Dolby Atmos, What is it?

            Dolby Atmos is a new surround sound setup which promises the viewer/listener a whole new experience compared to watching films in the standard 5.1 or 7.1 setup. Whoever may read this may already know what Atmos is and how it works or it maybe someone who knows nothing about surround sound. I will explain the basis of how surround sound works and why atmos is a great improvement to the current system.

            The typical surround sound setup is 5.1 what that means is that there are 5 sources of where audio is coming from and 1 source of where low bass frequencies come from. These sources can be as simple as 1 speaker per source like in home 5.1 setups or multiple speakers per source that are linked together. By source Im talking about left, right, center rear left and rear right, that makes up the 5 in 5.1. The .1 is the subwoofer for the low frequencies. In movie theatres there might be as many as 5 speakers for each source, which take up a lot of space.

            So what does Atmos do? Well for one it takes the 5.1 systems and turns it into a 64.1 system it better focuses where the sound is arriving. For example in a simple 5.1 you can hear something going left to right pretty good however its going from the left side of the speakers to the center than to the right side of the speakers. With atmos the sound travels from multiple speakers so you can able to pinpoint the sound traveling more accurately. Not only does it have individual channels going left to right but its also back to front. There is also More speakers on the ceilings!

            There are only a few Atmos fitted theatres around in the U.S. luckily there is one here right in Chicago which is located right off the orange line. I have not yet seen a movie in Atmos yet but I do plan on to, only a few certain movies are mixed into atmos. I would like to see how the films are mixed to accommodate these extra channels, do the sound designers go overhead and do crazy things or is it used strategically.  I plan on seeing a movie in Atmos within the next few weeks and will describe the experience so keep a look on my posts.