Dolby Laboratories, Inc. ( Dolby Labs or simply Dolby) is a British-American technology corporation specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and high-dynamic-range television (HDR) imaging. Dolby its technologies to consumer electronics manufacturers.
History
Dolby Labs was founded by
Ray Dolby (1933–2013) in
London, England, in 1965.
In the same year, he invented the Dolby Noise Reduction system, a form of audio signal processing for reducing the background hissing sound on
cassette tape recordings.
His first U.S. patent on the technology was filed in 1969, four years later. The method was first used by
Decca Records in the UK.
After this, other companies began purchasing Dolby’s A301 technology, which was the professional noise reduction system used in recording, motion picture, broadcasting stations and communications networks.
These companies include
BBC,
Pye Records, IBC, CBS Studios, RCA, and Granada.
He moved the company headquarters to the United States (San Francisco, California) in 1976.
Dolby was persuaded by Henry Kloss of KLH to manufacture a consumer version of his noise reduction. Dolby worked more on companding systems and introduced Type B in 1968.
Dolby also sought to improve film sound. As the corporation's history explains:
- Upon investigation, Dolby found that many of the limitations in optical sound 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 systems, 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). The company was approached by Stanley Kubrick, who wanted to use Dolby’s noise reduction system to facilitate the film’s extensive mixing.
Dolby developed a digital surround sound compression scheme for the cinema. Dolby Stereo Digital (now simply called Dolby Digital) was first featured on the 1992 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 become widespread in the consumer market, partly because extra hardware was needed to make use of it, until it was adopted as part of the DVD specification. Dolby Digital is now found in the HDTV (ATSC) standard of the United States, , and many satellite-TV and cable-TV receivers. Dolby developed a digital surround sound compression scheme for the TV series The Simpsons.
On February 17, 2005, the company became public company, offering its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol DLB. On March 15, 2005, Dolby celebrated its 40th anniversary at the ShoWest 2005 Festival in San Francisco.
On January 8, 2007, Dolby announced the arrival of Dolby Volume at the International Consumer Electronics Show.
On June 18, 2010, Dolby introduced Dolby Surround 7.1, which added two rear surround channels to the 5.1 format. The first film to be released in this format was Pixar's Toy Story 3.
In April 2012, Dolby introduced Dolby Atmos, a new cinema technology adding overhead sound, first applied in Pixar's motion picture Brave.
On February 24, 2014, Dolby acquired Doremi Labs for $92.5 million in cash plus an additional $20 million in contingent consideration that may be earned over a four-year period.
In May 2015, Dolby reopened the Vine Theatre, Hollywood as a 70-seat showcase theater, known as Dolby @ Vine or Dolby Screening Room Hollywood Vine.
In May 2019, Dolby added Dolby Atmos to hundreds of newer songs in the music industry.
In May 2020, Dolby launched a developer platform, Dolby.io, aimed at providing developers self-service access to Dolby technologies through public APIs. It allows any person, organization, small and big, to integrate in their websites, apps, games, etc. features such as media enhancements and transcoding, spatial audio, high-quality video communication and low-latency streaming.
In May 2025, BBC Radio 4 broadcast Surrounded by Sound: Ray Dolby and the Art of Noise Reduction to mark Dolby Laboratories' 60th anniversary. This included interviews with his widow Dagmar and two of the first Dolby sound engineers, David Robinson and Ioan Allen (who still worked at the company), and Crimson Tide and Armageddon sound designer . A version of the programme was made in binaural sound.
Technologies
Analog audio noise reduction
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Dolby A: professional noise reduction systems for analog reel-to-reel tape and cassettes.
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Dolby NR/Dolby B/Dolby C/Dolby S: consumer noise reduction systems for tapes and analog cassettes.
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Dolby SR (Spectral Recording): professional four-channel noise reduction system in use since 1986, which improves the dynamic range of analog recordings and transmissions by as much as 25 decibel. Dolby SR is utilized by recording and post-production engineers, broadcasters, and other audio professionals. It is also the 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 with the digital track.
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Dolby FM: noise reduction system for FM broadcast radio. Dolby FM was tried by a few radio stations starting with WFMT in 1971. It used Dolby B, combined with 25 microsecond pre-emphasis. A small number of models of tuners and receivers were offered with the necessary decoder built in. In addition, a few cassette deck models appeared that allowed the deck's internal Dolby B decoder to be put in the line level pass-through path, permitting its use with Dolby FM broadcasts. The system was not successful and was on the decline by 1974.
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Dolby HX Pro: single-ended system used on high-end tape recorders to increase headroom. The recording Tape bias is lowered as the high-frequency component of the signal being recorded increases, and vice versa. It does nothing to the actual audio that is being recorded, and it does not require a special decoder. Any HX Pro recorded tape will have, in theory, better sound on any deck.
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Dolby Advanced Audio: Dolby surround sound, locking preferred volume level, optimizes audio performance for specific PC models and lets turning up the volume to the built-in speakers without distorting the sound.
Audio encoding/compression
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Dolby Surround
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Dolby Digital (also known as AC-3) is a lossy audio compression format. It supports channel configurations from mono up to six discrete channels (referred 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 ATSC standards, 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 output by most video game consoles. Several personal computers support converting all audio to Dolby Digital for output.
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Dolby Digital EX: introduces a matrix-encoded center rear surround channel to Dolby Digital for 6.1 channel output.
