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Dolby Atmos

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Dolby Atmos
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Dolby Atmossurround soundtechnology developed byDolby Laboratories.It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horizontal nor vertical limitations.[1][2]Following the release of Atmos for the cinema market, a variety of consumer technologies have been released under the Atmos brand. The initial cinema Atmos systems used in-ceiling speakers, then upward-firing speakers (e.g. forSoundbars) were introduced as an alternative for consumer products.[3]Atmos is also used on some devices that don't have a height channel, such asheadphones,televisions,mobile phones,andtablets.[4][5][6]

History[edit]

Dolby Atmos Monitor at SoundFirm, Melbourne, Australia

The first Dolby Atmos installation was in theEl Capitan TheatreinLos Angeles,for the premiere ofBravein June 2012.[7]Throughout 2012, it saw a limited release of about 25 installations worldwide, with an increase to more than 300 locations in 2013.[8]As of October 2022, there were over 10,000 Dolby Atmos enabled cinema screens, installed, or committed to.[9]Dolby Atmos has also been adapted to a home theater format and is the audio component ofDolby Cinema.[10]Electronic devices from 2016 onwards, along with smartphones starting in 2017, have included support for Dolby Atmos recording and mi xing capabilities. The full set of technical specifications forDolby Digital Pluswith Dolby Atmos are standardized and published inETSITS 103 420.[11]

In 2016Powerwas the first television show natively mixed and broadcast in Atmos for its third season, though in the same year,Game of Thronesup-mixed their previous 5.1 presentations for theBlu-rayreissue.[12]R.E.M.'s 1992 albumAutomatic for the Peoplewas the first major music release with its 25th anniversary reissue in 2017.[13]

In 2022, Dolby Atmos partnered withNetEaseto offer spatial audio to the Chinese music streaming market. The partnership will entailNetEaseto implement Atmos support on compatible smartphones and vehicles.[14]

Technology[edit]

Dolby Atmos studio at a media company inHanover,Germany

Dolby Atmos technology allows the storage and distribution of 128 audio tracks withmetadatadescribing sound properties such as position and volume (and their variation over time). The audio mix is rendered specifically for the theater's setup using the loudspeakers available.[15]Each audio track can be assigned to an audio channel, the conventional format for distribution, or to an audio "object". Dolby Atmos in theaters has a 9.1 (commonly referred to as 7.1.2) channel-based "bed" channels for ambience stems or center dialogue, leaving 118 tracks for objects.[16]Atmos for home in film, TV and music uses a technique called "spatial coding" to reduce the audio to up to a maximum of 16 concurrent "elements" or audio location clusters, that adapt to the content dynamically.[17]In Atmos games ISF (Intermediate Spatial format) is used, which supports 32 total active objects (using a 7.1.4 bed, 20 additional dynamic objects can be active).[18]Each object specifies its apparent source location in the theater as a set of three-dimensionalrectangular coordinatesrelative to the defined audio channel locations and theater boundaries.[19]

Dolby Atmos home theaters can be built upon conventional5.1and7.1layouts. For Dolby Atmos, the nomenclature differs slightly by an additional number at the end, that represents the number of overhead or Dolby Atmos enabled speakers: a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos system is a conventional 7.1 layout with four overhead or Dolby Atmos enabled speakers.[20][21]The simplest Dolby Atmos setup is 3.1.2,[22]the most complex one is 24.1.10.[15]

Dolby Atmos content is authored using compatibledigital audio workstationsoftware (Dolby supplies aplug-inforPro Tools) or a suitably equipped large format audio mi xing console such asAMS Neve's DFC orHarrison's MPC5.[23]

The Dolby Atmos sound system consists of a compatible speaker system, a TV or AV media player, and anAV receiver(orpreprocessor), with a Dolby Atmos object audio renderer. During playback, each theater's Dolby Atmos system renders the audio objects in real time based on the known locations of the loudspeakers present in the target theater, such that each audio object is heard as originating from its designated set of coordinates.[15]By way of contrast, conventional multichannel technology essentially burns all the source audio tracks into a fixed number of channels during post-production. This has conventionally forced there-recording mixerto make assumptions about the playback environment that may not apply very well to a particular theater. The addition of audio objects allows the mixer to be more creative, to bring more sounds off the screen, and be confident of the results.[24]

