Yamaha makes the new Dolby Atmos surround audio experience a reality

A total of 54 Yamaha speakers and 33 Yamaha power amplifiers allow Dolby to power one of the first Atmos immersive sound rooms in Europe.

One of the first European installations of an Atmos system of Dolby We find it in Kristiansand (Norway), where a total of 54 Yamaha loudspeakers and 33 Yamaha power amplifiers have been deployed. Yamaha to respond to the most demanding needs of the new immersive audio.

Atmos supports up to 128 simultaneous, lossless audio elements in a single mix. With up to 64 speakers, which increases realism and impact in the room, Atmos allows you to offer the viewer a totally immersive soundtrack.

A set of ceiling speakers complements the screen and wall units to allow placed sound to be precisely distributed anywhere in the auditorium, producing a natural, realistic sound experience that fits perfectly with the story.

Owned by Kristiansand City Council, more than 370,000 spectators visit the Kino complex each year. The Atmos system was installed in its main room with 655 seats by the integrator Unique Cinema System (UCS), who used exclusively Yamaha speakers and amplifiers.

The installation

The immersive sound system features 24 IF2112/64 Installation Series enclosures and 14 IF2112/AS full-range speakers, plus two IS1218 subwoofers, along with 13 XP5000 and XP7000 amplifiers and six TX4n amplifiers, all from Yamaha. The display system consists of five IF3115/64 full range units, six IS1218 IS1215 and five subs, along with ten TX4n and three TX6n amplifiers. Three ACD1 control interfaces have also been installed to control the XP series amplifiers.

Dan Fulhendorf, from UCS, has highlighted that "the most important thing in an Atmos installation is that the speakers deliver the highest quality sound. This ensures that the spatial soundscape is very precise, that the audience in the room hears sounds that come precisely from where they are supposed to come. Any loss of audio quality will compromise and make the system less effective."

For his part, Tor Brede Michelsen, of UCS, added that "we have a long relationship with Yamaha and we knew that this combination of speakers and amplifiers would achieve sound of the required quality. Dolby had never used Yamaha equipment before, but they had no problem testing it and have said that it is the best Atmos installation yet. There are currently a limited number of movies that are delivered in the Atmos format, but the Yamaha system has radically improved the sound quality of all the movies shown on the screen 1 from Kino. The best sound engineers in Norway gathered for a private screening of the James Bond film, Heavy rain in 5.1 and said they had never heard surround sound with that dynamic bandwidth.”