POST
DOLBY ATMOS FACILITIES Audio post: into “Most professional Dolby
Atmos systems will have four ceiling speakers to add a third dimension to the listening field”
ROB FRANCE DOLBY
Designing an audio studio has never been an easy proposition. The rise in demand for the immersive Dolby Atmos format has further complicated matters. But, as Kevin Hilton discovers, there are some fundamental rules to follow that can make the process easier.
S 88
televisual.com Summer 2022
ince the 1970s, Dolby has played a significant role in how audio mix spaces - both theatre-style for cinema and television post-
production studios - are designed and used. The company’s surround sound technologies began with matrixed Dolby Stereo (known as Dolby Surround for the home), which was succeeded by the discrete 5.1 (front left, centre, front right; rear left, rear right; and a subwoofer) Dolby Digital.
This necessitated the installation of more loudspeakers in the mixing suite, something that has increased with Dolby Atmos, the object-based audio (OBA) system with a foundation of 5.1 or 7.1 channels, plus up to 128 ‘objects’.
Happy atmosphere Dolby Atmos, like other OBA
systems, has enabled the creation of a more realistic soundscape for both cinema and TV, with a sensation of height as well as depth and width. This, says Rob France, head of global content engineering at Dolby, is the “fundamental difference” between an Atmos room and a 5.1 mix suite. In practical terms an additional set of loudspeakers is needed in the ceiling for monitoring and positioning overhead effects. “Most professional Dolby Atmos
systems will have four ceiling speakers to add a third dimension
to the listening field, allowing for a more immersive mixing experience,” France explains. “As the mixes are usually going to be created using a combination of channel based audio and audio ‘objects’, the number of speakers is really defined by the size of the room rather than the delivery format. A typical Dolby Atmos mix room will start from 7.1.4 speakers, where the 7 refers to speakers at ear level, the .1 to the subwoofer and the .4 to the overhead speakers.” Another influence on the design
of an Atmos room is the software needed to bring all the channels and objects together. The Dolby Atmos Renderer is crucial for creating what France calls “translatable mixes” by assigning each audio track to its corresponding loudspeaker within a room, regardless of its size. “It’s also common to use a separate computer system to render the object audio to the speaker outputs, although this
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