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This topic comprises 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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Author
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Topic: ATMOS comes home...
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Terry Lynn-Stevens
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1081
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2012
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posted 03-16-2015 09:51 PM
I really don't know where Dolby is trying to go with their Atmos brand. They are going to completely ruin it.
I can see the day where a movie theater runs the movie with no audio and there are no speakers, (just a screen) and then a fan boy comes into the cinema and gets out their blu-tooth headphones and opens up the Dolby Atmos app on their cell phone to watch and listen to the Dolby Atmos movie in the cinema. With no masking of course.
Dolby is bringing Atmos to your mobile device. Read on for what it is, how it works and how you can get it.
“Mobile audio has to improve”. That’s the message Dolby’s chief marketing officer Bob Borchers stressed in a recent blog post. “It’s no good having a razor-sharp image of Godzilla if his roar sounds like a mouse with a sore throat.”
He certainly has a point. With more people than ever consuming cinema blockbusters on tablets and phones, money has been piled into improving screen technology without giving the same level of consideration for audio.
In fact, Borchers quoted figures that suggest displays drive 45 per cent of the cost of a phone, with just 4 per cent awarded to the audio side of things – something Dolby is unsurprisingly keen to change.
It used MWC 2015 to show its commitment to bringing the Atmos experience to mobile devices. Read on for all you need to know.
Atmos on mobile devices works through a rather clever combination of binaural headphone rendering and object-based audio.
The former creates surround sound through headphones using something called head-related transfer functions, or HRTFs.
HRTFs have been around since surround sound processing first arrived in headphones, the basic idea behind them being that when you hear a sound, your head gets in the way of the soundwaves and changes them.
Your brain picks up on these changes, as well as the time difference between when a sound reaches one ear and the next, using all this information to determine where the sound is coming from.
By reverse engineering this process, sound experts have been able to develop virtual surround sound that can produce, from the single speakers on either side of your headphones, sound that seems to come from all around you.
To take this a step further and create a Dolby Atmos experience on the go, technicians combine this knowledge of HRTFs with object-based audio, the foundation of Atmos, to create a more all-encompassing sound.
This means that every object in the scene is packed with data that explains exactly where its sound should originate and where it should move to in a scene, placing it there with greater precision – even overhead.
To get Dolby Atmos on the go, you’ll need to have a tablet or phone that can support Dolby Atmos processing and any pair of headphones.
The number of devices with the tech on board is limited at the moment, but it is growing.
The Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 tablet was the first mobile device to launch with the technology in 2014, with Lenovo’s three new launches at MWC 2015 following suit.
These include the world’s first Atmos-enabled smartphone, the A7000, and two new tablets, the 8in TAB 2 A8 and the 10in TAB 2 A10-70, which will be available between April and June 2015.
Read more at http://www.whathifi.com/news/dolby-atmos-mobile-everything-you-need-to-know#xsV3Ix5Rmot6jcXw.99
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 03-17-2015 01:27 PM
Don't forget the app gaining control of your phone's front facing camera so it can secretly take photos of you enjoying the movie and the app. Not enough light in the auditorium you say? Not a problem! So many phones will be in use all the ambient light from those displays will provide more than enough fill! The images will be immediately uploaded to the movie studio's marketing department regardless of your limited bandwidth allowance from the stingy cellphone carrier. Note: any images of you laughing at how ridiculously shitty the movie turns out to be will be taken completely out of context in the marketing. Your images will be proof you really enjoyed spending $50 to take your best girl to see that turd.
I still think Dolby ought to be calling this headphone-based sound technology something else, like maybe "Dolby Headphone 2.0" or something like that. IMHO the Atmos term is misleading. It's further trashing the Atmos product name, removing perceived value from the still very expensive professional cinema version. It's also adding confusion to the consumer electronics line. Home theater users will be scratching their heads trying to figure out the difference between Atmos in a phone or tablet versus what's on a Blu-ray disc and in a surround sound receiver.
