The evolution of surround sound in the theater and home (1 Viewer)

[Martin Dew]

Many of the audio and video technologies we use regularly today in our homes, and on our electronic devices, are directly indebted to professional cinema. Two-channel stereo, all iterations of surround sound, and even the aspect ratios of our televisions and computer screens, derive their origins from the local fleapit. The genesis of surround sound, however, goes back further than most think.
Only three auditoriums were equipped with Disney’s revolutionary ‘Fantasound’ for the war-time release of Fantasia in 1941. Costing a staggering $85,000 for a 54-speaker fit out in each location, it’s not surprising that New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco were the only three cities to get a taste of the first documented presentations of surround sound. Walt Disney himself, with the help of Bell Labs, can therefore be fairly credited with the invention of cinematic surround sound (in this case, three front screen channels and two rear channels of discrete audio).
To compete with the black...

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[Tino]

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[John Dirk]

Great article, Martin. I'm hoping the next advance will be in the direction of computational audio mentioned by @DaveF in another thread.

 

[Todd Erwin]

What about CDS, the precursor to Dolby Digital, developed by Kodak for Dick Tracy?

 

[Martin Dew]

What about CDS, the precursor to Dolby Digital, developed by Kodak for Dick Tracy?

Yup, good call. There are a lot of entries in the timeline that I could have included or expanded on, but decided to stick to >1k words. Hope I've got most of the key moments here, though.

 

[Martin Dew]

Tino, not sure my article has a logical home based on our in-built categories, but I've repositioned the article in 'AV Receivers' forum.