indeed, too many focus on a couple of TFs and throw their eggs out the basket in what will overall be a very difficult metric to tell differences in games unless under a microscope again. the game changers here are the SSDs and other architectural progresses that will give outlets like DF new areas to explore.
I'm not sure you really understand how much work has to go into calculating accurate phase relationship between speakers especially when moving from an headset HRTF to TV to varying surround setups, FFT, room modes... etc as you wouldn't be saying this.
A chip like this for 3d audio has been a long time coming... also there have been example of this in practice, I believe CES they had a demo room, branded "360 Reality Audio"... so it's not like Sony have no experience here. I believe this is in part fruits of that labour.
If you don't quite understand the audio mumbo jumbo I can understand this sentiment... but like the SSD it is a gamechanger also... absolutely
Considering atmos is a meta object based surround format, and this 3D audio tech will be an advancement on that process with HRTF and Fast Fourier Transform... current Atmos soundbars that even sony make use some of the processes that Sony are looking to perfect. difference here is Sony are looking to bring the HRTF to the living room listening experience which is incredibly difficult when dealing with phase, room modes.
Possibly, depends on if sony implement the use of Dolby's AC-4 format natively. I expect they'll be supporting the current standard Fraunhofer IIS MPEG-H codec for object based surround formats.
HRTF doesn't need to be tailor made... HRTF is used to create the experiences you get currently for many binaural recordings. Your ears aren't individually measured there... but what Cerny was talking about is the most immersive way to experience HRTF is accurate measurement of recordings of your ears. This is just like getting custom made moulds made for in-ears for monitoring as a sound engineer... Also this stuff has been around for a long time, but this an advancement with a chip like this. I can assure you something like this is important.