The History of Immersive Sound in Cinema - Text 5
The use of sounds which “surround” us with the Surround system was for the most part limited to spectacular films, but always in a very occasional manner, as was the case for the Mark Robson film Earthquake in 1974. This is the film for which Universal Studios developed Sensurround. A generator of artificial seismic waves was set off during the earthquake sequences. Very low-frequency sound waves were reproduced in the movie theatre using a multitude of very powerful loudspeakers placed on the stage and in the rear corners. The process won an Academy Award, and the film won the Academy Award for best sound. In 1976, the process was improved for the Jack Smight film Midway, in which the sound effects, principally sounds of explosions and airplane engines, were stereophonic and also reproduced by very powerful loudspeakers placed in various locations in the hall in order to heighten the realism.
