The next (r)evolution: Audio and the future of the cinema experience
...Now in its 13th year—yes, indeed, it was way back in 1999 when the first DLP Cinema® solutions were introduced to the industry with Star Wars Episode 1—digital cinema is now deployed on more than 50 percent of the world’s 140,000+ screens. ...
Sound from all around
Combining various directional sound sources in an auditorium to recreate sounds as experienced in nature augments the realism of a film’s soundtrack. This concept recognizes the subconscious’s ability to determine the origin of a sound without necessarily seeing the physical occurrence.
A three-layer approach to recreating 3D sound more precisely achieves this effect than the current configurations of 5.1 and 7.1 found in most of today’s cinemas. The lower layer built on traditional 5.1 delivers directs sounds from actions in a horizontal plane around the listener. The second height layer adds important acoustical reflections from around and above the listener…just like we experience in real life. Adding a third layer to relay sounds emanating directly above patrons (used mostly for effects like birds chirping, plane fly-bys, etc.), completes the 3D experience to create a sense of full immersion.
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