Dateline: 04/25/2012
What starts out at your local cinema eventually gets to your home theater, and that not only includes the movies, but both the projection and sound technology as well. On the sound front, Dolby Labs has announced its latest sonic upgrade for movie theaters: Dolby Atmos, which is slated to debut in a small number of theaters later in 2012, and if successful, will be installed in additional cinemas beginning in 2013.

The key two key elements of the Dolby Atmos system is the combining of physical speaker arrangement with multi-dimensional spatial object placement resulting in an immersive sound experience that is more hemispheric in nature rather than residing more in a horizontal plane.

The physical portion of the system includes up to 64 possible channels of sound supported by additional speakers behind the screen, the addition of ceiling mounted surround speakers, and additional placement of side surround speakers. However, just having a lot of speakers does fill in all the gaps, so by incorporating new sound mixing techniques on the production end, sound editors can mix sound so that they seem to originate in actual space rather than coming from a specific speaker. For a preview of this new approach from Dolby Labs, check out their Promotional Video and Official Dolby Atmos Page.

This sounds like a definite advance in the cinema-going experience. However, it is not a unique approach, as SRS Labs (now owned by DTS) has been developing a similar system that does not necessarily require as many channels or speakers, and can be applied to both the commercial cinema and home theater environments.

For more details on the SRS Labs approach and corresponding industry initiative, refer to my previous articles: SRS Circle Cinema 3D Audio, The 3D Audio Alliance - Taking Audio Reproduction to the Next Level, SRS Labs Multi-Dimensional Audio (Audioholics).

For additional perspective on the SRS/DTS Multi-Dimensional Audio listening experience in an actual movie theater, read a report by Brent Butterworth, About.com Stereos Expert.

In addition, a Imm Sound is also thinking along the same lines with its own technology that has already been installed in several movie theaters around the World. For more details, read the report by Tom Norton of Sound and Vision.

Update 06/06/12:Dolby Announces First Group of Movie Theaters Slated for Dolby Atmos Upgrade (The Hollywood Reporter)

Update 02/27/14:Godzilla And Other Movies in Dolby Atmos

Update 06/23/14:Dolby Atmos - From The Cinema To Your Home Theater

Update 08/14/14:Dolby Reveals More On Dolby Atmos For Home Theater

Update 07/17/15:Complete Dolby Atmos Specifications For Commercial Cinema