Design Better

Bonus Episode: Inside Sonos's distributed research & design process for the Arc Ultra

6 snips
Jul 17, 2025
Matt Benatan is a Principal Research Scientist at Sonos, specializing in machine learning and AI in audio design. Naphur van Apeldoorn, the Senior Manager of Hardware Development Engineering, contributed to the innovative sound motion transducer for the Arc Ultra. They delve into the R&D journey of the Arc Ultra, detailing how 3D printing aids distributed teams. The duo also discusses AI's role in enhancing speech clarity and how dialogue quality in films has evolved, impacting viewer experience and accessibility efforts.
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
ANECDOTE

MITE Tech Boosts Arc Ultra Bass

  • Sonos integrated MITE's sound motion transducer to create more bass in a smaller speaker size.
  • This allowed the Arc Ultra to deliver a 9.1 Dolby Atmos experience in home settings.
INSIGHT

AI Speech Extraction Enhances Dialogue

  • Arc Ultra's increased processing power enabled advanced AI-driven speech extraction.
  • Deep neural networks extract dialogue in real-time, improving comprehension across diverse audio scenes.
INSIGHT

Challenges Hearing Modern Dialogue

  • Modern film dialogue is often intentionally mixed to be less prominent, complicating hearing it clearly.
  • Environmental noise and acting styles also contribute to difficulties in understanding dialogue.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app