For consumers, Dolby Labs continues to add more Atmos content to its website, and Dolby Lab’s site will highlight audio manufacturer’s products. The efforts will complement online activities by Onkyo and Pioneer, which have created Atmos microsites with educational videos. Dolby Atmos will bring new customers into the store, but a sale won’t happen without an appropriate demonstration. The company is extensively working on a point-of-purchase sales education.
“Soon, home theater enthusiasts will be able to experience Dolby Atmos movies the way they were meant to be heard, right in their living rooms. Dolby Atmos, the most significant audio advancement in home theater in the last 20 years, brings consumers deeper into the story by delivering an experience that moves sound in every dimension throughout the room with amazing clarity and true-to-life detail,” says Doug Darrow, Senior Vice President, Dolby Laboratories.
“Pioneered and perfected in the cinema, Dolby Atmos has generated tremendous excitement from the home theater industry and enthusiasts alike. We have teamed up with an amazing group of industry leaders to give consumers around the world the very best entertainment experience when they choose to watch a Dolby Atmos movie in their home.”
On September 30, 2014, Paramount Pictures will release the first Blu-ray Disc to feature a Dolby Atmos soundtrack with the #1 movie of the year worldwide, “Transformers: Age of Extinction.” Both the Blu-ray Combo Pack and the Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack will offer a Dolby Atmos soundtrack encoded in Dolby TrueHD. Paramount Pictures will look to support additional Dolby Atmos home theater titles via online streaming and Blu-ray Disc later this year. Dolby Atmos soundtracks are fully backward compatible, meaning they’ll play on traditional home entertainment playback systems.
“If you’ve experienced “Transformers: Age of Extinction” in Dolby Atmos in the cinema, you understand the power of sound to transport you right into the middle of the action,” said Edward Hoxsie, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Product Production & Fulfillment, Paramount Pictures. “Soon, home theater enthusiasts will be able to experience Dolby Atmos movies the way they were meant to be heard, right in their living rooms.”
Warner Bros will also be among the first studios to support Dolby Atmos via online streaming and Blu-ray Disc offerings. “By leveraging new technologies like Dolby Atmos, we can deliver a more enriching and realistic experience that taps into the power and location of the audio, to draw fans deeper into the story unfolding on the screen,” said Jim Wuthrich, President Of The Americas, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
Consumers who want to experience Dolby Atmos home theater products will be able to visit a variety of retailers for demonstrations. Magnolia Home Theater and Design Centers plan to feature Dolby Atmos demonstrations in select locations starting in October. “With Dolby Atmos, hearing is believing,” said Michael Crane, Senior Director of Merchandising for Magnolia Home Theater and Design Centers. “You have to experience it to understand how captivating it is. We’re looking forward to demonstrating the technology in hundreds of our Magnolia locations within Best Buy.”
Also starting this fall, additional national and regional retailers including hhgregg, Future Shop, and Best Buy Canada will feature Dolby Atmos demonstrations in select locations, in addition to independent retailers such as Crutchfield and Bjorn’s. Beyond North America, consumers will be able to experience Dolby Atmos at leading home theater retailers such as Sevenoaks Sound & Vision (UK), AVAC Corporation (Japan), and BIC CAMERA INC. (Japan). More retail locations are expected globally as additional products are introduced into the market throughout the year.
Atmos soundtracks attach specific X, Y, and Z coordinates to each sound, or object, to describe that sound’s location anywhere in a 360° space around the listener at any given time. A change to the Blu-ray specification isn’t needed to accommodate Atmos soundtracks, which consist of metadata added into the substreams of a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. TrueHD is already approved for Blu-ray use. An Atmos-equipped AVR or preamp processor will render an Atmos soundfield only if a consumer selects the bitstream output of a Blu-ray player and turns off the player’s secondary-audio function.
Atmos audio/video receivers (AVRs) and preamp processors will up-mix two-channel and multichannel content to Atmos, delivering height information to in-ceiling speakers or to angled height drivers embedded in Atmos-enabled left-right and surround speakers. Those drivers bounce height information off ceilings, including drop ceilings made of hard reflective surfaces.
Although Atmos-enabled speakers must be certified by Dolby to deliver height effects, any good-quality in-ceiling speaker is capable of delivering height effects. However, Dolby recommends specific radiation patterns to widen the sweet spot and deliver an optimum experience to as many listeners as possible.
Dolby has worked with suppliers to ensure their room-correction and calibration technologies optimally work with Atmos soundtracks. Dolby has worked with THX to ensure there was
no conflict between THX’s home-theater-certification standards and Dolby’s requirements for Atmos-enabled speakers. Atmos soundtracks played through home theaters that lack Atmos decoding will still deliver enhanced sound.
Manufacturers who have announced Dolby Atmos AV receivers or pre-processors include Denon, Integra, Marantz, Onkyo, Pioneer, Steinway Lyngdorf, Trinnov Audio, and Yamaha. Manufacturers developing Dolby Atmos enabled speakers and add-on modules include Atlantic Technology, Definitive Technology, KEF, Onkyo, Pioneer USA, Teufel, and Triad Speakers. Onkyo also announced a Dolby Atmos equipped home theater in a box (HTIB) system. Silicon providers Analog Devices, Inc., Cirrus Logic, and Texas Instruments have developed chips to support Dolby Atmos home theater AV receivers and processors. Additional manufacturers who have committed to delivering future Dolby Atmos products include Datasat Digital Entertainment, Emotiva Audio Corp, Outlaw Audio, Storm Audio, and NHT (Now Hear This).
www.dolby.com
