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Topic: Dolby Unveils 7.1 Channel Sound for Cinemas - Premiering with Toy Story 3

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 03-25-2010 11:46 PM

Who uses a CP65 with a digital projector?

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Demetris Thoupis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1240
From: Aradippou, Larnaca, Cyprus
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-26-2010 02:11 AM

I have a theater with such combination. DMA8Plus does the job.

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 03-26-2010 04:24 AM

But only a matrixed mix-down 7.1, not the real thing.

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 03-26-2010 06:36 AM

Around here, there are many screens with a CP65 connected to digital projectors, via a USL JDS-80.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 03-26-2010 08:08 AM

Wow, I had no idea. How about CP50's? Or SMART (not Panastereo)?

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Demetris Thoupis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1240
From: Aradippou, Larnaca, Cyprus
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-26-2010 09:03 AM

Any legacy processor with a 6 channel input can accomodate a D-Cinema server. You will need a Digital to Analogue converter to convert the AES signals to analog signal. USL makes two boxes for this. The DAX 602 which is a single in/out box and a more multitude the ECI 60 . Also all new Digital processors, Dolby CP750, USL JSD100/80, DTS AP20 offer direct connectivity to legacy analogue processors for playback of 35mm (although some have the ability to do that as well).
Demetris

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-26-2010 09:51 AM

Two of the screens (formerly THX) at our local Carmike theater use Dolby CP-65 cinema processors for the audio end of the d-cinema setups. Those two CP-65 units have been in service since 1994 when the theater originally opened. The processors in all the other houses are Smart branded units.

When D-cinema was installed very little was changed on the audio side since all 8 houses were already wired for 5.1 (for DTS).

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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 04-01-2010 08:12 PM

quote: James Robertson
More audio chanels. Spare may please. I'm fed up being blasted out of my seat with the deafening existing systems at my local cinema complex (Hoyts) My wife and I now wear earplugs lightly to bring the level down to something bearable.
Avatar was a good example of the thunderous sound levels being pumped out particularly on music and effects. I was a professional sound recordist for thirty years so know a bit about sound levels.
Ask to turn the wick down a bit. Surely you jest.

I'm also one who complains about excessive sound levels wherever they exist, but I have to say that in the last few years, I haven't had a complaint about sound levels in theatres (except maybe on previews), including Avatar, in which the sound levels were fine.

But in clubs and concerts...that's another story.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 04-02-2010 05:07 AM

quote: Joe Redifer
Who uses a CP65 with a digital projector?

I've been in four digitally-equipped projection rooms; all single screens.

Two, David Lean Cinema Croydon and Phoenix Cinema East Finchley were using CP-65, the other two, Odeon Leicester Square and Pictureville Bradford were CP-200, though I think the Odeon may have since been re-equipped.

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Jonathan Goeldner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1360
From: Washington, District of Columbia
Registered: Jun 2008

posted 04-19-2010 08:51 PM

I really can't wait to hear this in discrete 7.1 sound, how many theatres are speculated to be up and running to showcase Toy Story 3 as such when it opens?

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Demetris Thoupis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1240
From: Aradippou, Larnaca, Cyprus
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 04-20-2010 06:45 AM

So you have to scrap completely all processing wiring for EX and re-do it for this 7.1 format and then re-do it for EX and back and forth (if there are any more releases)!
Demetris

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 04-20-2010 09:24 AM

quote: Jonathan Goeldner
I really can't wait to hear this in discrete 7.1 sound, how many theatres are speculated to be up and running to showcase Toy Story 3 as such when it opens?

If the typical practices of advertising technical information regarding presentation continues unfixed it will be anyone's guess how many theaters and specifically which theaters will show Toy Story 3 in discrete 7.1, quad channel surround audio.

Newspapers have sucked for years at listing this type of information and movie theaters in general haven't been too good at listing the information either. For much of the past decade that sort of technical information has largely been omitted. You just get the show title, show times and MPAA rating. That's about it.

I'm not even convinced the movie theater chains are completely keeping track of how their auditoriums are equipped. Considering any D-cinema theater could wire up for 7.1 I don't know how Dolby would be able to keep track of "Dolby Surround 7.1" installations either.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 04-20-2010 09:54 AM

No...EX equipped would still be as EX is a subset of Surround 7.1. For instance, in a CP650, it will merely be a new format number.

Any processor that does EX on board AND has 8-channels worth of inputs should be able to, in software, have a surround 7.1 mode since it merely passes the discrete audio through (with a B-chain). The only ones that have to make choices are those that have older EX installations with outboard EX decoders (SA10s, DTS-ES, Panastereo SP23). There is no discrete, with a fader 8-channel signal path. This would be a tough one for even the Mighty CP200 to overcome...unless...one were to utilize the signal path created for the Mid-P and Mid-Q EQ/Delay and merely add the Cat 517/117) and route the new channels though there to get the fader and then come up with the switching logic to ensure that it goes between Stereo and 7.1 surround. We already have CP200s with Surround EX inside the CP200 (with full 1/3-Octave EQ).

I also read that Bay Area Cinema Products (aka "Sam") is working on some form of Surround 7.1 adapter (not necessarily for the CP200).

Steve

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 04-20-2010 10:04 AM

Newspapers pretty much suck at delivering showtimes, especially as theaters continue to reduce/eliminate their ads. Phone recordings are boring enough, much less to have a lot of detail thrown in about formats.

That leaves web sites to do the heavy lifting, and that's as it should be. [Smile]

From our perspective at The BigScreen Cinema Guide, we support all the digital sound formats with logos for the regular and EX/ES varieties:

http://www.bigscreen.com/about/help.php?id=6

Theaters that will be showing Toy Story 3 in 7.1 should include that as a note in their showtimes that they provide to CinemaSource. That will allow the notation about 7.1 channel sound in the notes that appear below the showtimes, and we'll also create a new "Digital Sound" logo that includes the 7.1 indication if we see theaters actually taking advantage of that.

But that comes back to the issue of theaters providing accurate and detailed information. Even though we've supported the indications for the digital sound formats, THX, and stadium seating for many years, quite a few theaters still aren't providing that information on a reliable basis.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 04-20-2010 10:55 AM

Will there be some sort of EX Plus format developed for Toy Story 4 or Phantom Menace 2 that matrixes the back two surrounds and gives a center back surround?

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