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Topic: Dolby's new sound system
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Jonathan Goeldner
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1360
From: Washington, District of Columbia
Registered: Jun 2008
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posted 04-25-2012 01:36 PM
I'm waiting for the announcement from Sony that they would be resurrecting 8-channel SDDS for inclusion on DCP ![[beer]](graemlins/beer.gif)
...
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
or at least encode some of the SDDS mixes AND pre-1977 70mm/6-track mixes that had five front channel sound to archive and be able present them as such when DCP's are created
~~
... and here's the first movie to be released in Atmos Dolby Sound:
"Brave" (from Hollywood Reporter)
The Disney release will be mixed in Dolby’s new sound system, which will be installed in as many as 15 theaters.
LAS VEGAS -- Disney/Pixar’s Brave will be the first film to test Dolby's new Atmos format, which was developed to create sound that Dolby says is more "natural and lifelike."
Dolby aims to have the new sound system, which it debuted this week at CinemaCon, installed in 10-15 theaters worldwide for the test, for which Pixar will prepare a special mix of the film.
Seven-time Oscar winner Gary Rydstrom is serving as sound designer and re-recording mixer on the project.
At CinemaCon, sound designer and supervising sound editor Erik Aadahl, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Transformers: Dark of the Moon, said of the new format: “This is, I think, the biggest breakthrough in sound that has happened in my career.”
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Aadahl, who did sound design using Atmos on a demonstration trailer that played at CinemaCon, likened the new Dolby format to having a new instrument to play.
“We’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can do with this technology,” he said. “What I could have done on the Transformers movie with this! … And it doesn’t have to be an action movie. It could be lush atmosphere.”
Atmos is capable of transmitting up to 128 simultaneous and lossless audio channels, and renders from 5.1 up to 64 discrete speaker feeds, according to Dolby. Speakers would be positioned around the theater and even overhead to create the immersive experience.
For the sound team, Aadahl noted that it might require some changes. He explained that the mix might add a “slight” amount of time to the schedule thought he expects it would be offset by a simpler process for creating deliverables as the sound team would only need to complete an Atmos mix.
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Carsten Kurz
Film God
Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009
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posted 04-25-2012 04:46 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
I'm still wondering about how a Dolby Atmos audio stream will be encoded, such as its bit rate and foot print on a hard disc. They talk about having all the elements in a mix separated into discrete objects that can be positioned anywhere in the room. The thing is a movie mix in its editable form can have literally hundreds of separate audio elements placed on the time line. This can consume a fuck-ton of hard drive space and bandwidth. I'm guessing some kind of compromise has to be made somewhere, especially if a Dolby Atmos track is going to fit on a standard DCP hard disc alongside the movie video.
Atmos doesn't use parallel tracks but audio objects. Basically, the Atmos processor is 'just' a modern multitrack audio workstation with a routing backend software tailored to the specific auditorium speaker layout. It reads audio objects and routing, EQ, etc. metadata, and like a DTS processor, is then synced to the DCI server during playout.
Audio objects are not full feature length audio channels, but can be anything from individual single gunshots or cracks with subsecond length, until full feature length music oder voice tracks. No compression.
Sure it needs more storage space than a conventional 5.1 mix, but not necessarily 20times as much. Who cares if a 160GByte DCP grows by 50Gbytes? 320GByte discs are not easy to obtain anymore, this toy is for the big boys anyway. So what's the problem to supply an Atmos DCP on 500GB or 1TB harddiscs?
As they will never risc the additional burden of realtime audio playout of so many (unpredictable) channels from the DCI server itself, the Atmos processor will receive the audio objects in advance from the server, probably buffering all of the full features audio object set to an internal SSD. Again, just like a DTS disc that you pick from your 35mm container prior to loading and playing it.
Upon play, the processor will sync to the DCI server, load the audio objects according to it's internal timeline, apply output routing/panning, volume and speaker-specific EQ, etc.
It is very similiar to the immSound System, which uses a special file and ingest on the DCP drive for audio storage, but uses a different acoustic auditorium model.
The way this works makes clear, how the 128/64channels spec must be understood - it's up to 128 audio objects, mixed and dynamically routed to up to 64 speaker channels, because it is obvious that this must allow on location mixing of voice, music, atmosphereric sounds, fx, etc. into individual speaker channels. A single speaker or speaker group can carry multiple audio objects at a given time.
- Carsten
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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"
Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-25-2012 06:41 PM
quote: Brad Miller
In essence, it takes every individual sound, records it discretely and then permits the mixer to position it ANYWHERE in the field. The Atmos box then places it in the proper speaker(s) based upon that positioning data, and yes each auditorium is "mapped" so the sound truly goes EXACTLY where it is supposed to go, even if you have a funky shaped auditorium.
This means the mixers make one Atmos mix, and then ANYTHING else can be derived from it, whether it is 11.1 or 7.1 or even 5.1, without any effort or time delays (meaning less post production time).
Okay, this is making more sense now.
It is still going to come down to how many movies (and cinemas) adopt the system.
It is a fact that sound formats over-and-above 5.1 don't have a great track-record, including Dolby's own modest attempts to increase the number of channels with EX and, presently, 7.1.
However, 64 channels -- there is a marketing angle for this. You may not appreciate one or two extra channels, but.... 64!!! ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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Carsten Kurz
Film God
Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009
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posted 04-25-2012 06:46 PM
What's so complicated to understand that the actual audio mix is not done on the studios mixing stage, but in the auditorium sound processor?
If the processor calls up 4 audio objects to be played from the left screen speaker only, then we play 4 objects through ONE speaker channel. Or up to 128 objects to any or all combinations of 64 speaker channels. It is not just a player, but a mixer/panner. While panning, a single object will as well be played to multiple speaker channels with varying volumens at the same time. But a single object is NOT the full soundtrack, but only a single element of a soundtrack. To make a sound scene complete, multiple objects like music, multiple dialog tracks, atmospheric/background elements, fx, foley, etc. need to be played back simultaneously to the same and/or different speaker channels in realtime in the cinema processor to accomodate for the different speaker layouts and designs.
- Carsten
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 04-26-2012 02:10 AM
I was at the demo today and I have to say I was impressed. I think many of us on Film-Tech, including me, predicted this idea in the past...we were speculating, what's next? Speakers on the ceiling? And so here they are.
Naysayers can gripe all they want, but the sound was impressive. The auditorium had 47 speakers including 5 stage channels. The effects were smooth as silk as they panned around the room. Occasional independent sounds (like a voice) were localized in one spot, rather than just coming from the wall area.
I have a feeling this could go places. Some of the other posters here (Brad, Manny, Steve G) have described it right: The sound effects are placed in the sound field by the mixing engineer, rather than in the individual channels, and then the local system sends the sound to the appropriate speaker(s) in that field based on the speakers available. The system works with how many speakers you have, rather than dictating how many you must have. You can start with just a couple of ceiling speakers right now, for example, and then add more later on as your budget allows.
I don't see a lot of multiplexes doing this in all their auditoriums but it would totally fit in with the "premium" auditorium in a multiplex. If it does catch on, and there is a good stream of movies in the format, I know I'd do it, if we could afford it.
And, Bobby H -- a $25,000 upgrade to a sound system probably won't cause an additional upcharge. With 3-D, you've got a lot more work plus the equipment cost plus ongoing glasses costs (or cleaning costs) -- none of which you would have with this sound upgrade. If anything, a multiplex owner would probably add this to the auditorium he's already charging a premium for, thereby justifying the premium even more.
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