Sony to expand its Dolby-enabled soundbar lineup in India with more offerings

To keep up with the ever-growing demand for home entertainment that’s spiked exponentially since last year, Sony has said they are going to expand their Dolby-enabled soundbar lineup in India and are going to add more mid-range and premium devices to it. The new plan for Sony’s soundbards was revealed by Ashim Mathur, Senior Regional Manager, Emerging Markets, Dolby Laboratories, and Mani Balan, Product Manager, Audio Business at Sony India over a chat they had with TechRadar India.

According to reports, Sony is targeting a 50% growth in the soundbar segment along with a 100% growth in the premium soundbar segment. And this they are planning to achieve in India by expanding their portfolio across mid-level and premium segments and also by improving their reach to Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets with cheaper, entry-level products.

Balan pointed out that India’s understanding of good audio requirements has improved over the pandemic and the global lockdown and the fact that one cannot enjoy an immersive cinematic experience without good audio is finally sinking in. Also, the fact that people can no longer go to movie theatres as they used to and new movies have started launching on OTT platforms, has also been one of the key reasons for people changing their minds about needing good audio solutions. The audio segment has also has been growing by 20% over the last few years consistently, but there has been a transition from 5.1 channel speaker systems to modern soundbars with less wiring.

As per a survey conducted by Dolby together with Wakefield research, 94% of consumers in India are willing to pay more for a premium subscription for enhanced video and audio quality and 96% of them want to upgrade their entertainment equipment over the next six months.

Balan said that along with Sony’s premium offerings they are also focussing on the mid-segment and the fact that their Dolby Atmos soundbars are available for less than ₹30,000 is a statement of that. However, India a price-sensitive market and to help customers understand the importance of good audio, Dolby has created explainer videos for customer demos on Dobly technology. Also, there is the recently built Dolby Brand Store on Amazon India and Flipkart, through which Dolby aims to further drive education and awareness for Dolby experiences on Sony soundbars. In offline stores, Sony created special soundbar zones where consumers can experience the soundbars before making a decision.