May 2013
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April 2013
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Oblivion: Notes from the black carpet
Touching down in Burbank on the way to Hollywood never gets old. There’s a certain excitement that comes with landing in the epicenter of American entertainment.
I’m here for the premiere of Universal’s Oblivion, presented in Dolby Atmos at the Dolby Theatre. It’s my first time as roving reporter on the red carpet—and it turns out to be even cooler than I imagined it would be.
After surveying...
March 2013
9 posts
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Immersed in SXSW
South by Southwest has something for everyone, from the wild first few days of Interactive to the hidden gems in East Austin during Music, there’s much more to do than any mere mortal could possibly contend with.
Even so, I’m trying!
After a great weekend of meeting some longtime Dolby fans and winning some new ones with the Dolby Digital Plus audio on the Kindle Fire HD, most of the Dolby crew...
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Greetings From the Dolby Sound Exchange at SXSW...
Dolby returned to SXSW this year, bringing just a bit more sound and color to Austin’s annual interactive, film, and music festival. Anybody who’s seen pictures from SXSW knows it’s a little overwhelming - multiple convention centers hosting dozens of speakers, panels, movies, and more. We couldn’t think of a better place to spend a few days (for me, personally, just a bit longer) and so we took...
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Dolby Returns to SXSW
March is here, and music, film, and digital art and applications fans know what that means - it’s time for another installment of Austin’s main event, South by Southwest.
This year, we’ll be on the ground once again for the duration of the festival. Last year, I had the chance to experience some of the craziness SXSW has to offer, getting swept up in Film and Music in particular. This year, I’ll...
February 2013
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Roving Reporter at the Oscars Part 2
The red carpet is laid! Although it’s still under protective plastic as the theatre and the red carpet area are part of the Hollywood & Highland shopping centre which is quite active with shoppers and Oscars production team foot traffic.
We have been continuing press interviews and red carpet briefings as we head closer to Sunday.
The theatre entrance looks amazing, the gold curtains...
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Roving Reporter at the Oscars
It was a rainy day in Hollywood today which delayed the installation of the red carpet. Rain, however, would not delay the installation of Dolby’s new neon sign.
The building at 1800 North Highland Avenue is serving as the site for the “Dolby Theatre Welcomes You to Hollywood” sign making its debut this week. It’s the latest addition to the iconic Los Angeles skyline.
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Dolby's Life of Pi Panel at the Zanuck Theatre
On Wednesday night, a bunch of the folks from Dolby got together with the Oscar-nominated sound team from Life of Pi, a few other members of the Fox team, and an intimate group of media and industry professionals to discuss and watch Life of Pi.
Arriving at Fox Studios’ Zanuck Theatre, the very room where Life of Pi’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack was mixed, we had the chance to sit down with Dolby...
January 2013
4 posts
Cornell University: World’s largest natural sound... →
cornelluniversity:
“In terms of speed and the breadth of material now accessible to anyone in the world, this is really revolutionary,” says audio curator Greg Budney, describing a major milestone just achieved by the Macaulay Library archive at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. All archived analog recordings in the…
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2013 CES - Day One
Sitting on the concrete steps, next to a sign that most of us are disregarding - “Do Not Sit On Stairs,” I’m beginning to understand what CES is really like, and while I’ve gotten lost a couple times, I’m left nearly breathless after lots of walking and some amazing gadgets.
There was the Intel booth, the first sight I saw as I came through the door, complete with a roof that glowed. There was...
December 2012
7 posts
WatchSotaro Tojima is a name that brings a smile to many gamers faces. Until recently, he was a personality that PlayStation lovers were likely to know for his work on the Metal Gear Solid franchise, one of that system’s staple exclusives, and now Xbox fans have gotten to hear his work on a major exclusive of their own, Halo 4.
As the audio lead on Halo 4, Tojima had control over all aspects of the...
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November 2012
6 posts
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Life of Pi and Rise of the Guardians in Dolby...
Life of Pi (Twentieth Century Fox) and Rise of the Guardians (Paramount Pictures / DreamWorks Animation’s) both open in Dolby® Atmos™ tomorrow, Wednesday November 21st with extraordinary soundscapes that transport audiences into the onscreen adventures.
Even the music sounds and feels different in Dolby Atmos. In the words of Life of Pi Composer Mychael Danna:
“Dolby Atmos is an incredible...
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The Creators Project
Technology is changing the game when it comes to the film industry. The Creators Project fills you in on nine of them, including Dolby Atmos!
