The History of Immersive Sound in Cinema - Text 7
With the new processes developed for entirely digital cinema, the history of immersive sound saw a veritable revolution. The final processes developed by Dolby and DTS for photochemical cinema had increased the number of rear channels to three distinct tracks. At first, in the shift to entirely digital cinema, companies developed systems with four rear channels, but the almost boundless possibilities of digital media quickly made it possible to provide an unlimited number of tracks. Stereophonic rear sources now take the form of “levels” on which a greater number of loudspeakers is placed. In 2012, Dolby introduced the two-level rear Atmos system, with one series of loudspeakers placed at the top of the walls, almost at the ceiling, and a second level of speakers placed in the ceiling. The Aura 3D and DTS-X companies introduced three levels of loudspeakers: level 1 includes a series of speakers on the walls at ear height, level 2 a series of speakers almost at ceiling height, and level 3 a series of speakers in the ceiling. Finally, the company Flexound, in order to “reinforce the immersive sound,” has created a process in which speakers are placed directly in the theatre seats, with physical effects in the low frequencies which make the seats vibrate.
What does the future hold?
