By Bruce Walker • December 16, 2020
In Edwin Abbott’s allegorical tale, Flatland, the reader is drawn into a world of inhabitants that live in only two dimensions. Front, back, left, right is all that exists. No up. No down. No Sky. No Ground. If we lived there, a traditional Surround Sound system would fit the bill perfectly.
But in our world of three dimensions, we have height, and sounds happen above us, not just along one flat-plane of sound.
Thankfully, we now have countless of movies, TVs shows, video games, TVs and sound bars that support Dolby Atmos®. This exciting audio format redefines what an immersive experience can be when enjoying your favorite entertainment. What follows is a simple explanation of what Dolby Atmos is, what it does, and why it should be a must-have on your home theater shopping list.
Surround Sound Basics
A traditional surround sound system seeks to reproduce what a traditional movie soundtrack offers: left and right speakers, a center (for vocals and on-screen action), various surround speakers and for your bass and those wall-shaking explosions, a subwoofer (that’s the “.1” in a “5.1” system). The soundtrack of the movie sends audio to the channels throughout the room. Vocals are mixed to the center, a jet zooming by is sent to the rears, and so on.
Adding Another Dimension
Where Dolby Atmos improves things is that by-and-large, it doesn’t use “channels.” It places objects throughout the room. Think of a shell casing falling not in the “right-rear speaker”, but rather “6 feet behind the listener, and 4 feet off the wall.”
This distance-oriented approach to sound placement has an amazing effect on making the viewer feel like a character within their favorite movie. They are in the creepy hotel, they are part of the shootout, they are sitting in the passenger seat during the car-chase.
In addition to more precise object-based sound, Dolby Atmos has another trick up it’s sleeve that inhabitants of Flatland would kill for: height. In Top Gun, when the jets zoom overhead, the sound should, in part, come from above you. Dolby Atmos can place sound to those speakers (a little more on that later), truly redefining immersive. It’s a truly audio integrated 360-degree experience.