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50 l May 2014


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SOUNDBITES installation


Software provider Stardraw. com has announced the addition of the 700th manufacturer to the library of its design and documentation software, Stardraw Design 7. CEO Rob Robinson explains: “We’re immensely proud of our record with our symbols libraries. They are key to the intrinsic value of our design products, and we are the only software manufacturer to offer such a comprehensive, user- focused and quality service.” www.stardraw.com


The InstallAwards are coming! Organised by PSNEurope sister title Installation, the inaugural InstallAwards ceremony – to be held at the Hilton London Wembley Hotel on 12 June – will recognise achievement and excellence throughout the entire installation sector, including in corporate and industrial, sports and performing arts, residential and educational applications. Get your tickets now from www.installawards.com


Grace School in Hertfordshire, UK, recently installed a KV2 ES PA system. Paul Pytches from Mount Grace School comments: “The ES System has surpassed our expectations – the quality of the system is amazing. All who have heard it have been very impressed. We were pleased to be working with KV2, who offered full support throughout the project.” www.kv2audio.com


TG Baker has completed an upgrade to the audio system at London Waterloo station. The fi nal design on the concourse includes 21 JBL Intellivox DS180 loudspeakers, and the main train shed features 50 Intellivox DSX280 loudspeakers spread across 18 platforms. Scott McLucas, senior project engineer at TG Baker Sound, says: “We have received comments that the intelligibility has been greatly improved and the system is now performing as it should be for the UK’s busiest rail terminal.” www.tgbaker.com


Into the Atmos-phere 100+ WORLDWIDE


With over 600 cinema screens worldwide already having installed or committed to Dolby Atmos technology, and speaker manufacturers have much to look forward to, says Jon Chapple


A REVOLUTION is afoot. Dolby Atmos, along with ‘immersive audio’ formats such as Barco’s Auro 11.1 and DTS Multi-Dimensional Audio (MDA), is changing the way cinema audiences experience fi lm sound – and manufacturers of cinema speakers are reaping the benefi ts.


Dolby calls Atmos’s


“adaptive rendering” system – which makes it possible to direct sounds as if they were “dynamic objects,” delivering sound from multiple directions – its “most signifi cant innovation in years”. Atmos can transmit up to 128 simultaneous, lossless audio inputs on up to 64 discrete speaker feeds, including ones placed in the ceiling above the audience.


One company seeing


positive signs from the growing popularity of Atmos is JBL Professional, which has carried out approximately 200 Atmos installs globally and can count the Empire cinema in Leicester Square, London, Dolby’s UK headquarters in Soho, London, the world- famous Pinewood fi lm studios in Buckinghamshire, UK, and the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, US, among its customers to date. Chuck Goodsell, senior manager, cinema, at JLB Professional, says that the company’s 9320 cinema surround loudspeaker, which launched in October last year, is a popular choice for commercial Atmos installs.


“Since Dolby Atmos requires individual dynamic audio elements over as many as 64 channels, the addition of multiple surrounds – including overhead – as well as additional screen channel speakers has


QSC at CinemaCon: (probably) the largest cinema sound rig ever assembled


The number of Dolby Atmos fi lm titles announced so far


like processors, amplifi ers, and loudspeakers.”


JBL ScreenArray loudspeakers adorning the Haus Zoar in Mönchengladbach, Germany’s fi rst Atmos-equipped cinema


5


The number of Academy Awards won by fi lms featuring Dolby Atmos sound in 2014 (Gravity and Frozen)


had a benefi cial impact on [our] cinema sales,” Goodsell explains. “[JLB parent company] Harman has continued to work with Dolby to develop the most advanced systems for Atmos deployment globally.”


Things are also looking good at QSC Audio Products. “The conversion to digital cinema is nearly complete,” comments


Mark Mayfi eld, QSC’s cinema marketing manager. “Over 80 per cent of the world’s 135,000 screens have been converted, and, in North America, it’s closer to 95 per cent. There’s no question that the emergence and popularity of these new ‘immersive’ sound formats has created yet another catalyst for sales of ‘B-chain’ technologies


QSC recently installed what it believes to be the largest cinema sound system ever assembled, at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, for CinemaCon 2014, which featured – tellingly – the largest Atmos rig ever installed. Mayfi eld says QSC is “obviously supportive” of Dolby Atmos and other immersive sound formats, and points out that its Q-Sys digital audio processing platform is currently the only processor available that accepts a direct digital connection from the Dolby CP850 Atmos processor. All signs so far point to a boom time ahead for cinema-focussed loudspeaker companies. “To give you an idea of the amount of additional sound equipment that might be necessary for these formats, we’ve equipped a 294-seat cinema with 18 surround loudspeakers, three screen channel loudspeakers and four fl oor-mounted subwoofers behind the screen for a standard 7.1 presentation,” concludes Mayfi eld. “To demonstrate MDA and other object- and channel-based formats, we’ve added 24 additional surround loudspeakers, three LCR- height screen channels and two LFE subwoofers suspended from the ceiling. All of these loudspeakers require discrete amplifi er channels, so the quantity of power amplifi ers is signifi cantly increased as well.” Atmos is rumoured to be coming to home theatre systems as early as this autumn.  www.dolby.com www.jblpro.com www.qsccinema.com


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