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Dolby Digital Plus (also known as E-AC-3) is a lossy audio codec based on Dolby Digital that is backward compatible, but more advanced. The DVD Forum has selected Dolby Digital Plus as a standard audio format for HD DVD video. It supports data rates up to 6 Mbit/s, an increase from Dolby Digital's 640 kbit/s maximum. On Blu-ray, Dolby Digital Plus is implemented differently, as a legacy 640 kbit/s Dolby Digital stream plus an additional stream to expand the surround sound, with a total bandwidth of approximately 1.7 Mbit/s. Dolby Digital Plus is also optimized for limited data-rate environments such as Digital broadcasting.
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Dolby Digital Live is a real-time hardware encoding technology for interactive media such as . It converts any audio signals on a PC or game console into the 5.1-channel Dolby Digital format and transports it via a single S/PDIF cable.
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Dolby E: professional coding system optimized for the distribution of surround and multichannel audio through digital two-channel post-production and broadcasting 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 transcoded to Dolby Digital at a lower data rate for final DTV transmission.
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Dolby Stereo (also known as Stereo A): original analog optical technology developed for 35 mm prints and is encoded with four sound channels: Left/Center/Right (which are located behind the screen) and Surround (which is heard over speakers on the sides and rear of the theatre) for ambient sound and special effects. This technology also employs A-type or SR-type noise reduction, listed above with regards to analog cassette tapes. See also Dolby Surround
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Dolby TrueHD: Offers bit-for-bit sound reproduction identical to the studio master. Over seven full-range 24-bit/96 kHz discrete channels are supported (plus an LFE channel, making it 7.1 surround) along with the HDMI interface. Theoretically, Dolby TrueHD can support more channels, but this number has been limited to 8 for HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
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HE-AAC: released in 2009, it is identical to the HE-AAC v2 codec except for the addition of Dolby metadata, which is common for Dolby's other digital audio codecs. This metadata "ensures consistency of broadcast quality."
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Dolby AC-4 is a lossy audio compression format that can contain audio channels and/or audio objects.
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Dolby Atmos is a suite of technologies for immersive audio having both horizontal and vertical sound placement, using a combination of channel and object-based mixing and delivery. It was first introduced in cinemas with Brave (2012 film). The first game released with Dolby Atmos audio was Star Wars Battlefront (2015 video game). The means of delivering the channels and objects differ given the technical limitations across different media, and the target platform. Dolby Atmos is not a codec; on the consumer market, pre-recorded Dolby Atmos is delivered as an extension to a Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, or Dolby AC-4 stream.
Audio processing
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Dolby Headphone: an implementation of virtual surround, simulating 5.1 surround sound in a standard pair of stereo headphones.
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Dolby Virtual Speaker: simulates 5.1 surround sound in a setup of two standard stereo speakers.
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Dolby Surround, Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, and Dolby Pro Logic IIz: these decoders expand sound to a greater number of channels. All can decode surround sound that has been matrixed into two channels; some can expand surround sound to a greater number of speakers than the original source material. See the referenced articles for more details on each decoder.
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Audistry: sound enhancement technologies.
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Dolby Volume: reduces volume level changes.
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Dolby Mobile: A version of Dolby's surround sound technology specifically designed for mobile phones, notably the HTC Desire HD, LG Arena and LG Renoir.
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Dolby Audio Plug-in for Android: An API packaged as a Java Library that allows Android Developers to take advantage of Dolby Digital Plus Technology embedded into mobile and tablet devices, notably the Fire HD, Fire HDX, and Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 series.
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Dolby Voice: Hardware and software products for enterprise-level web conferencing.
Video processing
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Dolby Contrast provides enhanced image contrast to LCD screens with LED backlight units by means of local dimming.
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Perceptual Quantizer (PQ),
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Dolby Vision is a content mastering and delivery format similar to the HDR10 media profile. It supports both high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (ITU-R Rec. 2020 and 2100) at all stages from content creation and production to transmission and playback. Dolby Vision includes the Perceptual Quantizier (SMPTE ST-2084) electro-optical transfer function and supports displays with up to 10,000-nit maximum brightness (4,000-nit in practice). It also provides up to 8K resolution and color depth of up to 12-bits (backwards compatible with current 8-bit and 10-bit displays).
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ICtCp provides an improved color representation that is designed for high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (WCG).
Digital cinema
Live sound
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Dolby Lake Processor
Over the years Dolby has introduced several surround sound systems. Their differences are explained below.
Dolby matrix surround systems
Dolby discrete surround systems
Controversy
ATSC
Dolby Digital AC-3 is used as the
audio codec for the
ATSC standards, though it was standardized as A/52 by the ATSC. It allows the transport of up to five channels of sound with a sixth channel for low-frequency effects (the so-called "5.1" configuration). In contrast, Japanese
ISDB HDTV broadcasts use MPEG's Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) as the audio codec, which also allows 5.1 audio output.
DVB allows both.
MPEG-2 audio was a contender for the ATSC standard during the "Grand Alliance" shootout, but lost out to Dolby AC-3. The Grand Alliance issued a statement finding the MPEG-2 system to be "essentially equivalent" to Dolby, but only after the Dolby selection had been made. Later, a story emerged that MIT had entered into an agreement with Dolby whereupon the university would be awarded a large sum of money if the MPEG-2 system was rejected. Dolby also offered an incentive for Zenith to switch their vote (which they did); however, it is unknown whether they accepted the offer.
See also
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CX (analog noise reduction competitor)
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dbx (analog noise reduction competitor)
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High Com (analog noise reduction competitor)
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DTS (digital soundspace competitor)
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Meridian Lossless Packing (lossless coding for DVD-Audio)
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SRS Labs (surround sound competitor)
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Beats Audio (digital soundspace competitor)
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Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (digital soundspace competitor)
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Dolby Theatre
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THX
External links
