Boxoffice-June.1995

ANNIVERSARY SALUTE
NOISES OFF
CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF
SOUND IDEAS WITH RAY DOLBY
OF DOLBY LABORATORIES
By Ray Greene
Editor-in-Chief
Dolby. Wliett it comes to audio applications
tubbing
for theatrical etivironments, it's one of those
equipment At that
. ,
time, it ^^•as the practice to
names to conjure with.
re-record the whole reel
_
Tbckqj, it seems like everyone is in the process of upgrading to one or the oilwrofthe "state every time tliere was a misoftlte
art" audio systetiis available to exhibitors. But it wasn't alivays tliat ivay. Regai'dless take so that you ended up
of individual sound system preferences, modem exhibition is more than a bit obliged to Ray ^""'^^
several generations or
Dolby , whose pioneering role in the popidaiization of higlier moine sound standards could ,.1 c i
^^ i, , c
almost be likeiwd to tliat of Hcniy Ford and the popularization oftlie automobile. course these film dubbin^
Tlie fact that Dolby us cunvntly celebrating its 30th annivei'sanj says something about the units were verj' poor in
tenacity of Dolby's early sti7igglcs to coninnce the world that bcttei- acoustic quality was not terms of tlneir frequency rejust
possible but desirable for theatrical exhibition. Tlie pitched battle that cwrentlij rages ®P°"^^ ^"f distortion, they
ygg^J ygjy [g^, Jjjgg trCqUeilaround
tlie
'^ ^ -a
.
three competing (and acoustically supei'b) digital delivciij fonnats should not cies and equalization characobsciirc
the debt that anyone who seeks to create an audiophilc quality listening environment teristics that resulted in a lot
in movichouscs owes to Ray Dolby. He iias among the fiist to push for a better wcqj, and tlie
battles lie fought and eventually won made tlie path of those whofolloiivd tliat much easier
to travel.
'^ ' '
of distoition. I realized tliat a
big clean-up operation had to
^e done before I could apply
my noise reduction unit in
Bo.xoFFiCE: ^Vhat is tlic Ijcginning of
the story of Dolby Laboratories':'
DOLBY; The beginning was my identification
of die fact that film sound was really
in very, very bad shape back in the mid-60s,
and so I wanted to devise a noise reduction
system that would improve film sound. 1
had previously been at Cambridge University
where I did a lot of tape recording just
for fun, and I was very aware of the problem
of hiss and noise in tape recording. But it
was really the state of film sound that made
me realize there was a great opportunity to
make some significant improvements. So 1
went back to England, and set up my company
on May 17th of 196.5.
B().\offk;e: Once you b