STACK #201 Jul 2021

LIFE TECH FEATURE

visit stack.com.au

Dolby Atmos takes home theatre surround sound to a whole new level of immersion with audio coming at you from all directions, including overhead. PURE ATMOSPHERE

H ow many times have you sat in a cinema and been wowed by the directional quality of the sound? That’s the magic of Dolby Atmos, a spatial surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories that was first installed in LA’s El Capitan Theatre for the premiere of Pixar’s Brave in 2012. Since then, the tech has become available for home theatre set-ups as well as smartphones and other personal devices, and it will change the way you experience surround sound. Dolby Atmos is an object-based surround sound format, which means that rather than assigning audio to a specific channel (left, right, centre, etc), it interprets sounds as objects. This enables individual elements of a film’s sound mix – like a thunderclap or a screeching TIE Fighter – to be tracked and directed anywhere in a room without affecting things like music and dialogue, creating Action movies come alive like never before, from helicopters thumping overhead and an explosive shockwave radiating outwards and upwards, to the aural equivalent of being in the centre of an aerial dogfight. So, how does Dolby Atmos differ from a standard Digital 5.1 surround set-up? 5.1 routes a totally immersive, three- dimensional soundscape.

DOLBY ATMOS 5.1.2 setup

CHANNEL CHECK You don’t need to be a mathematician to decipher the various surround sound formats available, like 2.1, 5.1, 7.1 or 7.1.4 and other permutations. The digits simply mean the number of channels/speakers in a surround sound set-up: for example, 2.1 equals two speakers and a subwoofer (the .1), while 7.1.4 equals seven speakers, a sub, and four height speakers (for Dolby Atmos set-ups).

CENTER SPEAKER

FRONT RIGHT SPEAKER

FRONT LEFT SPEAKER

SUB

22˚

22˚

30˚

30˚

CEILING RIGHT

CEILING LEFT

content that supports Dolby Atmos, there’s no shortage – you’ll find Atmos tracks on a wide range of 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs, as well as major streaming services. Moreover, there’s also Dolby Atmos Music (available from selected music streaming services), which brings unparalleled clarity and depth to your favourite tunes. Getting the fully immersive experience of Dolby Atmos requires hardware that can decode the metadata and allocate it to the available speakers – an AV receiver or soundbar, 4K UHD or Blu-ray player – and a TV with HDMI eARC connectivity.

110˚

110˚

REAR RIGHT

REAR LEFT

120˚

120˚

upward-firing ones placed in various positions along walls or atop bookshelves to bounce the sound off the ceiling and walls. A minimum of two height channels is required to create the 3D surround bubble – with four being optimum – so, the configuration for a basic Dolby Atmos set-up is designated 5.1.2. When it comes to source

dialogue to a centre channel, bounces gunfire, FX and action between the two front and two rear speakers, while bass rumbles from the subwoofer. Dolby Atmos adds ‘height’ channels to expand upon 5.1 (and 7.1), enveloping you in a bubble of surround sound. The overhead (or vertical) audio is achieved by using ceiling-mounted speakers, or

68 JULY 2021

jbhifi.com.au