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WatchIn Chasing Mavericks, we learned the story of Jay Moriarity, a surfer brave enough to ride some of the biggest waves in the world at Northern California’s Mavericks surf break. But before surfers can ride the waves, they need something to ride on. In this video, see one of the shapers who crafts surfboards by hand so that people like the characters in Chasing Mavericks can chase the perfect...
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October 2012
8 posts
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Chasing Mavericks in Dolby Atmos
Fox’s Chasing Mavericks is the latest film to be released with Dolby’s newest cinema sound technology, Dolby Atmos, and to celebrate we’re surrounding ourselves with surf culture. From familiarizing ourselves with the what drives a brave soul to ride big waves, to recording the local sounds of Santa Cruz, and now, to actually getting to try to ride some smaller surf of our own...
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Sounds of Your City - Chasing Mavericks and the...
Toward the beginning of the month, we launched our Sounds of Your City group on SoundCloud, soliciting sounds that define your city the way the sounds of Istanbul root Taken 2’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack in that ancient city. Now, as Fox release its second Dolby Atmos soundtrack, Chasing Mavericks brings the sounds of a surf town nearer to Dolby’s HQ in San Francisco, and that’s got us wondering -...
Treasure Island Music Festival 2012 - The XX Marks...
The worst time of the year has arrived: summer music festival season has finally started to wind down. Here in San Francisco I heard the fog whirl at Outside Lands and the banjos pluck away at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass — but that wasn’t enough for me. I doused myself in sunscreen and headed to Treasure Island Music Festival for the weekend to soak up some much needed sun and tunes. We...
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What does your city sound like?
In Taken 2, Liam Neeson’s character, former spy Bryan Mills, is thrust into the struggle of his life as he tries to locate his family in the bustling city of Istanbul. The film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack brings the city to life, relying on local sound signatures to bring you further into the movie’s world than visuals alone ever could.
Sound designers consciously create a soundscape around their...
Taken 2 and More to Come in Dolby Atmos
Last weekend, Twentieth Century Fox’s Taken 2 opened in Dolby® Atmos™ with an extraordinary soundscape that brings movie-goers into the action of Istanbul’s bustling streets.
Dolby conducted a special interview with the Taken 2 Dolby Atmos re-recording mixer, Chuck Michael (here). The video goes behind-the-mix with Chuck to show how Dolby Atmos puts viewers in the driver’s seat during an...
See Taken 2 in Dolby Atmos
So far, only one film has been released with Dolby Atmos, our latest advancement in cinema sound. Now, cinephiles with a love for movie sound have another chance to hear Dolby Atmos in action with the release of Taken 2.
In Taken 2, Liam Neeson reprises his role as Bryan Mills, a former secret agent who has made some enemies along the way. When they take his family, he… well, let’s just say he...
September 2012
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The World Premiere of Where The Trail Ends
Walking out of Las Vegas’ McCarran airport, the hot air hitting my face was the first of many almost concussive forces I would experience on my trip to the desert mecca. I had come to Vegas to see Red Bull Media House’s newest project, the big mountain freeride mountain biking film Where the Trail Ends.
Upon arrival at the Palms, home both to my room for the night and the Pearl Concert Theater...
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MadCatz's Tritton at PAX Prime
I just got back from Seattle, where I had the chance to check out PAX East. Awesome stuff on display - you can read more about the whole show here. In addition to the overall write-up, I wanted to take a moment let you know about a few new headsets coming from Tritton that use Dolby technologies. Chris Von Huben from Tritton, now part of MadCatz, was kind enough to walk me through a few of the...
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Introducing the Kindle Fire HD
You might have read that Amazon today revealed the next generation Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD. We’re proud to announce that launching with this landmark product is the next-generation Dolby Digital Plus for tablets, which sets the new standard for high-quality sound in mobile entertainment.
Years ago, few could have guessed that we would be watching movies, listening to music and playing games...
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PAX Prime 2012
I returned to the Northwest last Thursday for my first trip to PAX Prime. I’d heard about the show before, from articles about past installments as well as tips from friends who had attended in the past, but I don’t think it’s really possible for a person to prepare for PAX. It’s not like any other show I’ve ever been to.
The technicolor booths of E3 were there, some very literally the same...
August 2012
4 posts
Advanced 96kHz Upsampling: Improving on a Perfect...
At Dolby, we’re always looking to improve on our current technologies and your entertainment experiences. Whether it’s scaling up surround sound from Dolby Digital 5.1 to Dolby Atmos, or finding ways to make Dolby TrueHD lossless audio sound even better, we’re never satisfied. There does come a time, though, when the advances we’re making become subtler, more complex, more intensely orchestrated...