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
I really don't know where Dolby is trying to go with their Atmos brand. They are going to completely ruin it.
Graphically speaking, I think the Dolby brand is losing its way. Dolby's executives chose to make big changes to the brand in 2008 and then make further changes in the past couple years. Nothing remarkable has been done in regards to the typography now in use. Worse than that, inconsistency is now present all across Dolby's product and visual identity.
Just where the hell is the Dolby "Double D" Icon with that "Dolby Atmos On-The-Go" Wall Sign? It's just plain lettering. It would be funny if another wall nearby had "Restrooms" on it in the same typeface. At least the Restrooms sign would probably have photographic icons of "man" and "woman" near the letters.
For more than 30 years the Dolby brand was pretty consistent in its use of iconography and typography. The Dolby "Double D" was always present. Eurostile and Helvetica were both used in different combinations; both typefaces had a visual harmony with the Double-D icon. Eurostile and Helvetica were strong and clean, which meant a lot for a company out to improve audio quality.
Several years ago Dolby Labs hired design firm Turner Duckworth to revamp Dolby's visual identity. They modified the Dolby Double D logo and adopted a newer, technical looking typeface, Morgan Sans. All the different product lock-ups had rule lines separating the Dolby brand from the technology being listed. Unfortunately those rule lines were often dropped and sub-head type repositioned -like in Dolby Digital logos on end credits of most movies the past several years.
With the arrival of Atmos the various Dolby logos were modified again, squeezing things like "Dolby" and "Digital" into two lines and hugging them up against the right end of the Double D icon. The treatment has allowed designers to shrink Dolby brands down to microscopic sizes on movie posters and other marketing items, if the brands were included at all.
Dolby recently shifted from using Morgan Sans to Gustan in its adverting. I'm not sure why the change was made other than Gustan has more weight variations than Morgan Sans. But Dolby doesn't bother using any of the bold to black weights of that type family. Both type families are available for web font use. One could argue Gustan is more readable than Morgan Sans. On the other hand Gustan looks like an offbeat, slightly techie version of Verdana. Some letters, like the uppercase "S" are drawn strangely, making lines of copy not appear to be optically aligned with the baseline.
Ultimately, neither Morgan Sans or Gustan has the enduring strength, cleanliness and neutrality of Helvetica. Eurostile isn't a neutral typeface, but it is a clean, strong and enduring design. Both type families are still very popular today. I guarantee in 20 years Eurostile and Helvetica will still be highly relevant. I can't say the same thing for Morgan Sans and Gustan.
The Coca Cola logo has gone on for well over a hundred years with nothing more than minor refinements applied to the trademark script. Something has to be said for the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" rule. But some companies, like American Airlines, JCPenny, The Gap and others just had to "refresh" their brands even if they didn't need refreshing.
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Terry Lynn-Stevens
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1081
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2012
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posted 04-08-2015 10:29 AM
Lenovo, the Chinese electronics giant, has announced the launch of the A7000 in India.
Unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the A7000 has been priced at Rs 8,999 and is the first smartphone to have Dolby Atmos sound technology on board.
Referred to as a mass market flagship smartphone, the A7000 has got a 5.5-inch HD IPS display with 1280×720 pixels resolution.
It is powered with a 1.5-GHz MediaTek MT6752m octa-core processor paired with 2 GB of RAM. It comes with an onboard storage of 8 GB and can be further expanded up to 32 GB. Running on Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system, the A7000 is a dual-SIM smartphone and comes equipped with an 8-MP auto-focus rear camera and a 5-MP fixed focus front camera.
This smartphone is 7.9 mm thin and weighs 140 gm.
Lenovo launches A7000, the first smartphone with Dolby Atmos
Sudhin Mathur, Director- Smartphones, Lenovo India, says, "The A7000 brings in flagship worthy features and performance at an incredible price, making it a perfect choice for consumers looking for a trendy and powerful phone loaded with future-proof features."
