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High-Def Digest Chats with Dolby About 7.1 and 9.1 Surround
Wed Aug 18, 2010 at 03:00 PM ETTags: Dexter, Dolby, Michael S. Palmer (all tags)
By Michael S. Palmer
Dolby Laboratories was on hand last Saturday night at the 'Dexter Season 4' Blu-ray premier to talk multi-channel surround sound.
Here's a quick round up of what's available now in your local cinema, and for your home theater.
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Dolby 7.1 Surround
In an odd reversal of home theater helping to improve theatrical exhibition, Dolby reps explained their new Dolby 7.1 Surround system, which rolled out at cinemas earlier this summer in conjunction with the release of 'Toy Story 3.' Blu-ray and Dolby TrueHD have been capable of delivering 7.1 in the home since 2006, but 8-channel sound in the cinema utilizing four discrete rear channels is surprisingly brand new. Yes, Sony's SDDS is an 8-channel format and has been in select theaters since 1993, but SDDS has five front channels, and only two rears just like Dolby Digital and DTS. Have a look the next time you're at the movies. There may be upwards of 15 to 20 speakers around you at your local megaplex, but it's still only two channels, Left Surround and Right Surround.
At present, most films (and now TV shows like 'Dexter') are mixed for a 5.1 theatrical, broadcast, and home entertainment releases. According to Dolby, despite some Blu-rays featuring 7.1 soundtracks, what 7.1 owners have been experiencing thus far is more akin to an expanded 5.1 mix; similar to the results of using products like Dolby Pro Logic IIx or IIz. Meaning, the four rear channels aren't quite as specific, or discrete, as they can or should be; the two extra channels are simply extrapolated, or split from the original two channel rears and encoded discretely for the Blu-ray.
Dolby 7.1 Surround came about when Disney/Pixar was preparing 'Toy Story 3'. They approached Dolby because they wanted to ensure theatrical surround sound was keeping up with visual technological advances like 3D and digital projection. The trick was to create a significant, immersive upgrade without needing time-consuming and cost-prohibitive construction. With Dolby 7.1 Surround, cinema goers get two new channels (in addition to the standard Front Right, Center, Front Left, Left Surround, and Right Surround): Back Surround Left and Back Surround Right. Exhibitors, depending on the age of their surround sound processors, simply need a firmware upgrade and to change a few wires.
'Toy Story 3' is the first theatrical movie to use the new 7.1 format -- the first movie designed and mixed with 7.1 in mind from the gournd up -- and therefore, when it comes home on November 2, 'Toy Story 3' will be the first true 7.1 Blu-ray release (not adjusted after the fact for home video, and only ironically available via a 7.1 DTS-MA track).
Dolby is currently working with theater chains to retrofit existing cinemas with the new format. Click here to find out where you can experience Dolby 7.1 Surround in your area. Let us know in the forums if you saw 'Toy Story 3' in an upgraded theater with the above embedded trailer and tell us what you think.
Dolby Pro Logic IIz
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We spoke about Pro Logic IIx and IIz with Dolby last year, but it was fun to brush up on the subject again. For those who don't recall, Dolby Pro Logic IIx takes any stereo or 5.1 mix and upgrades it to 7.1 (Left, Center, Right, LFE, Left Surround, Back Surround Left, Right Surround, Back Surround Right).
Pro Logic IIz has a more interesting and complex pedigree. As described above both theatrically and in the home entertainment platform, 7.1 is an immersive sound environment, and will only become better as more and more films are mixed with that native capability. However, for many home theater fans, we're already pushing the limits of room logistics, and what our wives or girlfriends will tolerate in a decorative sense. The challenge for Dolby became how could they give an added value experience to all listeners, without adding another mandatory 100 feet of speaker cable to the back of the room (I'm of course paraphrasing and simplifying here).
