The Dolby Atmos Project
Taking Our Reference System to Dolby Atmos Level
The Next Home Cinema thing since Sliced Bread...
Dolby Atmos has been around now for a few years and given the state of the current market its clear its the current market leader in immersive audio formats dominating over DTS-X and Auro 3D.
In a way I find this a great shame as in the demo's I have had to date Auro 3D has been the best format but tackling an Industry entrenched Giant like Dolby Labs was always going to be mountainous task. I remember Dolby Technologies on TV and Boom boxes from when I was a kid, they are a staple name and lately have been on a rampage with new tech. Dolby Vision is now making headway into the market and is likely to dominate the HDR world eventually.
Back to Dolby Atmos, the website spiel makes some pretty bold claims
The Next Home Cinema thing since Sliced Bread...
Dolby Atmos has been around now for a few years and given the state of the current market its clear its the current market leader in immersive audio formats dominating over DTS-X and Auro 3D.
In a way I find this a great shame as in the demo's I have had to date Auro 3D has been the best format but tackling an Industry entrenched Giant like Dolby Labs was always going to be mountainous task. I remember Dolby Technologies on TV and Boom boxes from when I was a kid, they are a staple name and lately have been on a rampage with new tech. Dolby Vision is now making headway into the market and is likely to dominate the HDR world eventually.
Back to Dolby Atmos, the website spiel makes some pretty bold claims
Demo's so far - not really done it for me
My first Atmos demo what at the Bristol Sound and Vision show in 2015 - What HiFi had their booth on the ground floor as usual and as Atmos was new and the Buzz at the time What HiFi was demoing it naturally.
The system comprised of a Pioneer Receiver and a full Klipsch system including 2 Subs. The room was quite small and catered about 12 people at a time.
Knowing how busy the What HiFi demo's get I went straight to it and was literally the first person in and asked Khetan (Technical Editor I think) which was the best seat and duly sat in it ready to be blown away. Content was extremely limited back then and we watched the usual demo material from the Dolby Atmos demo disc - the rain and the jungle - they are impressive demos but they are demos. Then we watched a short clip from TMNT.
I came out of there feeling a little dissapointed - it hadn't been the mesmerising experience I was hoping for to motivate me to start cutting holes in my ceiling.
I have since had a few demos here and there of different systems and again none of these demos have really motivated me to get my cheque book out and start going through all the necessary work and cost to take the Reference system up to Atmos level, because it is a lot of work.
My first Atmos demo what at the Bristol Sound and Vision show in 2015 - What HiFi had their booth on the ground floor as usual and as Atmos was new and the Buzz at the time What HiFi was demoing it naturally.
The system comprised of a Pioneer Receiver and a full Klipsch system including 2 Subs. The room was quite small and catered about 12 people at a time.
Knowing how busy the What HiFi demo's get I went straight to it and was literally the first person in and asked Khetan (Technical Editor I think) which was the best seat and duly sat in it ready to be blown away. Content was extremely limited back then and we watched the usual demo material from the Dolby Atmos demo disc - the rain and the jungle - they are impressive demos but they are demos. Then we watched a short clip from TMNT.
I came out of there feeling a little dissapointed - it hadn't been the mesmerising experience I was hoping for to motivate me to start cutting holes in my ceiling.
I have since had a few demos here and there of different systems and again none of these demos have really motivated me to get my cheque book out and start going through all the necessary work and cost to take the Reference system up to Atmos level, because it is a lot of work.
Looking at the Speaker Layout Required
With the mindset going into this project of "do it Right, do it Once" it makes sense to look to go the whole hog with 4 ceiling speakers as is always recommended for best performance. This ideally needs to be supported with 7 base layer speakers which is already an upgrade from the existing 5 speakers we use currently.
Looking at the Speaker layout required throws up some issues that will need to be overcome in order to go big and go full 7.24.
The room constraints means the system naturally lends itself better to a 5.2.4 configuration however I remember listening to a Podcast where I am pretty sure a rep from THX said you see a bigger benefit from the 7 base layer speakers than just having 5 base layer speakers and then adding ceiling speakers and to ignore advice from THX would be foolish.
I do know however there are several different ways to skin a cat with the speaker positioning and I have been privy to several demos where the front ceiling speakers have been moved forward to a more above screen height position and that has worked well in adding more sound presence at the screen end. I think that is a factor for consideration as its really the screen end of the sound field that normally has the most sound content in the mix so adding to that will add an extra dimension to the presentation for sure.
This is the reason for seeking advice, I know of 2 Cinema Installation Companies that I am keen to speak to and get their opinions on what they have tried and what they suggest. That will be the next stage of the process and real start of making a plan for moving things forward
With the mindset going into this project of "do it Right, do it Once" it makes sense to look to go the whole hog with 4 ceiling speakers as is always recommended for best performance. This ideally needs to be supported with 7 base layer speakers which is already an upgrade from the existing 5 speakers we use currently.
Looking at the Speaker layout required throws up some issues that will need to be overcome in order to go big and go full 7.24.
The room constraints means the system naturally lends itself better to a 5.2.4 configuration however I remember listening to a Podcast where I am pretty sure a rep from THX said you see a bigger benefit from the 7 base layer speakers than just having 5 base layer speakers and then adding ceiling speakers and to ignore advice from THX would be foolish.
I do know however there are several different ways to skin a cat with the speaker positioning and I have been privy to several demos where the front ceiling speakers have been moved forward to a more above screen height position and that has worked well in adding more sound presence at the screen end. I think that is a factor for consideration as its really the screen end of the sound field that normally has the most sound content in the mix so adding to that will add an extra dimension to the presentation for sure.
This is the reason for seeking advice, I know of 2 Cinema Installation Companies that I am keen to speak to and get their opinions on what they have tried and what they suggest. That will be the next stage of the process and real start of making a plan for moving things forward
