Dolby Laboratories

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB), often shortened to Dolby Labs, is a Britis
h-found USA-based company specializing in audio noise reduction and audio encodi
ng/compression.

[History]
Dolby Labs was founded by Ray Dolby in Britain in 1965. He moved the company to
the United States (San Francisco, California) in 1976. The first product he made
was Type A Dolby Noise Reduction, a simple compander. One of the features that
set Dolby's compander apart was that it treated only the quiet sounds that would
be masked by tape noise. Dolby marketed the product to record companies.
Dolby was persuaded by Henry Kloss of KLH to manufacture a consumer version of h
is noise reduction. Dolby worked more on companding systems and introduced Type
B in 1968.
Dolby did not manufacture consumer products outright; it licensed the technologi
es to consumer electronics manufacturers.
Dolby also sought to improve film sound. As the corporation's history explains:
Upon investigation, Dolby found that many of the limitations in optical soun
d stemmed directly from its significantly high background noise. To filter this
noise, the high-frequency response of theatre playback systems was deliberately
curtailed To make matters worse, to increase dialogue intelligibility over such s
ystems, sound mixers were recording soundtracks with so much high-frequency pre-
emphasis that high distortion resulted.
The first film with Dolby sound was A Clockwork Orange (1971), which used Dolby
noise reduction on all pre-mixes and masters, but a conventional optical sound t
rack on release prints. Callan (1974) was the first film with a Dolby-encoded op
tical soundtrack. In 1975 Dolby released Dolby Stereo, which included a noise re
duction system in addition to more audio channels (Dolby Stereo could actually c
ontain additional center and surround channels matrixed from the left and right)
. The first film with a Dolby-encoded stereo optical soundtrack was Lisztomania
(1975), although this only used an LCR (Left-Center-Right) encoding technique. T
he first true LCRS (Left-Center-Right-Surround) soundtrack was encoded on the mo
vie A Star Is Born in 1976. In less than ten years, 6,000 cinemas worldwide were
equipped to use Dolby Stereo sound. Dolby reworked the system slightly for home
use and introduced Dolby Surround, which only extracted a surround channel, and
the more impressive Dolby Pro Logic, which was the domestic equivalent of the t
heatrical Dolby Stereo.
Dolby developed a digital surround sound compression scheme for the cinema. Dolb
y Stereo Digital (now simply called Dolby Digital) was first featured on the 199
2 film Batman Returns. Introduced to the home theater market as Dolby AC-3 with
the 1995 laserdisc release of Clear and Present Danger, the format did not becom
e widespread in the consumer market, partly because of extra hardware that was n
ecessary to make use of it, until it was adopted as part of the DVD specificatio
n. Dolby Digital is now found in the HDTV (ATSC) standard of the USA, DVD player
s, and many satellite-TV and cable-TV receivers. Dolby too developed a digital s
urround sound compression scheme for TV series The Simpsons.
On February 17, 2005, the company became public, offering stock for sale on the
New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DLB.
On March 15, 2005, Dolby celebrated forty years of enhancing entertainment at th
e ShoWest 2005 Festival in San Francisco.
On January 8, 2007, Dolby announced the arrival of an entirely new product calle
d Dolby Volume at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This produc
t enables users to maintain a steady volume while switching through channels or
program elements (i.e., loud TV commercials).
Ray Dolby is a member of the Forbes 400 with an estimated net worth of $2.7 bill
ion[1] in 2008.

{Technologies}
[Analog audio noise reduction]
* Dolby A/B/C/S-Type NR: professional and consumer noise reduction systems f
or tapes and analog cassettes.
* Dolby SR (Spectral Recording): professional four-channel noise reduction s
ystem in use since 1986, which improves the dynamic range of analog recordings a
nd transmissions by as much as 25 dB. Dolby SR is utilized by recording and post
-production engineers, broadcasters, and other audio professionals. It is also t
he benchmark in analog film sound, being included today on nearly all 35 mm film
prints. On films with digital soundtracks, the SR track is used in cinemas not
equipped for digital playback, and it serves as a backup in case of problems wit
h the digital track.
* Dolby FM: noise reduction system for FM broadcast radio. Dolby FM used Dol
by B, combined with 25 microsecond pre-emphasis. This system integrated into a s
mall number of receivers, and was used by a few radio stations in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. The system is no longer used, however.
* Dolby HX Pro: single-ended system used on high-end tape recorders to incre
ase headroom. The recording bias is varied with respect to the high frequency co
mponent of the signal being recorded. It does nothing to the actual audio that's
being recorded, and doesn't require a special decoder. Any HX Pro recorded tape
will have, in theory, better sound on any deck.

