Dolby Laboratories

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 be experiencing more of the Interactive portion, and participating in the Dolby Sound Exchange, where show-goers can relax and recharge while checking out the Games Expo at the Palmer Events Center.

If you’re heading to the festival with us, take a look at my final post from last year’s installment, a handy list of things that make the SXSW experience more relaxed and more fun, and link up with Dolby on Facebook and Twitter - who knows, we might just run into each other! Check out a Dolby-curated list of fun events at the festival on Gravy, including parties put on by friends of ours like Red Bull and Sennheiser, as well as a special performance by Mike Relm, the A/V wizard behind this Oscar-themed remix.

Even if you can’t come, let us know what you wish you were seeing. With all the music, movies, games, and groundbreaking apps coming out of Austin every year, I’m bound to miss something. Give me a hand finding the best SXSW has to offer and, if I make it to the events, I promise to share something on Dolby’s social media channels!

- Thom Brekke is Dolby’s Community Manager and the guy you are likely to hear from on Facebook and Twitter.  He is also a computer musician, Oregon Ducks football fan, and dance floor freak.

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 sparkling in the sun.

We were also treated with a sneak peek of the food that will be served at the Governors Ball after the Oscar broadcast is over.  Wolfgang Puck himself was on hand to share his food and beverage selections.

Mr. Puck’s pastry chef, Sherry Yard is responsible for the sweets including the gold dusting that the Oscars cake gets.

The Dolby Theatre neon sign is set to be lit up tonight and we are all excited to see what it will look like against the LA skyline.

Stay tuned for more on-the-ground Oscars reports!  You can keep up on all the action on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter as well!

Andi Fisher just might be slightly addicted to social media. By day she runs Dolby Laboratories social media program, by night she is a travel and food blogger who also happens to love film. When not in a cinema seeing a new release she is watching a movie every night on either her 5.1 or 7.1 home theater system.

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.

The side-street was blocked off from traffic so that the two cranes that would be used to lift the sign could have the room they needed to maneuver. The sign weighs 6000 pounds!

The installation team stopped to inspect the sign every step of the way which left plenty of time for photo opps.

The sign was in two pieces and needed to be mounted together and then raised to the top of the building.

The sign right before it was put together:

Moving the Dolby Theatre piece was a bit tricky because they had to maneuver around a street lamp, a couple of times I thought they were going to knock it over!

But they got it going in the right direction.

And perfectly placed.

In place and ready to be lifted.

Going up!

And it’s off!

I didn’t see the rest of the process because it (a) started raining a lot heavier and (b) I had to jam over to the Dolby Theatre to take some shots of press interviews, but I got this iPhone photo from our videographer/photographer team covering the event:

I’ll be back tomorrow for another report.  Plus the sign it going to be lit up on Thursday evening so don’t forget to check out more photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!

Andi Fisher just might be slightly addicted to social media. By day she runs Dolby Laboratories social media program, by night she is a travel and food blogger who also happens to love film. When not in a cinema seeing a new release she is watching a movie every night on either her 5.1 or 7.1 home theater system.

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 Atmos mixer Erin Rettig for a brief interview about his work on Life of Pi and the upcoming fifth-installment of the Die Hard series. As we wrapped that up and grabbed a quick bite, our guest began arriving.

We began the evening with a panel discussion centered around the innovative uses of Dolby Atmos in Life of Pi, and where the format can be taken. 

The panel, comprising Ted Gagliano, President of Post Production for Twentieth Century Fox; Douglas Hemphill, re-recording sound mixer for Life of Pi; Ronald Bartlett, re-recording sound mixer for Life of Pi; Erin Rettig, Dolby Atmos mix tech for Life of Pi, Andy Potvin, senior staff engineer at Dolby Laboratories, and moderated by Dolby’s Stuart Bowling, got right into discussing the ways in which this new format is ripe for experimentation, and that each new film brings new techniques and new challenges to light.

One anecdote offered by Hemphill concerned the moment he first played back the Dolby Atmos mix of the film’s score to the composer Mychael Danna, who, Hemphill said, told him it was a very tasteful mix - perhaps too tasteful, even. The sound team went to work distributing the score more adventurously, and eventually landed on a happy medium that comes to the audience differently than most.

You see, in the average movie theater, the fullest sounding speakers all live behind the screen, with the surrounds being used less for full-range work than effects, supplemented by subwoofers. Dolby Atmos setups employ more full-range speakers, allowing for a wider, more enveloping soundstage for the score. 

As a result, the sound team behind Life of Pi was able to place the chorus in the back of the room, as per Danna’s request, and distribute the rest of the music more evenly throughout the room, even making use of the ceiling.

It goes without saying that some of the most impressive parts of the movie and its soundtrack need to be seen and heard to be believed, but the panel prepared the audience for one aspect of the screening they might not have been ready for; in many cases, it’s not about flashy mixing and effects as much as it’s about surrounding the audience with the story, something that the Life of Pi team said Dolby Atmos enabled them to do a greater extent than they’d imagined.

After the panel, attendees stepped outside for a few cocktails and conversations before we began the film. By the time we all saw the Dolby logo scroll by toward the end of the credits, it was obvious what a talented filmmaker, a dedicated sound team, and a lot of amazing technology can do to bring what was once thought of as a story too unbelievable for the movies to life on screen.

- Thom Brekke is Dolby’s Community Manager and the guy you are likely to hear from on Facebook and Twitter.  He is also a computer musician, Oregon Ducks football fan, and dance floor freak.