Dolby Atmos

I am unable to conceive of a reason why they would do that. Why? Because it is irrelevant to how Sonos works.
Want a 7.2.9.27.twelvety system. Buy one.

An Atmos soundbard requires upward firing speakers to bounce sound off the ceiling in an attempt to create the upward sound channel

The current playbar does not have any upward firing speakers, to support Atmos the playbar requires a complete re-design

I suppose I should rephrase that question to whether there a plans to set up multiple SONOS speaker system to be able to decode and set up an ATMOS soundscape for home theater viewing.

I suppose I should rephrase that question to whether there a plans to set up multiple SONOS speaker system to be able to decode and set up an ATMOS soundscape for home theater viewing.

No. Sonos is not a Home Theater company.

I always say Sonos is the perfect platform for a wireless Dolby Atmos system. A SuperConnect box where you hook your hdim. Then the Superconnect will coordinate all 7 independent Sonos speakers in full Dolby Atmos.

Wishfull thinking as I see little chance in it happening. But thing what a perfect solution it would be for projector users - people where the devices are not up front.

I suppose I should rephrase that question to whether there a plans to set up multiple SONOS speaker system to be able to decode and set up an ATMOS soundscape for home theater viewing.

Unlikely, as above Sonos is a music player company first, home theatre second and their devices need to do both, to have a separate upward firing atmos speaker would make it useless for music so it won't happen

in reality your best option is to go buy speakers and a receiver and setup your own atmos system, I know that's what I'll be doing - I only went with Sonos due to limited space, but once I have space the Sonos will be gone replaced by a real home theatre system

No Sonos hardware can accept an ATMOS signal, as it cannot be carried over optical, it requires HDMI.

Saying that SONOS isn’t home theater is odd. They make a play bar specifically to sit under the tv. Maybe my idea of home theater is naive but the fact that atmos currently requires hdmi is more relevant than anyone’s opinion

No Sonos hardware can accept an ATMOS signal, as it cannot be carried over optical, it requires HDMI.

Now that Apple TV will support ATMOS couldn't it handle the ATMOS processing and output to the soundbar?

No Sonos hardware can accept an ATMOS signal, as it cannot be carried over optical, it requires HDMI.

Now that Apple TV will support ATMOS couldn't it handle the ATMOS processing and output to the soundbar?

No that won't be possible with the current playbar

The Playbar does not have any height channel speakers - even if your playbar could decode Atmos, it would sound exactly the same as normal 5.1 because there are no height channel tweeters facing the ceiling - basically the height channel in the Atmos signal would just get cut off and it would just output 5.1.0 instead of 5.1.2

The only real difference is that Atmos signal would be a higher bitrate so the sound quality may sound slightly better to your ears because Dolby Digital is a lossy format while Atmos is lossless but that's it and only real audiophiles can tell the difference between lossy and lossless sound anyway, the average person cannot