Dolby Laboratories Senior VP of Entertainment John Couling talks to The Inside Reel about the live in-home experience, new features and the further development of technology on the cusp of football season,
00:00Dolby has so many things in play at all times, you know, and sort of expanding the home experience.
00:25But some of the stuff that I've seen over the years just boggles the mind, especially when you're talking about live events.
00:32Can you talk about that aspect of sound? Because you want to feel like you're there. Can you talk about sort of those advancements?
00:39Yeah. The experience that everybody wants is they want to feel like they're in the stadium.
00:45I mean, you want to feel like you're part of the fans with your team. That's the passion of sports.
00:51And so having a sound system that places you in the action and places the fans around you is a way to draw you into that immersive experience.
01:01And actually, the same is true for picture as well. Having the right quality picture is also part of making this thing feel real as if you're really there.
01:09Can you talk to people? Because, I mean, people hear about Dolby Vision and they hear about these different things.
01:17Can you talk about because the blending of image and sound is such an important thing.
01:21But can you talk, even if you want to get into a little bit of the minutiae, about what goes on within sort of that sort of structure with image and sound, with your different arenas that you guys work in?
01:33Yes. So in terms of picture, one of the greatest advancements recently has been high dynamic range, HDR, pre-called Dolby Vision.
01:42What that does is create brighter brights. It has more colors, so it's more realistic to real life.
01:48And it increases the dynamic range, which is the difference between the dark and the light.
01:52And when you put all that together, what you get is something that looks more like looking out of a window or looking out in real life than looking at a screen.
02:01And that is a truly remarkable experience.
02:04In terms of sound, we naturally hear sound from everywhere around us all of the time.
02:10And that's what makes it real. That's what we're built to hear and understand.
02:14And so what Dolby Atmos does is allow the creator of the show to create that kind of soundscape.
02:20And then what we can do is put that in your living room through the television, through a sound bar, and make your room come alive with those sounds exactly where they're supposed to be.
02:30Do you find that creators now, I mean, obviously, you know, filmmakers and television producers, they've always worked with Dolby.
02:37But do you find that you're helping them and they're helping you sort of push the boundaries of what's possible because of the way that sound can be separated down?
02:47All the time, the creator is looking to create something new.
02:51I have this wonderful job where I get to meet the people who create some of the most compelling things we watch or listen to.
02:57And they've got so many ideas.
02:59And the technology is always just trying to make those ideas come to life for them.
03:04And so they're always pushing us.
03:05And I think that's fantastic because that's the emotion.
03:08That's what we really engage with is that team we love, the music we cry to, the show that we always want to watch.
03:14And so they're pushing the technology.
03:17Conversely, the technology helps push them, gives them more control, more opportunity to paint a picture.
03:25What was a, and if you want to get into a microcosm, you don't have to mention the person's name,
03:29but was there a challenge that you guys had to face and try to figure out how to make it happen just because the technology needed to be built per se, maybe in the past like year or so?
03:41You know, the, the challenges are always about how do you create that expression of art and then make it work almost everywhere.
03:48You know, you can't all go and build the best home theater in your home.
03:54You might want to put something in your car.
03:56You might, it might need to be in your bedroom.
03:58And so making the technology translate between all those different areas, but still be really compelling.
04:04I think that's been one of the most challenging, but also most fun parts of the journey.
04:09And two more questions.
04:10Um, what have you found or how would you recommend people look at their setup?
04:16Because, you know, certain people have more means, some have less, some have smaller rooms, some have big, you know, home theaters, you know, in their houses.
04:25Can you talk about how somebody should approach looking at what system and what, you know, specific elements they should have in their system to make it work the best?
04:36Absolutely.
04:36I think the first thing people should do is, you know, have a look at what their budget is.
04:39What's really great right now is you can find remarkably good things and great value at every single price point.
04:47So think about your budget and then think about whether you want to put all of that into the TV or whether you want to keep some of that for a sound bar or a different sound experience, because that's important to you.
04:57Maybe you have a bigger room.
04:59Maybe you want the game day party.
05:01And so think about that first and then start to look for those manufacturers that are investing more in the quality before you get to size.
05:08So behind me, for example, the TCL-QM7 is that kind of device.
05:14And then my last question has to do with, because we've been talking about creating, we've also been talking about live, because live is interesting, because the thing is, it's happening as you're doing it.
05:24You can't go back and edit, unlike when you're making a TV show.
05:27Can you talk about looking at the idea of spatial, you know, within that idea?
05:33You know, because that's what Atmos does when we're in the theater and stuff like that.
05:36But can you talk about working with the actual, you know, the networks when you guys are doing stuff like the Super Bowl, when it's not just the game, it's also the entertainers playing at halftime.
05:48And you want that to be the best time possible.
05:51Oh, I mean, there's so much.
05:52And live television is quite remarkable.
05:55I mean, it has got to be right there and then.
05:57As you say, there's no opportunity to go back and try again.
06:00And it's a very exacting medium.
06:03What we found, for example, is in particular in a big stadium, the height experience of Dolby Atmos is something that the sound designers really love.
06:12It creates greater clarity in the soundscape, just one of the things they've been able to tap when they've tackled this type of technology in the live environment.
06:20So, yes, it's a challenge, but it's a challenge that I think everyone sort of rolls their sleeves up because the result is so compelling.
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