DOLBY ATMOS FACILITIES


POST the atmosphere


rendering can be run on the same machine as your DAW [digital audio workstation] and is increasingly directly included in various DAWs,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if you experience the playback in a 64-speaker theatre or on consumer systems such as smart speakers, soundbars or mobiles. The renderers are designed to adapt to each system and reproduce all the objects.” The renderer produces a master


Dolby Atmos audio file, which contains all the mix information including up to 128 channels of audio, panning metadata and binaural settings. From this single file all other required versions can be derived, including Atmos mixes for theatrical releases and HE (Home Entertainment, covering Blu-ray Disc and TV/streaming).


Read the room Guidance on room design can be


found in the documents Dolby Atmos Home Entertainment Studio Technical Guidelines and Dolby Atmos Music Studio Best Practices. “These don’t focus on specific acoustical criteria but outline the basic requirements for room size and speaker positioning,” France comments. “There are different documents for home entertainment and music due to the differences in the typical set-ups and historical replay characteristics of these rooms, [although] there is a lot of commonality between the set-ups.” In terms of basic, practical advice,


France says the key things to keep in mind when planning out a space are to choose: the right room (size/ shape/surface materials); the right listening position (avoiding the exact centre of a room if possible);


the right loudspeakers (which should provide enough headroom and good frequency response); and the correct positions for the loudspeakers, in accordance with Dolby’s recommendations. Dolby also recommends that people should experiment with subwoofer placement and properly phase align loudspeakers (if necessary). The Dolby HE Studio Technical


Guidelines cover: room layouts and layout design; criteria for acoustics; loudspeaker layout design (including speakers around or behind the screen, subwoofer placement and ceiling loudspeakers); extended loudspeaker layout design (wide surround loudspeakers, general use of arrays, side and rear surround arrays); loudspeaker and amplification specification; and loudspeaker calibration. “If you can hit the upper 80th or 90th percentile of the spec in terms of the optimum angles, the minimum room dimension and so


forth, it means you’re going to have a room that better translates into other spaces,” observes the chief technology officer of HHB, John Johnson. HHB consults with facilities


on upgrade paths for existing 5.1/ stereo studios, as well as working on new builds, outlining things that clients should look out for, the hardware platforms they do (or do not) need and loudspeaker options. The company has worked on Atmos projects for The Farm (Bristol) and Clear Cut, among other facilities. Johnson comments that HHB’s Atmos work is a “mixed bag” of brand new rooms and conversions, which he ascribes to “everyone’s situation and requirements being different in terms of what size rooms they have currently.” Also important for the planning


stage is the Home Entertainment Dolby Audio Room Design Tool (HE DARDT). “It’s a kind of monster Excel


Summer 2022 televisual.com 89


“If you can hit the upper 80th or 90th percentile of the spec, it means you’re going to


have a room that better translates into other spaces”


JOHN JOHNSON HHB


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