'Brave' targets audiences' ears in Dolby Atmos (NEW 3D sound)

[Omaha Steve]

We are taking our granddaughter Madison to this over the weekend.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120620/D9VH5J9G0.html

By DERRIK J. LANG

LOS ANGELES (AP) - At the recent premiere of Disney-Pixar's "Brave," an animated tale about a bow-wielding Scottish princess named Merida, the whooshing of arrows seemed to glide even closer to the audience's ears, a bear's roar felt even more dangerous and a storm sounded like it was swirling over the audience.

It's the Dolby Atmos system at work, the latest innovation in movie theater audio that's aiming to make the big-screen 3-D experience sound as three-dimensional as it looks.


In this 2012 publicity image released by Disney/Pixar, Princess Merida, (voice by Kelly Macdonald), is shown flying in the 3D computer animated Disney/Pixar film, "Brave," releasing June 22, 2012, in North America. Dolby Atmos, the latest in movie theater audio debuting on 14 screens with "Brave," intends to make theaters sound more 3-D than ever before. (AP Photo/Disney/Pixar)


"Brave" is the first feature film mixed entirely for the new audio platform from Dolby Laboratories Inc. "It's a new way of thinking," said "Brave" sound designer Gary Rydstrom. "We had to make sure we captured the opportunities that the Dolby Atmos mix gave us, without getting gimmicky."

There were also concerns about not overwhelming the computer-generated film with the new technology. "The choices that we made in the mix were based on what made the movie more dramatic or funny," said Rydstrom.

FULL story at link.

[high density]

1. 128 channels? Sounds like Dolby is trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

7.1 sound is fine. The effort would be better spent trying to calibrate existing sound systems properly. The idea of overhead sound is interesting, but in a typical stadium seating theater most of the side and rear speakers are rather high already.

[Omaha Steve]

2. Dolby Atmos Locations

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/professional/technology/cinema/dolby-atmos.html#TheatreSetup

The following theatres, post houses, and Dolby offices will be the first in the world to provide the future of entertainment sound through Dolby Atmos.

AMC Barrywoods 24
Kansas City, MO, USA

AMC Burbank 16
Burbank, CA, USA

AMC Century City 15
Century City, CA, USA

AMC Downtown Disney 24
Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA

AMC Garden State 16
Paramus, NJ, USA

AMC Van Ness 14
San Francisco, CA, USA

Arclight Sherman Oaks
Sherman Oaks, CA, USA

Brenden Theatres at the Palms
Las Vegas, NV, USA

Century at Pacific Commons and XD
Fremont, CA, USA

China Film Stella Theater Chain Hefei 1912
He Fei, China

Cinemark West Plano and XD
West Plano, TX, USA

Cinesa Diagonal Mar
Barcelona, Spain

Cinetopia Vancouver Mall 23
Vancouver, WA, USA

The Dolby Theatre
Hollywood, CA, USA

Empire Leicester Square
London, United Kingdom

Kerasotes Showplace ICON at Roosevelt Collection
Chicago, IL, USA

Shanghai Film Art Center
Shanghai, China

SilverCity-Yonge Eglinton Cinemas (Cineplex)
Toronto, ON, Canada

UME Shuangjing
Beijing, China

Wanda Cinemas Wuhan Lingjiao Lake
Wuhan, China

China Film Post (Global Post Facility)
Beijing, China

Skywalker Sound (Global Post Facility)
Marin County, CA, USA

Dolby Offices: United States
• Dolby 88 (New York City, NY)
• Dolby Screening Room (San Francisco, CA)
• Larry Umlang Theatre (Burbank, CA)

Dolby Offices: Europe
• Dolby Soho Screening Room (London, United Kingdom)
• Dolby Royal Wootton Bassett, Screen 1 (Royal Wootton Bassett, United Kingdom)