Dolby History
Ever since The Clockwork Orange, the first ever movie directed by Stanley Kubrick came out with a Dolby soundtrack, Dolby Labs has been expanding without the slightest competition or rivalry . The Dolby Labs has achieved the pioneer status in the fields of Sound development, noise reduction, theater experience and what not and yet it is still aiming for something of a higher zenith.
The founder of the company Ray Dolby who earned a Ph.D. in physics started the his own company in 1965. It’s first product was A-type noise reduction for professional market , which diminished the background noise and disturbance form the soundtracks of a video tape without compromising it’s narrative , following that came the B-type noise reduction product for consumer use, then the C-type in course years. The most surreal innovation of the company was Dolby Surround which gave the audience an experience of a sound originating form 4 different sources and directions , the Dolby AC-3 also known as Dolby Digital were being considered for a conventional film’s soundtrack design, which later ungraded to 5.1 channel system( 5 channels and a woofer ) in 2002 and 7.1 channel system( 7 channels and a woofer ) in 2011 .
5.1 speakers setup
7.1 speakers setup
Dolby Atmos
The latest attraction of the Dolby lab was introduced in 2012 along a Pixar studio animated film ‘Brave‘, known as Dolby Atmos . It is just an upgraded expansion of 7.1 sound system , meaning it envelopes the auditorium at all points even hanging from the ceiling . At most 64 speakers can be used in a Dolby Atmos Cinema resulting mesmerizing sound effects which allows the audience to have the closest take on a real time sound experience.
What Dolby Atmos system does is properly calibrate sound waves at the right position in the rooms matching the original experience programmed in the soundtrack, surrounding the audience with almost the exact sound experience identical to real environment.Each channels have their individual salient signal. Almost each variation of sound has a designated place in the room.Dolby Atmos features 128 audio tracks plus associated pan metadata for the theaters to dynamically project their feature film with an immense sound. Those 128 tracks signal encoded in a fixed number of channels during post production are transferred to the 64 speakers in the room.
This introduction of the new format has given space to change without bringing compatibility at stake. It monitors the crucial areas of sound production, device handling, sound dubbing for various theaters with significant theatrical format.Hence making the newly introduced format compatible, portable and highly efficient .
Dolby Home Theater System
Obviously everyone can’t have 64 speakers at their domicile but the best they can do is have some add on in their rooms with a comparatively fewer speakers.Placing 2 channels at left and right positions respectively close to the screen ,with a channel and sub woofer in the middle. 2 channels at the sides and back end of the rooms placed at left and right corners and also 4 channels hanging from the ceiling of the room, rest assured it will still bring you the exact experience you could have had in a theater better than any of the previous attempts for Home entertainment . Brands like Marantz, Denon, Pioneer ,Onkyo and Yamaha have committed and dedicated for the production of home entertainment device for user’s pleasure, with products supporting premium home cinema receivers and pre-amplifiers to mid-range home-theater-in-a-box (HTiB)
Advantages of Dolby Atmos :
1.Moving audio– The audio isn’t restricted to corners of the rooms but an immense envelope of sound effects can enthrall the audience. Sounds effects come from all directions including overheads
2.Better Experience :The more sound you can distinguish in the presentation results into more clarity,impact and fidelity the sound can have on your senses , introducing a significantly larger number of speakers helps you to achieve that.
3.Least Compression of sound: Dolby Atmos gives you the unaltered and unadulterated sounds track enabling artists with an amazing new capabilities to tell their stories, develop their games, or exploit their music.
Want to achieve an experience best ever seen ? Read on about IMAX : The best movie experience ever.