The first-generation cinema hardware, the "Dolby Atmos Cinema Processor", supports up to 128 discrete audio tracks and up to 64 unique speaker feeds.[25] The technology was initially created forcommercial cinemaapplications, and was later adapted tohome cinema.[26][27]In addition to playing back a standard 5.1 or 7.1 mix using loudspeakers grouped into arrays, the Dolby Atmos system can also give each loudspeaker its own unique feed based on its exact location, thereby enabling many new front, surround, and even ceiling-mountedheight channelsfor the precise panning of select sounds such as a helicopter or rain.[28]

Consumer implementations[edit]

Home theater[edit]

Dolby Labs' hardware partners announced at the end of June 2014 that Dolby Atmos would come to home theaters.[29]Dolby Atmos-enabled movies were later made available withKaleidescape'smovie players.[30][31]A first public demo took place at CEDIA Expo 2014 on a Trinnov Audio Altitude 32 processor.[32]

Manufacturers such asDenon,Marantz,Onkyo,Pioneer,andYamahaannounced products that brought Dolby Atmos into home theaters. The products available include high-end home cinema receivers and preamplifiers, as well as mid-range home-theater-in-a-box (HTiB) packages.[33][34][35][36][37][38]On June 4, 2018, it was announced byApplethat tvOS12 forApple-TV4K would support Dolby Atmos when released in Fall 2018.[39]

There are two types of Dolby Atmos enabled speakers:

  1. Integrated speakers:They are the traditional front-firing speakers combined with Dolby Atmos-enabled up-firing speakers in one speaker cabinet.
  2. Add-on modules:They are Dolby Atmos-enabled up-firing speakers placed into their own cabinet so as to be added on top or within 3 feet (0.91 meters) of the installed current speakers.

Implementation and differences from commercial implementations[edit]

The first movie to be released onBlu-raywith Dolby Atmos wasTransformers: Age of Extinction,at least for its original English-language audio presentation.[40][41]The first video game to use Dolby Atmos wasStar Wars: Battlefrontwith a special agreement betweenEAandDolby Laboratories.[42][43]This game uses HDMI bit streaming from the PC to deliver Atmos audio to consumer Audio-Visual Receivers.OverwatchandBattlefield 1for PC also have Atmos audio.[44]On theXbox One,Crackdown 3andGears of War 4support Atmos.[45]

Dolby Atmos for Music, an audio-only iteration of the format was adopted by streaming music servicesTidal(uses E-AC3) andAmazon Musicin December 2019.[46]

Sennheiserlaunched a new sound bar with built-in Dolby Atmos technology named AMBEO sound bar at the 2019CESin Las Vegas.[47]The sound bar utilizes analysis of a room's reflective characteristics to enable a single-unit 5.1.4 setup.[48]

On May 17, 2021,Apple Musicannounced the addition of spatial audio with support for Dolby Atmos and lossless audio.[49]The feature was introduced to Apple Music users on Apple devices starting from June 7, 2021.[50]Dolby Atmos is now fully supported onAndroidwith Windows support coming in the future.[51]

Streaming services likeNetflix,Disney+,Vudu,Apple TV+,Amazon Prime VideoandMaxstream movies and TV shows in Dolby Atmos.[22]

The application of Atmos in home theatres differs from cinemas primarily because of restricted bandwidth and a shortfall in processing power. A spatially-coded sub-stream is added toDolby TrueHDorDolby Digital Plusor is present as metadata in Dolby MAT 2.0, an LPCM-like format. This sub-stream is an efficient representation of the full, original object-based mix. This is not a matrix-encoded channel, but a spatially-encoded digital signal with panning metadata. Atmos in home theaters can support 24.1.10 channels[15][52]and uses the spatially-encoded object audio sub-stream to mix the audio presentation to match the installed speaker configuration. There are programs from Dolby that handle 128 objects (including 118 dynamic objects and 10 beds) for macOS and Windows.[53]

