade, historically it's been difficult to get quality, convenience and portability all on the same platform, so you've had to make choices. Today with the bandwidth, processing power and storage you have the opportunity to have all three for film, music or video gaming entertainment," Kirchner says. "Now that this deal is done we can work to accelerate our plans and share with our partners how we intend to implement them and combine road maps. That will be developed and delivered with an eye toward the message that sound matters and changes the way that you see high-quality entertainment."

Kirchner says that during the past decade convenience and portability have won out, but that now there's no reason consumers can't have quality too. SRS' technology will complement the work DTS has already accomplished in terms of multidimensional or "3D" audio, which has added those height and spatial channels to the more traditional 5.1 and 7.1 surround setups. DTS can leverage the SRS deal to push the immersive audio limits everywhere consumers want to plug into them.

"We have a tremendous amount of expertise in psychoacoustics collectively," Kirchner says. "We're going to come forward with some best-in-class and innovative solutions that, as the market moves toward bringing those in the living room, cars, headphones, we'll be bringing those out there. We live in a world where sound energy is not only around us on the horizontal plane but on the vertical plane. There's a lot more to the audio experience than what historically has been delivered, with better and innovative ways to do it both through the production phase all the way through to the rendering phase."

It sounds like the DTS booth at next year's CES could be very interesting.