Dolby marks 40 years in cinema with major digital cinema milestones

ORLANDO, USA: At ShowEast 2010, Dolby Laboratories Inc. announced that it has reached major digital cinema product milestones, demonstrating its continued leadership in the cinema industry spanning four decades. Since launching its digital cinema technologies, Dolby has attained the following landmark achievements:

* Shipped more than 6,000 Dolby Screen Servers since November 2005.
* Shipped more than 5,500 Dolby 3D Digital Cinema systems since November 2007.
* Shipped more than 4,000 Dolby CP750 Digital Cinema Processors since March 2009.
* Conducted more than 1,000 global installations of Dolby Surround 7.1 since June 2010.

“This year Dolby celebrates 40 years of delivering innovative sound solutions to the cinema industry. In that time, more than 25,000 films have been released using Dolby technology. Moreover, every film given an Academy Award for sound mixing in the last 30 years has had a soundtrack utilizing Dolby audio technologies,” said John Carey, VP, Worldwide Sales, Professional Products and Services, Dolby Laboratories.

“Dolby has helped filmmakers to realize and preserve their creative vision and to deliver movies that immerse audiences in the story. Dolby is proud to continue in that tradition with its newest image and sound innovations delivering the ultimate entertainment experience.”

Dolby 3D and Dolby Surround 7.1 together provide a premium entertainment experience by enabling the creation of fully immersing audio and 3D imagery and delivering that content as the artist or director intended. Whether it’s introducing sharp, realistic 3D images or providing rich audio definition, Dolby technologies make it possible to create a compelling sensory experience.

Launched with Disney-Pixar's Toy Story 3 and released with Disney’s Step Up 3D, Dolby Surround 7.1 is one of the most quickly adopted audio formats ever released by Dolby.

“Skywalker Sound was thrilled to partner with Pixar and Dolby Laboratories to create the new 7.1 format for Toy Story 3. Our creative collaboration with Dolby goes back many years, and the enhanced soundtrack is a true benefit for filmmakers and audiences alike,” said Tom Myers, Supervising Sound Editor, Re-Recording Mixer, Skywalker Sound. “During the mix, audio elements are laid out on close to 1,000 tracks, all playing simultaneously to provide maximum flexibility, and precise placement of sound.”

In addition, the following six films with Dolby Surround Sound 7.1 will be released soon:

* Disney’s Tangled, November 24, 2010
* Disney’s TRON: Legacy, December 17, 2010
* DreamWorks Animation’s Megamind, November 5, 2010
* Touchstone Pictures’s Gnomeo and Juliet, February 11, 2011
* Twentieth Century Fox’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, December 10, 2010
* Twentieth Century Fox’s Gulliver’s Travels, December 22, 2010

Dolby Surround 7.1 is being used in movies all over the world. Last month’s premiere of Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen signified the first Chinese film to be released in Dolby Surround 7.1. This month, Los Ojos De Julia (Julia’s Eyes) will be released at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain making it the first European film to use the format.