Why Dolby AtmosWhy Dolby Atmos

08—2020Your story made better in Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos has become the immersive audio standard for film and televisioncontent creation. Introduced first in the cinema, Dolby Atmos has been adopted by
the most popular streaming services such as Apple TV+, Disney+, and Netflix, and isalso being made widely available to mainstream audiences on millions of consumer
playback devices. Once used primarily on big-budget Hollywood films, Dolby Atmos
is being leveraged by content creators on a wider variety of content genres and types
than ever before. This is your opportunity to hear first-hand from some of thosecontent creators on how Dolby Atmos has enabled them to enhance their stories. Thispaper will demystify what Dolby Atmos is and why content creators should be creating
all of their content in Dolby Atmos.

“Dolby Atmos is a format and not a particular sound.
At Netflix, we feel the best mixes come when mixers
have excellent technology and the freedom to use
it in a way that best tells the story.”— Scott Kramer | Netflix

Dolby Atmos: From cinema to home
First utilized on Pixar’s 2012 film, Brave, Dolby Atmos introduced a new paradigm ofaudio creation and delivery in cinema, enabling filmmakers to fully immerse
moviegoers in their story’s soundscape. Today, that paradigm has also revolutionized
the home entertainment experience, bringing Dolby Atmos technology to the livingroom and enabling content creators to immerse viewers more deeply into theirstories. Many of today’s leading content services and their studio partners haveadopted
Dolby Atmos on feature films and episodic titles.
This adoption has led to the installation of Dolby Atmos systems in over 500 mix
rooms and thousands of creative professionals worldwide working in Dolby Atmos tomeet the aggressive demand for premium audio. The exponential growth of available
premium content is fueled largely by the proliferation of streaming services, rapid
adoption of UHD formats, and the increasing availability of premium format playback
devices to mainstream consumers. Now more than ever, content creators looking tobring compelling stories to home viewers are adopting Dolby Atmos as their default
audio-creation format.

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Much more than overhead soundFilmmakers, creatives and content providers who are unfamiliar with Dolby Atmos
might think of it as a niche technology for adding overhead sound effects to big
budget theatrical productions. “People… might assume it’s just 7.1 surround plus
overheads,” notes Cheryl Ottenritter of Ott House Audio in Washington DC MetroArea, who creates Dolby Atmos mixes mostly for documentary and non-fiction titles.
“It’s really all about the objects, and the ability to place, move, and size those objects
within the sound field.”
Even engineers new to working with the technology are surprised by it. “When I firststarted using it,” says re-recording engineer Nick Fry, of The Farm in England, “Ithought I can only use it if I have a plane moving overhead or if it’s raining.” But whenworking on Netflix’s documentary series, Formula One: Drive to Survive, his
understandingof Dolby Atmos evolved. “I began thinking beyond. If there’s a huge crash in front ofme, I can envelop the whole room with that crash. Once you’re less literal about it,“It’s really all about the objects, and the ability to place,
move, and size those objects within the sound field.”— Cheryl Ottenritter | Ott House Audio

it becomes another incredibly powerful sound tool — and clients love it.”
The main difference between surround sound and Dolby Atmos is “channel-basedmixing” versus “object-based mixing.” In traditional surround mixing, audio material isassigned to play out of specific channels — front three screen speakers, rear surrounds,
or, in the case of 7.1 surround, side speakers. Dolby Atmos allows a mixer to take any
track, whether an effect, voice, or music track element, and manipulate it as an object
that can be placed or moved anywhere within the 3D space of the room — without
directly assigning it to a particular speaker. For one film, The River and the Wall,
Ottenritter notes, “The editor really wanted to walk through this field and hear thebirds go by. He wanted to hear that bird right there, because that’s how it was when herecorded it in the field. Instead of ‘Oh, I hear it coming out of my left speaker,’ we wereable to create an immersive sound experience like he was back in the field again.”
Moving objects around in 3D space using the panner — versus assigning sounds tospecific channels in the 7.1 bed — can make all the difference in creating a clear,
immersive soundscape for audiences. According to Tim Hoogenakker, re-recording
mixer of Formosa Group, “It’s never just about what you’re putting in the heights. It’s
about filling in the space between the sides and the heights and the rears. You’recreating a 3D space all around you.” He says that even if you hardly pan anything to
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the top channels, you still get a large amount of depth by opening up the sides andliftingobjects up a little bit. In addition, panning audio in 5.1 or 7.1 can create jumps“It’s about filling in the space between the sides andthe heights and the rears. You’re creating a 3D space
all around you.”— Tim Hoogenakker | Formosa Groupbetween the speakers. Dolby Atmos helps ensure that sounds adapt to each viewer’sunique playback configuration, while moving fluidly and naturally around theirlistening environment.

