Todd-AO announced it has completed installation of the Dolby Atmos system on the legendary Stage 1 at its facility in Hollywood, in support of the upcoming Marvel’s Iron Man 3.
Dolby Atmos is a new audio platform that immerses moviegoers more deeply into the theatrical experience with a more natural, realistic sound that truly envelops the audience.
“Todd-AO is committed to continuing a long tradition of innovation and leadership in embracing groundbreaking technology in the service of filmmakers,” said David Alfonso, owner of Todd-AO. “Dolby also has a long tradition of visionary leadership in audio technology, and we believe Dolby Atmos offers a whole new range of creative possibilities for our team of artists at Todd-AO. We are profoundly excited to be able to make this first installation in our Hollywood facility to create the Dolby Atmos mix for Marvel’s Iron Man 3.”
Dolby Atmos delivers a new level of creative control to sound designers and mixers by marrying the familiar channels-based mixing methods with the versatility of dynamic audio object-based mixing. The flexibility of objects-based mixing provides total control over placement and movement of individual sounds or “objects” within a theater environment.
“The Dolby Atmos platform enables our mixers to utilize a larger sonic canvas, aside from its unique object-based panning, we can now create spatial ambiences and musical boundaries which surpass what was achievable in any previous theatrical sound format,” said Steve Bartkowicz, chief engineer of Todd-AO. “The Dolby Atmos system in the historic Stage 1 at Todd-AO Hollywood is the largest scale dubbing stage installation to date, consisting of 58 audio channels. We selected components for the system which exhibited the power handling and timbral characteristic match to the legendary Todd-AO custom screen channel systems.”
“The Todd-AO organization has invested significant time and resources to understand the Dolby Atmos technology and its implications for our workflow as well as the creative opportunities it would create for our sound designers and mixers,” Alfonso said. “Our teams at Todd-AO and Soundelux, working on Marvel’s Iron Man 3, have responded very enthusiastically to the technology, and we are looking forward to hearing how some of the industry’s greatest creative minds will work with our clients to leverage the flexibility Dolby Atmos offers.”
“Dolby Atmos is our most significant innovation in years and represents the future for entertainment sound in cinema,” said Doug Darrow, senior vice president, cinema, Dolby Laboratories. “We have leveraged our deep insights into how people hear and experience sound to empower filmmakers with new technology that transforms storytelling.”
