The in-room Entertainment system playbacks multi channel audio to speakers that surround the guest’s room. The various speakers placed around the listener play audio coming from different directions or channels. The bass content in the audio is directed to low frequency speakers or subwoofers.

The distinguishing factor between the various surround sound formats like 3.0, 4.0, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 etc. is the number of channels encoded in the original signal and the number of channels reproduced for playback. Another distinguishing factor is between the number of channels reproduced for playback and the number of speakers used to reproduce.