The ultimate in cinema sound, Dolby Atmos® is now available for your home theater.
Sound is one of the most important aspects of a quality home cinema. We all love the way good audio can pull us deeper into the movie experience, especially when that experience is in the comfort and convenience of our own home. Now, ‘immersive’ audio formats are expanding traditional surround sound from 360° to a full hemisphere of cinema sound. Dolby Atmos is one of these new aurally exciting new formats.
What Is Dolby Atmos?
In 2012, Dolby revolutionized the cinema audio by literally taking sound to another level by adding speakers over-the-heads of the audience to create a hemisphere of sound. Pixar’s ‘Brave’ became the first movie to feature this new immersive 3D audio experience. In 2015, half of the Academy Awards® ‘Best Picture’ nominees featured Dolby Atmos.
How Do Filmmakers Create With Dolby Atmos?
Traditional surround sound is channel-based, Dolby Atmos introduced object-based mixing for sound artists. What is a sound object? Any sound heard in a movie scene—a child yelling, a helicopter taking off, a car horn—is an audio object. Sound artists using Dolby Atmos decide exactly where those sounds should originate and precisely where they move as the scene develops. This method creates a full hemisphere of sound that envelops the audience.
Immersive audio formats like, Dolby Atmos are the ultimate in cinema sound.
What You Will Need to Enjoy Dolby Atmos at Home
Dolby Amos brings up to 2 additional channels to a standard 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system to become 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.2, or 7.1.4. To enjoy Dolby Atmos in your home cinema, you will need a few things.
1. An Atmos-enabled A/V Receiver
Many brands are now shipping Dolby Atmos-enabled A/V Receivers. These receivers can also process non-Atmos content to utilize the additional speakers through ‘up-mixing’.
2. In-ceiling speakers, Atmos-enabled floor standing, or add-on speaker modules.
In-ceiling speakers are the best choice for new construction or remodels. For existing theaters, Atmos-enabled speaker modules can be added to floorstanding speakers. These directional speaker modules bounce their Atmos sound off the ceiling.
3. Blu-ray in Dolby Atmos
You will need a Blu-ray in Dolby Atmos. Click here to view a list of Movies in Dolby Atmos. Some receivers, like Onkyo, feature ‘up-mixing’ for non-atmos content–so you can enjoy regular content in an Atmos set-up.
Every major brand has either announced or begun shipping Dolby Atmos-enabled A/V receivers and speaker systems. These include A/V receiver brands like Sony, Yamaha, Marantz, Onkyo and speaker brands like Paradigm, and Klipsch – just to name a few. More brands will announce and ship Atmos compatible receivers in 2015 and beyond, as immersive audio is the future of cinema audio.
TYM Brings Dolby Atmos Home Theaters
TYM has already brough the ultimate immersive audio experience that is Dolby Atmos to clients in Salt Lake City, Utah and central Idaho. Our experienced team, led by our very own THX certified professional, are ready to help you build or update the home cinema of your dreams with Dolby Atmos. Contact us today for a free estimate!