[Audio encoding/compression]
* Dolby Digital (also known as AC-3): is a lossy audio compression format. I
t supports channel configurations from mono up to six discrete channels (referre
d to as "5.1"). This format first allowed and popularized surround sound. It was
first developed for movie theater sound and spread to Laserdisc and DVD. It has
been adopted in many broadcast formats including all North American digital tel
evision (ATSC), DVB-T, direct broadcast satellite, cable television, DTMB, IPTV,
and surround sound radio services. It is also part of both the Blu-ray and the
now defunct HD DVD standards. Dolby Digital is used to enable surround sound out
put by most video game consoles. Several personal computers support converting a
ll audio to Dolby Digital for output.
o Dolby Digital EX: introduces a matrix-encoded center rear surround c
hannel to Dolby Digital for 6.1 channel output.[2] This center rear channel is o
ften split to two rear back speakers for 7.1 channel output.
o Dolby Digital Plus: audio codec based on Dolby Digital that is backw
ard compatible, but more advanced. The DVD Forum has selected Dolby Digital Plus
 as a standard audio format for HD DVD video. It supports datarates up to 6 Mbyt
e/s, an increase from Dolby Digital's 640 kbit/s maximum. Dolby Digital Plus is
also optimized for limited datarate environments such as Digital broadcasting.
o Dolby Digital Live is a real-time hardware encoding technology for i
nteractive media such as video games. It converts any audio signals on a PC or g
ame console into the 5.1-channel Dolby Digital format and transports it via a si
ngle S/PDIF cable.[3] A similar technology known as DTS Connect is available fro
m competitor DTS.
*
Dolby E selected hardware.
Dolby E: professional coding system optimized for the distribution of surr
ound and multichannel audio through digital two-channel post-production and broa
dcasting infrastructures, or for recording surround audio on two audio tracks of
conventional digital video tapes, video servers, communication links, switchers
, and routers. The Dolby E signal does not reach viewers at home. It is transcod
ed to Dolby Digital at lower datarate for final DTV transmission.
* Dolby Stereo (also known as Dolby Analog): original analog optical technol
ogy developed for 35 mm prints and is encoded with four sound channels: Left/Cen
ter/Right (which are located behind the screen) and Surround (which is heard ove
r speakers on the sides and rear of the theatre) for ambient sound and special e
ffects. This technology also employs A-type or SR-type noise reduction, listed a
bove with regards to analog cassette tapes. See also Dolby Surround
* Dolby TrueHD: Dolby's current lossless coding technology. It offers bit-fo
r-bit sound reproduction identical to the studio master. Over seven full-range 2
4-bit/96 kHz discrete channels are supported (plus a LFE channel, making it 7.1
surround) along with the HDMI interface. It has been selected as the mandatory f
ormat for HD DVD and as an optional format for Blu-ray Disc. Theoretically, Dolb
y True HD can support more channels, but this number has been limited to 8 for H
D DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
* AAC[4]
* aacPlus[5]
* Dolby Pulse: To be released in 2009, it is identical to the HE-AAC v2 code
c except for the addition of Dolby metadata, which is common to Dolby's other di
gital audio codecs. This metadata "ensures consistency of broadcast quality."

[Audio processing]
* Dolby Headphone: an implementation of virtual surround, simulating 5.1 sur
round sound in a standard pair of stereo headphones.
* Dolby Virtual Speaker: simulates 5.1 surround sound in a setup of two stan
dard stereo speakers.
* Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Pro Logic IIx: expands stereo c
ontent to surround sound
* Audistry: sound enhancement technologies
* Dolby Volume: reduces volume level changes
* Dolby Mobile: A version of Dolby's surround sound technology specifically
designed for mobile phones, notably the LG Arena and LG Renoir

[Video processing]
* Dolby Contrast provides enhanced image contrast to LCD screens with LED ba
cklight units by means of local dimming.
* Dolby Vision
[Digital Cinema]
* Dolby Digital Cinema
* Dolby 3D [1]
[Live Sound]
* Dolby Lake Processor