Elon’s Department of Music has opened a new immersive audio listening room in Arts West that creates a high-quality environment for both teaching and experimentation.
When Elon University’s Department of Music set out to design a space that could fully showcase the rapidly growing world of immersive audio, they had one goal in mind: create a room where sound could be experienced, not just heard.
Now, that vision has become a reality.
The newly completed immersive audio room in Arts West is providing students and faculty with a high-quality environment for both teaching and experimentation— particularly in Dolby Atmos, the industry-standard format for three-dimensional volumetric audio, reshaping everything from cinematic sound to commercial music releases. Associate Professor of Music Todd Coleman says the need for such a space had been clear for years.
“The music department had no dedicated listening environment that was like a classroom-sized space of high quality,” he explained. “We have the built-in generic AV stereo speaker set up in our classrooms and computer lab, but those rooms cannot play back audio beyond two-channel stereo recordings, and the rooms are not acoustically treated for detailed and nuanced listening, whether in stereo or surround formats.”
Originally envisioned more than a decade ago as a small theater-style room with tiered seating, the idea was shelved due to cost. When Elon added Studio D, its Dolby Atmos mixing studio, another challenge emerged: the studio only seats four people comfortably and was designed only for mixing and mastering, not large group listening sessions.”
Coleman proposed converting an existing Arts West classroom into a dedicated immersive audio space capable of seating 20 listeners. Although the project went unfunded for several years, it finally received approval in spring 2025. Over the summer, Coleman worked with an acoustics consultant to design the layout, sound treatment and speaker placement.
“While there were certainly some limitations due to both budget and facility constraints, through the renovation project we were able to add effective acoustic treatments, mount the 12 speakers throughout the room required for immersive audio playback, and enhance the aesthetic look and feel of the room,” Coleman said.
The finished space features a 7.1.4 Atmos setup, including seven ear-level speakers, four height speakers and a subwoofer, creating what Coleman described as a “true three-dimensional space” for audio playback.
“You can make it sound like it’s behind you to the right, behind you to the left, anywhere up or down,” he said. “It is not just sound that surrounds, it is sound that you inhabit – sound that moves around you, above you, through you, even in you.”
For Anthony Hotakainen ’26, who earned a degree in music production and recording arts, the room reshaped the scope of his undergraduate research. When he toured colleges, Studio D, which includes Dolby Atmos immersive audio mixing, mastering, and music/audio post production equipment, was the feature that made Elon stand out.
His Elon Fellows project, mentored by Coleman, explored the question of whether immersive audio actually enhances storytelling in formats other than film, including music, audiobook, podcasts, etc.
Beyond research, the room has quickly become a valuable teaching tool. Coleman now uses it for orchestration courses, and other music faculty are using it for senior seminars and songwriting project listening sessions. There is also a new mixing class and immersive audio class that are part of the revised music production and recording arts major that will make extensive use of the new resource.”
“It’s been great to be able to play examples and just hear them clearly,” he said.
The department also hopes the room will support expanded collaboration with the School of Communications, from screening student films to exploring immersive broadcast audio for athletics.
“This room will be the best screening room we have on campus, both audio and video,” said Coleman.
For Hotakainen, the space represents exactly what drew him to Elon. “I was just pretty impressed with the faculty and the spaces here,” he said. “It just felt like home.”
Read this story and more about how Elon is “breaking through the ordinary” in the 2025 Provost’s Report