Your mix, your way
Ultimately, Dolby Atmos is a tool designed to enable content creators to tell theirstories as they see fit. It wasn’t developed for one particular genre or specific methodof use. Ed Hoxsie, SVP of Worldwide Product Production at Paramount Pictures, says,“Each mixer controls their paintbrush differently. Dolby Atmos is not meant to makeone type of experience, such as a bombastic overhead mix, but rather provide themixer variable controls to trim, balance, separate, and push hard or soft in aural spaceslike never before.” He notes that some of the most impressive mixes are on quieter
movies where Dolby Atmos helps create the ambiance of a scene instead ofcontrolling it outright.
With Dolby Atmos, mixers can give different objects specific sizes to create contrast.
“It allows you to take advantage of the full dynamics of cinema sound,” explains“You can go from the biggest explosion to literally
hearing someone’s eyelid open, in a calm, gentle way.
You can go as deep or as shallow as you want.”— Adam Daniel | Point1Post

Point1Post (UK) re-recording mixer Adam Daniel (his father, Graham Daniel, helped
to build the first Dolby Stereo cinema installations in the 1970s.) “You can go from theWhy Dolby Atmos

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biggest explosion to literally hearing someone’s eyelid open, in a calm, gentle way.
You can go as deep or as shallow as you want.”

Mixing natively in Dolby Atmos also allows creatives to focus on one impactful mix
that delivers different experiences depending on the required deliverables of a studioor viewers’ playback configurations. Content created for or acquired by network andOver-the-Top (OTT) providers has to be available to viewers with every configuration:
Dolby Atmos, 5.1 / 7.1, or 2.0 stereo. Starting with a Dolby Atmos mix, mixers can takeadvantage of the system’s built-in algorithms to create accurate downward mixes“It’s like a master tape that, with the flick of a switch,allows you to jump between formats while mixing tomake sure everything translates smoothly.“— Nick Fry | The Farm

automatically. “That’s what I love about Dolby Atmos,” says Nick Fry, “It’s like a mastertape that, with the flick of a switch, allows you to jump between formats while mixing
to make sure everything translates smoothly.“ Mixing in Dolby Atmos isn’t just for
Dolby Atmos device owners. It delivers a better experience to any and all consumers— regardless of their playback device.

Not just for big blockbusters
Many of the content services leading the charge on experience innovation throughnew technologies — including Netflix, AppleTV+, and Disney+ — have adopted
Dolby Atmos as their premium audio format of choice. For example, Netflix has madehundreds of Netflix Original titles in Dolby Atmos available to their viewers — nearly
half of which are episodic series across multiple genres. Newer OTT services
AppleTV+ and Disney+ are also making Dolby Atmos a mainstay of their content
portfolio. One of the first services to adopt Dolby Atmos was Netflix. Scott Kramer,
Netflix’s Manager of Sound Technology, says they “believe in optimizing every content
experience. Each technology effort is part of bringing joy to our members. Therefore,
pursuing premium sound experiences is inherent to what we do.”Leading services and studios around the world now expect their most valuable titles
to be produced and provided in Dolby Atmos to ensure that they deliver the best
possible viewer experience. Paramount’s Ed Hoxsie says, “The ability to mix inDolby Atmos has become a standard that we expect from all of our vendors.” Thereis no question that over the past 10 years, the explosion of peak TV and streaming
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08—2020has brought about an accelerated elevation of television production value. The rapid
expansion of streaming and investment in original productions for the home willcontinue to fuel the race for providing content that best replicates the premium sightand sound experience of the cinema.
A proper Dolby Atmos experience that would have cost consumers thousands ofdollars just a few years ago is now available at a mainstream pricepoint. Currently,
there are over 250 different AVR and home-theater-in-a-box system models that
support Dolby Atmos. Consumers can also enjoy a Dolby Atmos experience using
Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbars, televisions with built-in speakers, and even acrossa broad range of more portable PCs, tablets and mobile devices. While each device
might not deliver exactly the same experience, any Atmos device is able to leveragean Atmos mix to deliver a more immersive and spectacular experience. EveryDolby Atmos-enabled device has been designed and tuned in collaboration withDolby and the device manufacturer to maximize the hardware capabilities and utilize
the object mix to render the audio experience that best fits that particular device.

Storytelling in Dolby Atmos“The ability to mix in Dolby Atmos has become astandard that we expect from all of our vendors.”— Ed Hoxsie | Paramount Pictures

The growth of streaming services has led to an explosion of content and rapid
innovation that has allowed premium content experiences to be delivered to everwider audiences. While the availability of ultra-high-definition (UHD) content may havebeen sparse just a few years ago, today many of the world’s leading streaming
providers have made it their norm. Whether you’re a studio, a production company,
a post facility, or an independent mixer, embracing Dolby Atmos not only offers an
innovative audio toolbox to craft more compelling soundscapes and spectacularaudio experiences, but it also ensures your relevance in the increasingly important
home entertainment arena. Netflix’s Scott Kramer may have said it best: “Dolby Atmos
is a format and not a particular sound. At Netflix, we feel the best mixes come whenmixers have excellent technology and the freedom to use it in a way that best tells thestory. Dolby provides the tech, then great mixers do their thing.”

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