Anyone for Dolby Atmos? ... 64:1 !!!!

I dare you to try and find the sweet spot :)

Dolby's Atmos technology gives new meaning to surround sound, death from above -- Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/26/dolby-atmos-technology-gives-new-meaning-to-surround-sound/)

Cheers.

Nice idea, and it probably makes it easier for sound production too.

Technologically, I'm going to guess what they did is add 2-axis pan 'track' automation to their mixer. That way, you can pan a 360 spherical sound field. Not exactly earthshaking when you think about it, but Dolby has the marketing muscle to move this into theatres where another company might not.

Assuming you have standardized placements for the 64 speaker setup, you should be able to easily set up a down mix for Dolby atmos sources at the local theater if it has less than the full complement. This is probably why they say they can auto generate 5.1 and 7.1 mixes.

Yep Dolby and Co do have the marketing muscle and here they come, more news about the tech details ..

Dolby Reveals Theaters Set to Install New Immersive Sound Format Atmos - The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dolby-theater-atmos-sound-334215)

Cheers.

From the above cited article:
"The system is designed to transmit up to 128 simultaneous and lossless audio channels, "

Let's see... 1 lossless [audio for video] channel = 48ksamples/second x 16 bits/sample = 768kbits/second.

768kbits/second/channel x 128 channels = 98,304kbits/second ~~ 98 Mbits/second.

Where are they going to get that much bandwidth?

Or is the key in the marketing hype "up to"? As in "save up to 90% in this week's sale." But the quote still sounds as if they're saying they CAN transmit 128 simultaneous channels, if they want to.

Early days, there'll be more articles and reviews as the roll out progresses.

I wonder if it'll be like 3D, seats will cost a premium, and how much, and will patrons cop it on top of the 3D surcharge.
We might have to layby a seat or take out a small loan.

Note it's rolling out in China. Might be cheaper for us in OZ to take a week in Beijing ... mmmm 64:1 in Mandarin.
Still, I'd like to hear it, if anyone spots a review, plse post a link here thx.

Cheers.

There is a lot of info at dolby.com/Atmos including some white papers. The main takeaway for me is that any track in your audio mix can be rendered with metadata as an object that will come out of only one speaker anywhere in the house (even on the ceiling). This avoids comb filtering from multiple speakers producing the same signal. The mix specifies the location, and the playback system determines which installed speaker is most appropriate based on where and how many speakers have been installed. Or you can specify "beds" or groups of speakers for it to come out of.