Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Number designation for 7.1 Audio Systems

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-31-2018, 02:55 PM:

I am not familiar with 7.1 a channel numbering. Do you go clockwise around the room starting with L, C, R screen channels being 1,2,3 and then go up the right wall, then across the back, then down the left wall ending up with Channel 7 being the Left side wall channels closest to the screen. Does the numbering keep the 5.1 numbering or does everything totally change with 7.1? This consumer processor they are using just uses English terms to designate channels. I find that becomes totally insane the minute someone start abbreviating them to put labels on wires.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 01-31-2018, 05:13 PM:

The common cable labeling follows THX standard.

In general, the scheme in the room follows our left-to-right-reading fashion, but groups left/right pairs

Left/Right 1/2
Center/LFE 3/4
Left Surround/Right Surround 5/6
Back Surround Left/Back Surround Right 7/8

For a better structuring of the normal surrounds and back surrounds, I often see

Lss for Left Side Surround and Lrs for Left Rear Surround

Note that Ls/Left Surround is for 5.1 systems, and Lss/Left side surround is for 7.1, as they do no carry the same signals. Still for a 7.1 system, physical wires should be labeled with Lss/Rss and Lrs/Rrs. For people with some basic knowledge about the difference between 5.1, 7.1 and Hifi/Home cinema, the common mix of labels should pose no problem, like SW, BSL, SL, SBL, RS, RRS.

Also see: http://isdcf.com/papers/ISDCF-Doc4-Audio-channel-recommendations.pdf

- Carsten

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-31-2018, 09:03 PM:

Carsten, thanks for the clarity.