SAN FRANCISCO — Dolby (www.dolby.com), which introduced its Atmos technology just over a year ago, has now surpassed the 50 title milestone. Atmos allows mixers to expand sound’s role in storytelling. Mixers can now easily place or move specific sounds anywhere in the movie theatre, not just where there happen to be speakers.
To date, more than 200 Dolby Atmos screens have been installed or committed to in 27 countries with over 85 exhibitor partners. In addition, all the major Hollywood studios have embraced the format, as well as six Academy Award-winning directors, and 10 Academy Award-winning sound mixers.
At CineEurope 2013 in Barcelona, Spain, Dolby Laboratories announced five new film titles to be mixed in Dolby Atmos. They include Las Brujas de Zugarramundi (Spain), Mindscape (Spain and Canada), Tarzan 3D (Germany), Mr. Go (Korea), and the nature documentary Guadalquivir (Spain). This passes 50 titles since the format was introduced. Disney•Pixar’s Brave represented the first Atmos release back in June 2012.
In related news, Odeon and UCI Cinemas Group plans to equip 27 screens across Europe with Dolby Atmos. And, more than 25 post production facilities worldwide are capable of mixing Dolby Atmos, many of them in Europe, including Ink Production, France; Post Republic, Germany; Rotor Film, Germany; CinePostproduction, Germany; Soundub, Spain; Best Digital Group, Spain; Pinewood Studios Group – Pinewood Powell Theatre and Shepperton Korda Theatre, United Kingdom.
The Dolby Atmos Cinema Processor CP850 offers a complete audio solution to today’s digital cinema theatres and brings a natural and realistic sound experience to audiences. Using specific speaker location and performance attributes, the CP850 renders in realtime a custom mix for that room that accurately replicates the audio experience intended by the sound mixer. The CP850 also supports Dolby Atmos playback of up to 64 speaker feeds, configurable between 16 analog outputs and a Dolby Atmos Connect output. The CP850 supports Dolby Surround 7.1 and 5.1 digital playback, as well as common Dolby formats used with alternative content in cinemas.