Dolby Atmos – What’s the fuss all about?

You might have heard the term Dolby Atmos when talking to your friends, in cinema theaters, or when reading blogs online. Shortly put, Dolby Atmos is one of the most revolutionary advancements in sound technology since the advent of surround sound.

The History of Surround Sound

When movies first started playing in cinemas with sound, there was a single speaker placed behind the screen, and all sound in the movie came from that speaker. Over time, one speaker became two, and delivered what we now call stereo sound. The reason for this was as a character in a movie walks across the screen from left to right, his or her voice should follow the person for an appearance of realism, and you need two speakers to do this right.

As technology continued to advance, people realized that two speakers behind the screen cannot effectively deliver a realistic experience because ambient sounds such as birds chirping, traffic sounds, and the hum of an air-conditioner in an office need to come from around us and not in front of us.

This led to the development of channel-based recording, and 5.1 systems which consist of five speakers – a left, center, and right speaker in front and one pair of surround speakers to the side to deliver ambient sounds. The extra 0.1 refers to the Low Frequency Effects ( LFE ) channel, which delivers deep bass.

After 5.1 we moved onto 7.1 recordings, which added one pair of speakers behind the listener for complete envelopment of the listener. This meant that while recording a movie, the sound engineer could use any of the 7 speakers in the sound layout to decide where sound would come from.

Dolby Atmos in the Cinema

While 7.1 surround does deliver a realistic experience, it only gives the sound engineer 7 sources from which to place sound from. Further, overhead sounds such as rain falling on a roof or an aircraft roaring overhead cannot be realistically reproduced using a 7.1 system.

Dolby Laboratories, one of the leading audio technology and format companies in the world, introduced a new format for cinemas in 2012 called Dolby Atmos, which revolutionized recording technology by introducing object-based recording. This allows the sound engineer to place sound from any one of 127 positions in a room, over a 3 dimensional space. If this sounds too technical, in common terms sound can now come from overhead!

Dolby Atmos in the Home – How do you get it?

In 2015 Dolby announced Atoms would soon be available in the home. In a home environment, Atmos was first launched in four formats – 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.2, and 7.1.4. The first number is the number of traditional “channel” speakers. The second number is the LFE channel. The third number indicates the number of overhead speakers. In 2018, the first 9.1.4 or 7.1.6 capable systems were announced.

For an Atmos based home theater, you the following:

1. Content that is recorded in Atmos. Movies are being released in Atmos every year, as it is becoming mainstream. The full list of Blu-Rays available in Atmos can be found here https://www.dolby.com/us/en/experience/dolby-atmos/bluray-and-streaming.html. TV shows such as Game of Thrones, and video games such as Star Wars Battlefront have also been released in Atmos. Netflix has Atmos content available as well, and more streaming services will soon follow suit. As Atmos content becomes more and more widely available investing in an Atmos based home theatre makes more sense today then ever before.
2. An Atmos capable player – most Blu Ray players are capable of playing Atmos. The latest Apple TV is Atmos capable as well.
3. An Atmos capable AV Receiver – most mid to high end AV receivers are capable of decoding Atmos content. Delivery ranges from 5.1.2 to 9.1.4.
4. Overhead speakers – these come in two forms, either traditional ceiling speakers that have to meet specific criteria laid down by Dolby, or Dolby Atmos enabled speakers that use upward firing drivers to bounce sound off the ceiling.

Dolby Atmos height speakers – What are they?

One of the more critical and visibly different components when it comes to Dolby Atmos in the home are the height channel speakers. The obvious answer for delivering height effects such as a plane flying over would be in-ceiling speakers. However, Dolby also recognized a lot of people with existing systems would want to upgrade their home theater package to add a height-channels. but would not be able to do the interior rework and wiring needed to retrofit in-ceiling speakers. As a result, they developed designs for “Atmos-enabled” front speakers.

Atmos-enabled front speakers are angled upwards, with the drivers firing sound towards the ceiling. Sound is meant to reflect off the ceiling back down toward the listening position to simulate an overhead speaker.

Some brands like Klipsch have come out with very innovative tower speakers, such as their flagship RP-8060FA, where the tower speakers themselves have a height module built in.

Are Atmos-enabled speakers a significant compromise over ceiling speakers? There is no correct answer to this questions. What is critical is Atmos-enabled speakers meet the strict dispersion and frequency response characteristics laid down by Dolby. Klipsch Atmos-enabled speakers easily do so because of Klipsch’s hallmark horn technology. In fact people who have seen Atmos demos using Klipsch Atmos-enabled speakers have been known to swear they are hearing ceiling speakers! When Klipsch first launched it’s Atmos-enabled speakers in 2015, Dolby and Klipsch collaborated to launch Game of Thrones in Dolby Atmos, a testament to Dolby’s approval of Klipsch’s design.

The other important component to make Atmos-enabled speakers work well is the installation and calibration. Factors like delay, levels, frequency cut offs and many others all have to be taken into account and calibrated to deliver an authentic, immersive experience. That is why it is critical to work with the right service provider when choosing to build an Atmos home theatre.

Confused? Come talk to the experts!

There is certainly a lot to think of, from sources, to electronics, to what speakers to choose, and in what configuration when choosing an Atmos home theater. And that is only the system design. Beyond that, if choosing Atmos-enabled speakers, the ceiling needs to be of a certain characteristic, and regardless of the choice of in-ceiling versus Atmos-enabled speakers, the entire system has to be calibrated to provide the best experience possible. Speaker positioning, which depends on room aesthetics, amount of seating, and the type of speaker chosen is also critical. There is no one size fits all answer, every room has to be individually designed to really get the best out of the system.

Cinebels started installing Dolby Atmos home theaters in India by the end of 2015, as soon as the technology was available, and we have installed hundreds of Atmos home theaters over the last few years. These have ranged from basic 5.1.2 setups in a budget of 1.5 lakhs to complex 9.1.4 setups with budgets beyond tens of  lakhs for just the speakers. We have used many different  in-ceiling speaker models, Atmos-enabled front speakers, different processors, and different speaker models. Every single home theater done has been different with only one thing in common – we have been able to deliver the best experience for the money spent.

Visit our website at www.cinebels.com for more information, and to learn how we can help you setup your Atmos home theater today!