By design, Dolby Atmos uses one or more Beds and up to 118 Objects. The largest default configuration of a Bed is 7.1.2 (Left, Right, Center, LFE, Left/Right Side Surrounds, Left/Right Rear Surrounds, Left Top, Right Top).

With a 7.1.2 Bed, it is not possible to individually address the front and rear overhead speakers, or the wide speakers positioned between the front and side surrounds. Although it is possible to reach any loudspeaker in the room with the 118 dynamic Objects, there has been a desire to create larger Bed configurations up to 9.1.6, to be able to natively address all commonly used loudspeaker positions directly from a Bed.

A 9.1.6 Bed configuration consists of: Left, Right, Center, LFE, Left/Right Side Surrounds, Left/Right Rear Surrounds, Left/Right Wides, Left/Right Top Front, Left/Right Top Middle, Left/Right Top Rear. See the image below illustrating the 9.1.6 positions in space:

The latest versions of DAWs such as Pro Tools, Nuendo, Studio One and Pyramix natively support bus configurations of up to 9.1.6 and many plug-ins now support this channel configuration as well.

To route a 9.1.6 Bed into the Dolby Renderer, 15 static Objects + 1 LFE channel are used. This is called an Object Bed.

Some DAWs automatically create the appropriate number of Objects as soon as the user enables a bus larger than 7.1.2. In Pro Tools, users must manually create the Object Bed first. Please see a step-by-step guide below.

While the Object Bed is a powerful tool, it is recommended to combine it with dynamic Objects which can be freely positioned anywhere in the space. This article explains why.

Guide: How to set up an Object Bed in Avid Pro Tools:

• Navigate to Track > New, then select Track Presets > Avid > Dolby Atmos.

• In the dropdown menu, select 9.1.6 Objects if you’re using Pro Tools Ultimate, or 7.1.4 or 7.1.6 if you’re using Pro Tools studio (only Pro Tools Ultimate supports 9.1.6. Pro Tools Studio is limited to 7.1.6 as the maximum Object Bed size).

• This will create a 9.1.6 Bus that sends to a 9.1.6 Routing Folder, which splits the 16 channels of the 9.1.6 Bed into 15 Objects + LFE. Pro Tools will also automatically create the appropriate number of Objects in I/O Setup.

Now, select 9.1.6 In as the Output for any audio tracks in your session that you’d like to route to the Object Bed, and notice how you can now pan in 9.1.6 across the 15 Objects + LFE Channel.