Skip to main content

Dolby’s Giles Baker chats with us about Dolby Vision and Atmos at CES

It seems like you can find Dolby everywhere and on everything these days, as it totally dominates the entertainment market with Dolby Vision HDR on TVs and in cinemas, and Dolby Atmos in soundbars and surround sound speakers. We sat down with Giles Baker, senior vice president of the Consumer Entertainment Group at Dolby, to chat about Dolby’s growing presence in home theaters, and its larger role within the entertainment business.

A history of quality

Giles talked about Dolby’s history as a company, which has taken it from tape decks, to recording studios, to movie theaters. All along the way, the company has been an innovator. But how does it all work?

“It’s a long process,” said Baker. “[The process is] equal parts creativity and technology. Dolby Vision started with the belief that the next frontier in great images — this 10 years ago — is going to be high dynamic range. It starts with tinkering in the labs. Seeing what kinds of displays you can create.”

Since the early years in the Dolby labs building projectors with paper, the company always begins with the technology — whether that be the way sound and video are captured and mixed, or the way we experience it. From there, they take it to the artistic community. This gives a sense of how the tech changes the way content gets created.

Finally, it comes to consumers. But how does Dolby account for the differences in  the homes theater setups in people’s homes? “We’re not just building a piece of tech that goes into your TV,” says Baker. “We’re building an entire system that understands what the content is supposed to look like, and describes it in great detail in delivering it to the TV.”

Dolby partnerships

The conversation also touches on the specific partnerships Dolby has established in order to become such a ubiquitous and important part of the entertainment industry and the home theater market. We see Dolby Vision on Sony and LG OLEDs, iOS devices like the iPad Pro and iPhone; Dolby Atmos from live sporting events, and on gaming consoles like the Xbox One.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Brendan Hesse
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brendan has written about a wide swath of topics, including music, fitness and nutrition, and pop culture, but tech was…
Bose’s new flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar brings AI smarts to the dialogue problem
Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar in white.

Bose has launched its latest flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar -- the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar -- which looks identical to its predecessor, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 (which it replaces), and even carries that same price at $899. However, Bose says that the Ultra model has a new AI-driven dialogue mode that uses machine learning to make spoken words easier to hear. The new speaker is available on Bose.com starting September 21.

"Ultra" seems to be the new hotness at Bose right now. Earlier this month, the company launched its new earbuds and headphones -- the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, with Bose's immersive audio tech as the headliner update for both products.

Read more
Sennheiser’s Ambeo Soundbar Mini is a pricey, bedroom-sized Dolby Atmos speaker
Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Mini.

Sennheiser has shrunk its impressive Ambeo surround sound technology into its smallest speaker yet with the newly announced Ambeo Soundbar Mini. It looks just like a smaller version of the excellent Ambeo Soundbar Plus, with a footprint that's nearly identical to the Sonos Beam Gen 2 and the Bose Smart Soundbar 600. But at $800, it's considerably more expensive than either of those Dolby Atmos soundbars. The Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Mini will be available starting September 1 at sennheiser-hearing.com and select retailers.

An exploded view of the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Mini Sennheiser

Read more
DTS Play-Fi wireless audio adds support for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X
A DTS Play-Fi-equipped TV shown in a living room with Play-Fi compatible wireless speakers.

DTS Play-Fi, the wireless multiroom audio platform that can be used to set up a fully wireless home theater sound system, has expanded from its previous 5.1-channel limitation to 12 channels, which can support surround sound formats like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, or IMAX Enhanced in up to a 7.2.4-channel configuration.

The news comes two days after the announcement of Dolby Labs' Dolby Atmos FlexConnect technology that will provide a similar level of wireless speaker flexibility for owners of compatible TVs.

Read more