To confront this challenge, they built the newest Pro Logic, IIz. One of Popular Science's "Best of What's New 2009", IIz is a 7.1 or optional 9.1 surround sound experience. In "7.1 Height" mode, home theater enthusiasts are able to take a 5.1 mix and add two more front "height" channels, a pair of satellite speakers, which should be placed at least a meter above the front channels at a 45 degree angle to give extra width. When getting a stereo, 5.1, or even 7.1 native source, IIz extracts "ambient sound and certain amorphous effects such as rain or wind" and directs them to these front height speakers. Dolby recommends Atlantic Technology (1400 SR-z, or other) for these height channels, and says one of the best demos for IIz is the rain in the opening moments of 'Ratatouille.'
With a 7.1 Pro Logic IIz AV receiver, customers have two options in how to run their system: 1) as a 5.1 plus the two height channels, or 2) as a traditional 7.1 system (four rear channels) without engaging the height channels.
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But wait, there's more! Available on more advanced (read: more expensive) AVRs equipped with IIz is a drool-inducing 9.1 surround sound. This is the traditional 7.1 Surround Sound (four rear channels) plus the two height channels. Dolby is also hoping to expand IIz into the video gaming world; while it already works with any 5.1 input, including of course Dolby Digital Live, they're hoping that game developers can add in these ambient sounds, such as helicopters buzzing over head, to really place players into their gaming universes.
As a format, Dolby Pro Logic IIz has a different set of skills for every listener out there. Personally, I can't wait to try it out myself. If anyone already has IIz and height speakers running, please drop us a line in the forums and tell us what you think. IIz is available on many new AVRs from Denon, Onkyo, Sony, and Marantz. Click here for a quick Pro Logic IIz demo.
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High-Def Digest Chats With Dexter's Emmy Nominated Sound Team
Wed Aug 18, 2010 at 09:00 AM ETTags: Michael. S. Palmer, Dolby, Dexter (all tags)
By Michael S. Palmer
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As part of High-Def Digest's ongoing coverage of Dolby's partnership with Paramount Home Entertainment for the August 17 'Dexter Season 4' Blu-ray release, we sat down with the show's own Elmo Ponsdomenech, a five-time Emmy and Cinema Audio Society nominee, and Kevin Roache, a first-time Emmy nominee and Cinema Audio Society nominee. As Sound Re-Recording Mixers for some of television's more cinematic and/or sound intensive shows, Elmo and Kevin's credits include not only 'Dexter', but also 'True Blood,' 'How to Make It in America,' 'Ugly Betty,' 'Monk,' 'Eastbound & Down,' 'Swingtown,' and 'Sleeper Cell,' among many others.
Elmo and Kevin are honored to be nominated for an Emmy; 'Dexter' has been very good to them (this is Elmo's second series nomination), providing a chance to do feature-quality work in a television environment, thanks to broadcast and home entertainment surround sound capabilities. But first and foremost, these two humble craftsmen wanted to shine the light on the entire 'Dexter' audio team, lead by Sound Supervisor Fred Judkins. It seems in the evolutionary chain of a television soundtrack, Re-Recording Mixers Elmo and Kevin are the last stop on the factory line made up of an army of sound artisans.
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So how does it work, how does a soundtrack develop from actors in a film studio to a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 immersive experience? For those outside of Los Angeles, Elmo and Kevin were gracious enough to share a simplified outline of the process, and then what it is they do to finish it up:
First, on set and/or location craftsman like the Production Sound Mixer and Boom operators (who hold the actual microphones) record the actors live. Next, as the editors, directors, and producers cut together the episode, choosing specific shots from many takes, the Dialogue Editor separates every line of dialogue from those takes -- the idea being that if every line of dialogue, piece of music, or sound effect is a separate entity, it gives the audio team more control to create a unique or subjective environment. Think of subjective sound as a way to get into a character's mind, or like a knife PLUNGING into Dexter's plastic-wrapped victims. The truth is we don't hear these sounds at significant volume in the real world, but in a cinematic environment, they create an emotional response, which serves the story.
