LAS VEGAS-- Dolby Laboratories aims to advance the quality of cinema sound with the introduction of its new Dolby Atmos audio format, this week at CinemaCon.

"We think it is going to be breakthrough," Doug Darrow, senior vp of Dolby’s cinema business, told The Hollywood Reporter, noting that with more "precision and control of sound" in any theater, audio will be more "natural and lifelike."

Atmos is capable of transmitting up to 128 simultaneous and lossless audio channels, and renders from 5.1 up to 64 discrete speaker feeds, according to Dolby.

For sound teams, Atmos enables what Dolby refers to as "object-based mixing" by providing precise control over "placement and movement of individual sounds or 'objects' anywhere within a theater environment."

In order to create these mixes, Dolby reported that it plans to offer a new plug-in for Avid’s ProTools audio postproduction system, and it is also working with console manufacturers to enable support for the new format, which would be "layered" on top of a 7.1 mix.

A trailer mixed in Dolby Atmos will debut this week at CinemaCon for demonstration purposes. It was mixed by Will Files (Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted), and features sound design by Academy Award nominee Erik Aadahl (Transformers: Dark of the Moon).

Dolby said the mix could be delivered to theaters on standard Digital Cinema Packages (which are used today and are effectively the digital equivalent of a film print).

Exhibitors will need to outfit theaters for the format. According to Dolby, theater owners can still use the "majority of their existing sound system" though additional speakers and amplification must be installed. Dolby estimated that an "average mid-size" theater could expect to make an investment of around $25,000-$30,000 for this upgrade.

Audio equipment manufacturer Harman Professional is working with Dolby to design specialized loudspeakers to support the Atmos format.

Dolby is set to begin a limited deployment of Atmos in the U.S., Europe, China and Japan, and the first feature with an Atmos mix might be released as early as this summer. A larger rollout is planned for 2013.

For mixers and sound designers, Atmos will allow for “dynamic audio object-based mixing,” which means they’ll be able to map objects across the entire soundfield, instead of just figuring out how to mix sounds by individual speakers. The system will also simplify movie distribution and screening for studios and distributors, since Atmos will optimize playback for any setup. Studios will no longer need to ship copies of films with specific audio tracks.

The Disney release will be mixed in Dolby’s new sound system, which will be installed in as many as 15 theaters.


LAS VEGAS -- Disney/Pixar’s Brave will be the first film to test Dolby's new Atmos format, which was developed to create sound that Dolby says is more "natural and lifelike."

Dolby aims to have the new sound system, which it debuted this week at CinemaCon, installed in 10-15 theaters worldwide for the test, for which Pixar will prepare a special mix of the film.

Seven-time Oscar winner Gary Rydstrom is serving as sound designer and re-recording mixer on the project.

At CinemaCon, sound designer and supervising sound editor Erik Aadahl, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Transformers: Dark of the Moon, said of the new format: “This is, I think, the biggest breakthrough in sound that has happened in my career.”

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Aadahl, who did sound design using Atmos on a demonstration trailer that played at CinemaCon, likened the new Dolby format to having a new instrument to play.

“We’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can do with this technology,” he said. “What I could have done on the Transformers movie with this! … And it doesn’t have to be an action movie. It could be lush atmosphere.”

Atmos is capable of transmitting up to 128 simultaneous and lossless audio channels, and renders from 5.1 up to 64 discrete speaker feeds, according to Dolby. Speakers would be positioned around the theater and even overhead to create the immersive experience.

For the sound team, Aadahl noted that it might require some changes. He explained that the mix might add a “slight” amount of time to the schedule thought he expects it would be offset by a simpler process for creating deliverables as the sound team would only need to complete an Atmos mix.