Sound Pioneer Ray Dolby Dies (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Collins]

Groundbreaking sound and recording pioneer Ray Dolby died Thursday at his home in San Francisco at the age of 80, Dolby Laboratories announced in a press release. He had been living with Alzheimer disease and was recently diagnosed with acute leukemia.

Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories in 1965. His work in noise reduction and surround sound led to the development of many state-of-the art technologies in movies, audio equipment and recording studios, for which he received more than 50 U.S. patents.

In the 48 years since Dr. Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories, the company has transformed the entertainment experience from the cinema to the living room to mobile entertainment. Tens of thousands of films and billions of products and devices with Dolby technologies have made their way to theaters, homes and consumers’ hands around the world. The industry has awarded Dolby Laboratories with 10 Academy Awards and 13 Emmy Awards for its groundbreaking achievements throughout the years.

A very sad day. I've used Dolby products since I was a tween.

 

[schan1269]

You would hope this makes mainstream news.

 

[zoetmb]

I must admit, this news was shocking to me.

Ray always said that when people found out who he was, they would say, "you're the guy with the switch." But they never really knew what the switch was for.

I remember him saying that he didn't think some of the advances were necessary (I forget whether he was referring to Dolby C or Dolby SR), but that his marketing people wanted these newer versions of Dolby processing.

It was Dolby's version of 70mm 6-track mag sound ("Baby Boom") that got everyone interested in high quality film sound again and while I never thought that Dolby Optical was that great, it certainly was better than what came before because it eliminated the Academy Curve, which started rolling off at 2KHz.

And Ray Dolby also worked on the team that invented practical video recording at Ampex. He was definitely a genius and it doesn't seem like there's many like him around anymore.

The company that he's left us seems to be doing pretty well and Dolby Atmos is pretty exciting (not that he would have had anything to do with its development.)

 

[gene c]

I actually met him briefly at Dolby's S.F. offices sometime in the mid 80's. I was working for some delivery company and was waiting in the front lobby. I was looking at something in an enclosed glass case and a distinguished gentleman came over and gave me a brief but detailed discription of what I was looking at (which went way over my head). Another gentleman entered the room and the receptionist introduced him to "Mr. Dolby". I over-heard Mr. Dolby mention that they were working on putting surround sound with 4 speakers in movie theaters. Again, I didn't really comprehend what he was saying at the time.I walked away thinking he really didn't have to engage me in a conversation like that. A true gentleman. RIP.

 

[Type A]

I'd say we need to have a moment of silence but that's not really fitting.

 

[gene c]

Remember, Dolby's early efforts were spent trying remove hiss from analog tapes. Maybe stick a blank tape in your cassette player ( ) and listen to a little "nothing" for a moment or two.

FWIW, I thought Dolby C was a huge improvement over Dolby B.