Dolby Atmos, the Channelless Positional Sound Technology

Dolby Atmos

We are tired of listening to it everywhere, we go to the cinema and it appears on the screen announced, Netflix and other platforms already include it in their movies, but what exactly is Dolby Atmos and what is necessary in terms of hardware to be able to enjoy it? Today we will explain all the secrets of this technology that tries to redefine the entertainment experience both in theaters and at home.

The average user is usually reticent when it comes to believing certain audio and video technologies, and surely they are not going wrong. Many promise to improve what is already complicated, and saving digital positioning and resolution, audio and video have not improved much in recent years. Does this technology do it?

Dolby Atmos, a mature technology that is little exploited

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As we may well have guessed, Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology for cinemas and also for home systems that was created by Dolby laboratories back in April 2012 . And although there has been time and it was launched as a revolutionary technology in that year, its implementation has been really slow worldwide, especially in movie theaters, but in recent years it has taken off exponentially.

But what does it add to the technologies that were already on the market and how is it different? The objective was clear: to offer a captivating sound, to print movements to said sound, to convey the impact of what is being seen on the screen and to inspire emotions.

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On paper everything is great, of course, with the best intentions no doubt, but what about reality and how do they achieve the “magic”? Based on what they have called “audio objects”. In a common multi-speaker system, be it 2.1, 5.1 or 7.1 , the entire sound moves from one speaker to another, but with Dolby Atmos each sound is an object, so it can be moved independently through the speakers creating a much greater sense of realism.

No limitations in terms of speakers to use

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Another advantage is that content creators, whether they are filmmakers or any studio, do not have to encode the audio for 7.1 or 5.1 for example, but the more speakers the richer the experience and the more detailed it will be. Dolby Atmos also adds the height effect to the speakers, since it not only works the horizontal axis, but also the vertical one, something totally new in the industry.

The technology is therefore the same both in the cinema and in our home, the difference lies in the number of speakers, strategic positioning and quality of the same, but as a technology in itself it is offered both in one place and in another, not changes.

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But yes, the studio has to adapt the content of the cinema film to the film at home using a series of home creation tools, since the encoding methods are not the same. The advantage is that there is no loss after encoding, so the quality and positioning will be identical and will adapt to the number of speakers we have.

Given this, the most obvious question is also the most pertinent, what do we need to enjoy this technology in our home? First, a system that can reproduce Dolby Atmos, that is, a Blu-Ray player (including game consoles and streaming media) with a movie in that format, a TV or monitor with HDMI 1.4 or higher .

Dolby Atmos

The maximum speaker configuration is up to 34, in a 24.1.10 configuration, that is, 24 speakers on the floor or at the height of our ears and 10 on the ceiling, but let’s remember that there is no optimal, maximum, or minimum configuration. It all depends on the room where we are. It is true that Dolby as such specifies 34 speaker positions , but they are recommendations based on their tests and measurements, they are not subject to be followed as such.