

And because there are no overhead speakers, the sounds cannot move above you. That's because channel-based sounds - particularly surround effects -have to be assigned to a general zone, not a specific location.

With conventional surround sound, you'll get the ambience, but the voice and clink come from vague locations - if you can pick them out at all. Now you're watching that same restaurant scene in a movie.

There's a general buzz of conversation and music all around, yet you can pick out an individual voice behind you or a clink of silverware from the terrace above you - and you can tell exactly where each sound is coming from. The improved speaker layout is a key to implementing the dramatic audio improvements of Dolby Atmos. In addition to the overhead speakers, Dolby Atmos typically adds more surround speakers and screen speakers. In a Dolby Atmos theater, every speaker - as many as 64 total - is powered independently and gets its own separate audio feed. All speakers within a zone receive the same audio information. The surround channels are handled by wall-mounted arrays of speakers, divided acoustically into two or four zones. The most immediately noticeable difference in a Dolby Atmos® system is the use of overhead speakers, but that's just part of the story.Ī typical surround sound system consists of left, center, and right discrete channels with the speakers behind the screen. The movie's sounds flow all around you to completely immerse you in the action, heightening the impact of the story and creating a powerfully moving cinema experience.įor information on installation requirements, check out the The Dolby Atmos cinema processor then determines which of a cinema's huge array of front, back, side, and overhead speakers it will use to recreate this lifelike movement.Īs a result, a Dolby Atmos soundtrack brings alive the onscreen story as never before possible. These can be precisely placed and moved by the soundtrack creator anywhere in the cinema's three-dimensional space, though the artist can continue to use channel capabilities as desired. It enables artists to treat specific sounds as individual entities, called audio objects.

In Dolby Atmos, by contrast, sound can be freed from channels. If one sound is emphasized in a traditional mix, another must be diminished. Further, sounds exist only as part of a channel mix. Traditional surround soundtracks confine all sounds to a small set of channels that can deliver sound to you from only a few perceived angles. Together, these completely change how soundtracks are created and heard. And to to mention I was not all that impressed with Atmos at first.Dolby Atmos® creates powerful, moving audio by introducing two important concepts to cinema sound: audio objects and overhead speakers. I had a placement issue I had to work out in my head before I decided to jump into it. Actually I'm a bit mad at myself for not doing it earlier.
#Dolby atmos 7.1 4 speaker placement pro#
I was floored how good Atmos sounded in my room and I felt that difference was much greater then when I went from Dolby Pro logic back in the day to Dolby Digital.Ībsolutely it is. The flat ceiling side I put a standard model Direct firing downward speaker which is the same exact speaker as the point. I decided that that angle would work to point the left side Atmos speaker downwards and it works awesome.
#Dolby atmos 7.1 4 speaker placement driver#
This is a angled driver designed for a front array that gives you a nice angle to fire the speaker towards the listener. Once I upgraded to 4k Dolby Vision and HDR I decided to use a In ceiling speaker on that left side called a POINT. When Atmos hit the market I went to a training on it and found it to be very cool but the speaker placement wasn't working for me as I have 14 foot ceilings in my family room and a slate ceiling on the left side where one of the Atmos speakers would need to go so I decided to bail on the upgrade. Then I moved to Pro logic, Digital then True HD. I started home theater back in the 80's with just dolby surround. And to to mention I was not all that impressed with Atmos at first.