While the dialogue is getting chopped, a Sound Effects Editor arranges for Foley and ADR sessions. Foley is a process where sounds are recorded to a live playback of the entire show; it is done for anything a human body touches. ADR (automatic dialogue replacement) is a process where an actor re-records his or her dialogue, trying to mimic the on set performance. This is done in order to overcome production sound challenges, which can include any unwanted noise, from a plane overhead to the film camera itself.
With each separate sound effect or piece of dialogue sweetened using technology such as Dolby's Noise Reduction, it's now time for Re-Recording Mixers like Elmo and Kevin. In a Pro Tools digital environment, Elmo and Kevin typically oversee 8 Foley tracks, 40 sound effects tracks (these are pre-recorded libraries covering both "hard effects" like gun shots or tires squealing, and "background effects" which are your general environment noises), 24 dialogue tracks, and 16 music tracks. All together, nearly 90 separate tracks – nearly 90 separate recordings -- running together, orchestrated or "mixed" at various volumes to bring you your surround sound experience.
What Kevin and Elmo then do is share these final mixing duties, with Kevin handling sound effects, and Elmo taking on music and dialogue before bringing every element together. These are the guys that decide when your subwoofer shakes your house, when music swirls and envelopes, or when bullets fly out of the back right of your living room and zoom across into the far left front channel.
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This final mix, this sound environment creation, involves a process called "masking." Television shows or feature films feel most real when the actual on set sounds are replaced -- masked -- by something wholly fictitious. While the aforementioned Production Mixers are very good, and get very tight sound, there are issues with things like "room tone." Take Dexter's apartment for example. It has fairly small rooms, and is filled with furniture. We all have experience with these environments; we know how they sound. Only 'Dexter' is not filmed in a real apartment, but rather the large open-air space of a Hollywood stage, which sounds completely different. Enter "masking," where Kevin builds the world of Dexter's apartment from many source: its small-room "tone" or resonance, a computer whirring, a refrigerator, seagulls and tourists outside, the nearby ocean, and some air, all combined at subtle levels to accent a more natural feeling and hide the off-sounding original recordings.
These elements combine not only to create realistic environments, but most important of all, to service the story being told. And the stunning part is they only have two days to do it (on Dexter; for the more sound-intensive 'True Blood', Elmo and Kevin have four short days).
Time is their antagonist, their constant challenge, but Kevin and Elmo love what they do, their best days ending with the delivery of a cinema quality soundscape for the small screen. One that meets not only the producers' creative wishes, but also Elmo and Kevin's own self-imposed high standards. After finishing, they deliver both a six channel mix (which is later encoded into 5.1 Dolby Digital for broadcast, and 5.1 Dolby TrueHD for Blu-ray) as well as a Dolby LTRT (Dolby ProLogic II) stereo version. The goal is to give audiences with different home speaker configurations (TV speakers, sound bar, satellites, floor standing, book shelf, 2.0, 2.1, 5.1, etc) a very similar experience, a complete experience. Yet, similar does not mean equal as Elmo said, "the only thing that separates the home audience from the full effect of the studio experience is how good your equipment is. It's all there for listeners now."
Sure, we know what the PR campaigns advertise (with 100 percent lossless encoding, Dolby TrueHD is "bit-for-bit identical to the studio master"), but here's your testimony not from some random reviewer on a blog or even a print journalist, but from the actual guys who made said studio master. And when they go home at the end of the day, Elmo and Kevin are proud to pop in a Blu-ray of their own shows, and hear or share their work with no degradation. And to that I say, huzzah for ear candy!
But we must remember one important thing, fellow high-def junkies: Kevin and Elmo may work in a fancy Hollywood recording studio, they may know how to economically and emotionally combine upwards of 90 digital sound elements to deliver a television show in six discrete channels , but they're consumer-enthusiasts just like you and me. They're fans, fans who also have families and budgets, which is why at home they run gear anyone can buy, and coincidentally near identical setups thanks to going to the store at the same time: a Samsung DLP 50" HDTVs, 5.1 Infinity Speakers (Elmo says 7.1 isn't necessary for most home environments), an Onkyo receiver, and a Sony Blu-ray player (Elmo's is dedicated, Kevin's is a PS3).
