Dolby Highlights Industry Adoption of Its Audio Technologies at CES 2008
At this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB), showcased a wide array of audio technologies that power the world’s most popular and innovative entertainment products.
Key highlights include the incorporation of Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Volume in more consumer electronics products. Also making their first appearance under the Dolby brand will be key technologies, such as aacPlus, gained from the recent acquisition of Coding Technologies.
“This year’s CES show is especially exciting for Dolby because we’re not only demonstrating how our audio technologies are the perfect complement to an HD picture, but we are also showcasing an expanded portfolio of technologies enabled by the recent acquisition of Coding Technologies,” said John Carey, Vice President, Marketing, Dolby Laboratories.
Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby Digital Plus is the next-generation audio technology for high-definition programming and media. It is being implemented in a wide range of consumer electronics products, including new HDTVs from Sony, LG Electronics, and Philips as well as the recently launched Vudu set-top box and movie download service. It’s also a key technology in Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD players, delivering up to 7.1 channels of surround sound with better audio quality than that of standard DVDs.
Built on Dolby Digital, the multichannel audio standard for DVD and HD broadcasts, Dolby Digital Plus delivers a richer, more involving experience for current and next-generation delivery formats and playback systems, but remains fully compatible with all current A/V receivers.
Dolby Volume
Dolby Volume is an audio-processing technology designed to allow consumer electronics products to deliver consistent loudness from various audio sources. Dolby is displaying product prototypes of an Onkyo A/V receiver and an Olevia LCD HDTV (manufactured by Syntax-Brillian) that incorporate Dolby Volume.
Dolby Volume is part of a comprehensive Dolby solution to address loudness issues, which includes both professional solutions that aid in setting correct audio levels prior to broadcast and device-level solutions that aid in controlling volume inconsistencies at playback. Dolby Volume, specifically designed for consumer electronics products, automatically and seamlessly controls audio levels over a wide range of devices and consumer media formats. It provides consumer electronics manufacturers a simple and elegant option for managing loudness control.
In addition to audio leveling, Dolby Volume offers another benefit. Due to the nature of human hearing, many subtleties of the content can be lost when listening at low audio levels. To address this problem, Dolby Volume continually analyzes and modifies the audio volume depending on both the content and the playback level, restoring it to the way it would be perceived at the reference playback level. The result is improved surround imaging, enhanced dialogue intelligibility, and improved overall clarity of the audio content at lower levels.
About Dolby Laboratories
Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB) develops and delivers products and technologies that make the entertainment experience more realistic and immersive. For more than four decades, Dolby has been at the forefront of defining high-quality audio and surround sound in cinema, broadcast, home audio systems, cars, DVDs, headphones, games, televisions, and personal computers. For more information about Dolby Laboratories or Dolby technologies, please visit www.dolby.com.
