Dolby Atmos is the name of a surround sound technology announced by Dolby Laboratories in April 2012, which was first utilized in Pixar's Brave. The first installation was in the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, for the premiere ofBrave in June 2012. Throughout 2012, it saw a limited release of about 25 installations worldwide, with an increase to 300 locations in 2013. The format allows for an unlimited number of audio tracks to be distributed to theaters for optimal, dynamic rendering to loudspeakers based on the theater capabilities.
Dolby Atmos speaker setup
The first generation cinema hardware, the "Dolby Atmos Cinema Processor" supports up to 128 discrete audio tracks and up to 64 unique speaker feeds, the technology will initially be geared towards commercial cinema applications only, but may later be adapted to home cinema. In addition to playing back a standard 5.1 or 7.1 mix using arrays, the system will give each loudspeaker its own unique feed, thereby enabling many new front, surround, and even ceiling-mounted height channels for the precise panning of select sounds such as a helicopter or rain.
Dolby Atmos for Dramatic Cinema Sound Experiences
Dolby® Atmos™ introduces powerful new listening experiences for the movies, with sound that truly envelops you and allows you to hear the whole picture. With Dolby Atmos, filmmakers can now precisely position and move sounds anywhere in a theatre—even overhead—to heighten the realism and impact of every scene.
Dolby Atmos Benefits
Delivers a powerful and dramatic new cinema-sound listening experience
Allows sounds to move around the theatre to create dynamic effects
Reproduces a natural and lifelike audio experience that perfectly matches the story
Adds overhead speakers for the most realistic effects you’ve ever heard
Reflects the artist’s original intent, regardless of theatre setup
Employs up to 64 speakers to heighten the realism and impact of every scene
Dolby Atmos Technical Information
Creates clearer, more accurately positioned cinema sound; uses object-oriented mixing to layer independent sound elements over channel-based audio content
Captures all the director’s intent as descriptive metadata to provide customized playback for each theatre
Automatically generates optimum soundtracks for theatres with 5.1- and 7.1-channel setups
Delivers a rich, realistic sound experience through support for up to 128 simultaneous and lossless audio elements in a mix
Scales easily to any size theatre, with up to 64 independent speaker outputs
For anyone who enjoys great cinema storytelling, Dolby Atmos is an end-to-end audio platform that vastly expands the artistic palette available during content creation, simplifies distribution, and enables dramatic cinema-sound experiences.
Benefits of Dolby Atmos
Delivers a powerful and dramatic new cinema sound listening experience
Allows sounds to move around the theatre to create dynamic effects
Reproduces a natural and lifelike audio experience that perfectly matches the story
Adds overhead speakers for the most realistic effects you’ve ever heard
Reflects the artist’s original intent, regardless of theatre setup
Employs up to 64 speakers to heighten the realism and impact of every scene
Artistic Freedom
For filmmakers, details matter—a lot. And Dolby Atmos gives filmmakers full creative control over the placement and movement of sound around the audience. This completely new level of artistic freedom enables precise matching of audio to onscreen action.
Dialogue follows characters. Sound effects track with camera pans. Ambient sounds envelop you. For the first time, you’ll hear the whole picture.
Theatre Configurations
Dolby Atmos speakers are all individually controlled to create precise sound placement and natural, realistic movement of sound. Surround speakers in 5.1 and Dolby Surround 7.1 theatres are grouped to create zones. Representative setups are shown here.
How It Compares
While traditional surround sound offers a high degree of audio realism to help pull the audience into the story, Dolby Atmos takes realism to a whole new level with its ability to place sounds at precise locations and move them anywhere in the theatre–even overhead.
Here’s how Dolby Atmos compares to 5.1-channel and Dolby Surround 7.1 cinema sound, and the differences you can expect to hear.
Dolby Atmos | 5.1 and Dolby Surround 7.1 |
Overhead Sound | |
True overhead sound
Natural and lifelike, matching what you hear in real life
Perfectly coordinated with onscreen action
|
"Phantom" overhead sound
5.1 can create overhead effect in center; 7.1 widens and improves the effect
Less localized and distinct than true overhead sound
|
Sound Quality | |
Powerful and consistent
Maintains tonal quality as sounds move around theatre
Sound elements can be assigned to individual speakers to maintain purity
|
Smaller surround speakers with more limited response
Some loss of clarity and sharpness
5.1 has limited movement effect; 7.1 improves spatial separation and fidelity
|
Sound Placement | |
Each speaker is individually addressable
Allows precise placement, powerful sense of motion
Consistent experience from any seat in the theatre
|
Limited to two (5.1) or four (7.1) surround zones
5.1 limits placement precision; 7.1 adds precision and movement
Ideal for static ambient sounds; discrete sound not as realistic
|
Involvement | |
You become part of the story
Completely natural and realistic soundtracks
Seamlessly envelops you in the action
|
Adds to your involvement in the story
Brings impact and drama
Great experience, just not to Dolby Atmos level
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