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Under The Hood: Automotive Storytelling
March 27, 2026

How Dolby and HARMAN Engineer the Soul of Your Car

- When Satellites Met Ecosystems - S2E05

Behind every automotive innovation lies a human story. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, founder of The Storytelling Tribe, this podcast reveals how industry leaders translate complex technologies into compelling narratives. Through conversations with automotive executives, discover practical frameworks for making automotive innovations relatable and meaningful. For executives, product leaders, and marketers transforming mobility through better communication.

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How Dolby and HARMAN Engineer the Soul of Your Car

We sit down with two of the most influential figures in automotive audio: Andreas Ehret, Sr. Director Automotive at Dolby Laboratories, and Greg Sikora, Executive Director of Acoustic Systems and HALOsonic Engineering at HARMAN International. Together, they pull back the curtain on how sound becomes a core dimension of the driving experience.

Key
Insights

  • From Headphones to Highway: Engineering Atmos for the Car Cabin

    Andreas Ehret (Dolby Laboratories) reveals how Dolby Atmos Music — born for concert halls and living rooms — had to be fundamentally rethought for the car: a moving, asymmetric acoustic space that no audio format was originally designed for, and why that challenge became Dolby’s biggest automotive opportunity.

  • The Sound of a Brand: Why No Two Premium Systems Should Ever Sound the Same

    Greg Sikora (HARMAN International) unpacks how a global team of 120 acoustic engineers builds entirely distinct sonic identities for brands like Bang & Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, and Mark Levinson — and why the hardest part isn’t the engineering, it’s protecting each brand’s character across dozens of vehicle platforms simultaneously.

  • The Software-Defined Car and the Future of In-Car Audio

    Both Ehret and Sikora converge on the same inflection point: as vehicles become software-defined, audio stops being a fixed hardware deliverable and becomes a living, updatable experience — raising entirely new questions about who owns the sound, who updates it, and how personalization reshapes the relationship between driver and cabin.

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Key
Takeaways

  • Start With the Cabin, Not the Format
    Every car model is a unique acoustic environment — seat materials, glass area, cabin volume, and HVAC noise all shape the final sound. Engineers and OEMs who treat the car as a generic listening room will always underdeliver, no matter how powerful the format or brand behind it.
  • Align Format and Hardware From Day One
    Dolby Atmos Music only reaches its potential when the amplifier architecture, transducer placement, and DSP tuning are co-designed around it from the start of a program — not retrofitted at the end. Late-stage integration is where premium audio promises go to die.
  • Treat Sound as a Brand Asset, Not a Feature
    OEMs that invest in a consistent, protected sonic identity — one that survives across model lines, facelifts, and supplier changes — build stronger emotional loyalty than those who badge an off-the-shelf system and move on. Sound is one of the few sensory brand touchpoints a driver experiences every single journey.
  • Build for the Update, Not Just the Launch
    In a software-defined vehicle world, the audio system shipped at SOP is just version 1.0. Teams that architect for over-the-air updates, personalization layers, and evolving spatial audio standards will define the in-car experience for years after handover — those that don’t will be locked out of their own product.
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Where Technology Meets Narrative

Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

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