In order to reduce the bit rate, nearby objects and speakers are clustered together to form aggregate objects, which are then dynamically panned in the process that Dolby calls spatial coding.[54]The sound of the original objects may be spread over multiple aggregate objects to maintain the power and position of the original objects. The filmmakers can hence control the spatial resolution (and hence the strength of the clustering) when they use the Dolby Atmos Production Suite tools. Dolby Digital Plus has also been updated with Atmos extensions.[16]

Headphones[edit]

Dolby Atmos also has headphone implementations for PCs, theXbox One,theXbox Series X/S,and mobile phones. They work by using audio processing algorithms to convert the Atmos object metadata into abinaural360° output using the usual two headphone speakers. This technique is an improvement on the previousDolby Headphonetechnology, allowing infinite channels of sound to be processed into a virtual surround experience.[55]

Windows 10version 1703( "Creators Update" ) added platform-level support for spatial sound processing, including Windows Sonic for Headphones and Dolby Atmos for Headphones.[56]Dolby Atmos for headphones requires a license to function which can be purchased or redeemed inside the Dolby Access app. Some branded headphones designed explicitly to deliver better audio quality exist, but users can use their normal headphones or earphones so long as the decoding device uses Atmos, or the audio track itself has been previously downmixed.[citation needed]

With the release of third-generationAirPodsin October 2021, Apple added support for Dolby Atmos, brandedSpatial Audio,to all AirPods (including earlier hardware generations),AirPods Pro,AirPods Max,and most headphones marketed under theBeatsbrand.[57]

Smartphones[edit]

Dolby Atmos has smartphone implementations for devices including but not limited to theiPhone XS/XRand later (when running iOS 13 or later[58]) and almost allSamsungsmartphones and tablets released after theSamsung Galaxy S9.Other smartphones and tablets with Dolby Atmos include theRazer Phone and Razer Phone 2,theZTEAxon 7,Sony Xperia 1,Lenovo K4 Note,Lenovo Vibe K5 Note,Lenovo K8 Note,Huawei P20,Huawei P30,Poco F3,Realme XT,Realme X2 Pro,Realme 6 Pro,Realme X7 Max,Realme Pad,Nokia 6,OnePlus 7,OnePlus 7T,OnePlus 8andOnePlus 8T,andMoto G8,andMoto G32.[59]Implementations in phone use both the binaural headphone technology and the dual loudspeaker virtual surround sound implementation, similar to that used in Dolby Atmos TVs and Soundbars.

Automobiles[edit]

NIOET7 comes standard with Dolby Atmos. On November 16, 2021, NIO announced that Dolby Atmos will be standardized on all NIO ET7s, the smart flagship electric sedan of the company, combined with a 7.1.4 immersive sound system.[60][61]

Dolby's first implementation of Atmos in an automobile will be the Lucid Air sedan fromLucid Motors.[62]

Compatibility[edit]

Dolby Atmos is adaptable and can be played back on various speaker setups. As well, many audio products provide additional support for Dolby Atmos.[63]

The technology has been licensed to other brands by Dolby. Since its launch, the Dolby Atmos format has been used by/affiliated with several companies in consumer technology as well as major film productions. This has added to the overall availability of content for Dolby Atmos' users.[2]

See also[edit]

  • A3D,a similar,HRTF-based 3D surround system
  • Ambisonics,a similar spatial sound encoding technique. Nowadays used for some games and VR Audio
  • Auro-3D,a similar, completely channel-based 3D surround system
  • DTS:X,a competing fully object-based system
  • MPEG-H 3D Audio
  • IAMF
  • Sound Blaster X-Fi,a competing surround sound "audio holography" system for headphones tuned to ear shape.
  • EAX,Creative, real-time multi-object spatial audio rendering implementation
  • Nokia OZO,a similar spatial sound technique, specifically used for 360 audio experience in communication.

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External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dolby_Atmos&oldid=1234850174"