The Lenovo A7000 will be available exclusively through Flipkart via flash sales. The First flash sale is scheduled for April 15. web page
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Daniel Schulz
Master Film Handler
Posts: 387
From: Los Angeles, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 03-27-2016 11:42 AM
quote: Steve Guttag
Are there any Home A/V Preamps (or A/V receivers) that now support Atmos 24.1.10? In particular are there any that get beyond the systems that tend to top out at 7.2.4.
There is only one, the extremely pricey Trinnov Altitude 32, which supports up to 32 channels of processing (so almost, but not quite, the full 24.1.10).
Every other processor on the market, even the expensive ones, max out at 11 channels of Atmos processing (7.1.4 or 9.1.2, or in the case of the Datasat RS20i an option to do 5.1.6 should you so choose). This is because the DSP chipsets being used by every single manufacturer so far only support 11 channels of Atmos processing. The Trinnov box is the only option that is not DSP-based, they are using a full-blown PC-style processor to do the decoding.
I am eagerly awaiting news about someone going to at least 9.1.6, which I feel is the sweet spot for a good implementation for home Atmos.
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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!
Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 03-29-2016 06:44 AM
A fair question.
Here are my answers...
1) I prefer soundtracks not mastered for home theatres but mastered for theatres. Most home theatre masterings presume a pathetic system, it would appear. Search on the "F" masterings. Ask Brad Miller if you need direction to them.
2) Call it personal preference but LC/RC are essential to providing a proper sound stage from the screen. Regardless if the sound source is dialog or music/effects. Inherently, a lot of stuff happens in the middle half of the screen and LC/C/RC are in the right places to covey that. L and R are too far outside and in the name of keeping a "stereo image" they can also ruin maintaining a believability in having the sound mate up with the picture.
3 or 2B) I'm a HUGE proponent of panned dialog. Panned dialog doesn't work with just 3-screen channels because the gaps, regardless of screen width/size are just too far apart. LC/RC effectively bridge those gaps and often eliminate the need for any phantom channels that will have phase issues.
4) In MY priority system of channels it goes: Center, Left/Right, LC/RC, Surround, Stereo Surrounds, Subwoofers, Left outside/Right outside, 4 channels of surrounds and somewhere way down there...ceiling speakers.
I've yet to hear ANY immersive system where the height channels added anything of great significance that helped the movie. Multiple subwoofer channels? Really? Every channel could be full-range and crossed over, if desired but there is a point where the sound is omnidirectional to the point of being just a waste of time to add more of them in a directional sense. I have had success in placing subwoofers in multiple points of a theatre, driving them less hard but having incredible coverage. But still, all one channel.
Going between a 7.1 mix and an immersive mix is such a minor change that I still question the value of adding ceiling speakers. The physics of them remain difficult when it comes to creating a sound field that is convincing to a species who's hearing is NOT based on height but on lateral directions.
My home theatre will have the ceiling speakers but LC/RC are also going to be there. I've even toyed with being able to generate their signal via the L/C/R mix...not a spread mix where everything is just about everywhere but steered to avoid the phantom channel. Those Atmos mixes that have stuff recorded for those channels will have them direct and those that don't will be upmixed for them. For me, the important sounds are those that mate up with the picture and the picture is on the screen...the effects in the auditorium are almost aways a fail...you can't match up the sound with your surroundings. If you are in a dessert and you want to have the wind blowing and such or to put one in a cockpit of a plane...okay...but if you are going to localize a sound effect in the auditorium...you get the "exit sign" effect. Which is, when you hear something and spin around...you find yourself seeing the exit sign to the theatre rather than what made the sound you heard. That applies to commercial cinemas as I don't plan on having exit signs in my home (though I suppose I could use a stage light to cast a red glow on the screen to give it the commercial feel).
So yeah...I demand LC/RC in my theatre and any Atmos theatre I would consult with I'll have them in the spec (why bother, otherwise?). Now you know what I think of height channels you can gather my opinions on other "immersive" systems too.
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