Dolby surprises at Cinesa Diagonal with its ATMOS bet

Cinesa Diagonal Mar in Barcelona is the first commercial movie theater in Europe equipped with the Dolby Atmos system, the new sound platform that aims to revolutionize the entertainment sound experience.

Dolby Laboratories presented this Tuesday, within the framework of CineEurope, the first commercial movie theater in all of Europe equipped with the Dolby Atmos system, the new sound platform that aims to revolutionize the entertainment sound experience.

Room 9 of the Cinesa Diagonal Mar cinemas in Barcelona has been equipped with Dolby Atmos on the occasion of the opening of CineEurope 2012, and is showing the public the new sound format throughout the three days of the film industry meeting.

Room 9 of the Cinesa Diagonal Mar cinemas is the first commercial theater in Europe to be equipped to play content produced with Dolby Atmos, and will be joined over the coming months by a series of exclusive theaters across the continent, including the Empire Leicester Square cinemas in London. These cinemas will become part of a select list of theaters around the world, including the legendary Hollywood cinema Dolby Theatre, which has been a pioneer in offering content edited with Dolby Atmos, such as Brave, the new animated adventure from Disney Pixar.

Andreas Spechtler, vice president of the division for Europe, Africa and the Middle East at Dolby Laboratories, was excited "to have the opportunity to show the public Dolby Atmos technology here, in the Cinesa Diagonal Mar cinemas, the first European commercial cinema to have our new sound platform. We plan to publish, shortly, a list with more partner theaters, which will show Dolby Atmos technology in Europe, Africa and the Middle East."

Spechtler added: "Dolby Atmos is the most revolutionary sound innovation we have made to date, and the reception from the film industry has been overwhelming. So it is our pleasure to showcase the technology to the film industry here in Europe, to show them why Dolby Atmos is making such a splash."

A hybrid approach

Dolby Atmos is committed to a hybrid approach when it comes to sound editing, as it allows sounds to be directed as dynamic objects that surround the listener, and combines them with channels for playback. This technology enables adaptive playback, ensuring that the sound experience is as faithful as possible to the creator's original vision, whatever the environment and regardless of the speaker configuration of the playback environment. Dolby Atmos is a comprehensive solution built with the entire content generation process in mind, uniting mixers, studios and distributors to create breakthrough improvements to the sound experience.

"The Dolby Atmos platform offers content creators previously unknown creative freedom to tell their stories," says Andreas Spechtler, "and is a testament to Dolby's unwavering dedication to technological progress in the film and entertainment industry. These advancements will help artists realize their creative visions, allowing them to create the best possible entertainment experiences for consumers."

During the presentation of Dolby Atmos in Barcelona, several clips with the new surround sound were shown, as well as an interview with Rodrigo Cortés in which he shared his impression of working with this format in his new work, Red lights.