The Dolby company, specialized in the development of techniques that improve the quality of audio storage systems and founded in 1965 by Ray Dolby, is the creator of what we know today as Dolby Atmos sound. Specifically, this multichannel audio format began in 2012 with the premiere of the Disney movie Brave.
This sound technology is based on a hybrid surround sound system that mixes classic sound channels, known as Beds. These channels manage to immerse the viewer completely in an environment together with dynamic sound objects, called Objects. In addition, this type of sound allows 128 of these objects to be placed anywhere in a movie theater, even being able to vary even their movements and intensities.
How Dolby Atmos works in the cinema
One of the most important processes of a movie is its final sound, so Dolby Atmos is a sure bet to enjoy surround sound in a movie theater. It should be noted that any sound that is appreciable and that can be heard in each scene is an audio object, and they are adapted one by one in the editing process. During this process it is selected to which speaker each sound object will be destined and with what volume it can be heard.
This selection is not produced by eye, but before giving the final finish it is studied how to achieve a 360 degree sound experience in the viewer. For this Dolby Atmos not only has speakers in lateral, front or rear positions, but also includes a series of acoustic boxes located on the ceiling of the room. This incorporation allows the viewer to believe that the sound has been emitted from anywhere in the room.
Incorporate Dolby Atmos into our home
The possibility of having a room as similar to a home theater is more than possible, since there are a wide variety of brands that currently have the necessary capabilities to reproduce the sounds encoded in Dolby Atmos, these may vary between Yamaha , Pioneer, Sony … but unfortunately it is not enough to just have a player with these characteristics, so our first step will be to obtain movies that contain this type of sound, usually those we know as Blu-ray Disc.
Once we have these two crucial aspects in our home, it is time to have a player capable of reading BD discs, which nowadays can be from a computer to a next-generation video game console. After this and as a last step, we will need to acquire a good acoustic equipment that allows us to enjoy surround sound in the room, for this the best thing will be to have the incorporation of at least four small speakers on the ceiling of our room.
In the hypothetical case of not being able to perform an installation on the roof of our house, the solution would be to buy some small modules that allow us to place our speakers at a height above us, which would be ideal to continue keeping the viewer immersed in a sound during movie playback.
Dolby Atmos on mobile devices
This sound that is already available on our mobile devices has an Atmos certification that is different from that of movie theaters or a Home Cinema. Dolby always watches over the audio quality that its users perceive and specifically in these devices that are the most used every day. The process is based on linking a binaural reproduction with audio objects, a combination that offers the user the ability to have surround sound on their phone and can have some features such as:
• Dolby Digital Pass-Through, a system that allows the user to change without touching the sound track to an A / V receiver.
• Intelligent Equalizer, is responsible for adjusting the frequency to suit the consumer.
• Volume leveler, maintains a constant level of volume in all applications of the device.
• Dialogue Enhacer, considerably increases the quality of dialogues over other sounds.
Surround Virtualizer is capable of creating surround sound in the headphones or speakers of the phone.