It's a fandom they bring to their work every day; one where they are more than happy to provide ear-tickling aggressive or active mixes for clients. In the case of 'True Blood', Elmo said Kevin is great at flying stuff around the speakers. He also likes to add Easter egg type elements (something they know they'll enjoy as fans) such a surprise surround sound pan, or what they together called a "house shaker" (heavy on the LFE) because it gets him excited as an artist, and as a consumer. They also like to stay very true to camera perspectives and angles, supporting the action on screen, as long as they support the dramatics. It doesn't matter how many gadgets they have or surround mixing capabilities, if a choice goes against story, it detracts from the whole experience. And Elmo and Kevin's job -- in stunning surround -- is always to enhance what you hear and sometimes, what you don't.
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High-Def Digest Attends The 'Dexter Season 4' Blu-ray Premiere in Miami Beach Hosted by Dolby and Jose Cuervo
Tue Aug 17, 2010 at 05:00 PM ETTags: Dexter, Dolby, Michael S. Palmer (all tags)
High-Def Digest's Michael S. Palmer was lucky enough to attend the 'Dexter Season 4' Blu-ray Premiere this past weekend in Miami Beach. Here are the details!
The National Hotel, Miami Beach. August 14, 2010.
It was a dark Saturday night, stifling and humid. Tensions thick as the crowd gathered. Nobody knew what to expect, really -- not then at least -- but I can tell you, dear reader, I can promise you this small truth. When the body was discovered floating across the pool, its chest wound fresh and blossoming crimson, there was only one thing on each witness' mind:
Murder!
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Well, that, or the question of what tequila-based cocktail to order next.
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Saturday night was a evening for all things 'Dexter', as Dolby and Jose Cuervo joined forces to celebrate the August 17 release of 'Dexter Season 4' on Blu-ray, featuring 1080p HD video and a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack.
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High-Def Digest was amazingly lucky to score an invite to the Showtime/Paramount Home Entertainment event, where the Dexter logo was an ice sculpture, and even the drinks were murder-most-foul themed, featuring the Killer Margarita and Blood Spatter Martini.
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Sadly, neither series star Michael C. Hall nor his recent nemesis John Lithgow (Trinity) were in attendance. But on hand for the festivities were 'Dexter' cast members C.S. Lee (who plays Vince Masuka), David Zayas (Angel Batista), and the very lively Lauren Vélez (Lt. Maria Laguerta). Ms. Vélez hit the dance floor early, inviting the crowd to join her, including this rhythmically challenged writer -- not wishing an immediate and guaranteed public embarrassment, I promptly ran the other way…
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Where I was able to watch 'Dexter Season 4' in Dolby's demo area. And thank goodness High-Def Digest was there. Lives may have been lost, marriages ruined, the world destroyed if some nerd (cough, me, cough) hadn't notice an error with the television's aspect ratio:
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Note the above letterboxing and black bars (whoops, who hasn't pressed the wrong button in a TV menu before?). The good news is the show's original 16x9 aspect ratio is preserved on the Blu-ray, and my quick thinking averted disaster. I expect the President to be calling me shortly to congratulate me and present me with a Congressional Medal of Honor.
Silliness aside, it was a grand evening, clearly embracing this evocative show's quirky tones. Click here to see more pictures of the party, courtesy of Dolby's Flickr account (cough, there's a girl wrapped in saran wrap, cough). 'Dexter Season 4' on Blu-ray Disc is out August 17, and 'Dexter Season 5' premiers Sunday, September 26 on Showtime.
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UPDATE: Just spoke with Paramount Home Entertainment regarding international releases. 'Dexter Season 4' will also be coming out on Blu-ray (and DVD) on Nov 29 in the UK, and Nov 4 in Australia. At this time, there is no word on other territories, or about Seasons 1 - 3. Cheers.
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