The Dolby Theater dresses up as an Oscar

For the big night of the Oscars, Dolby prepared in just three days a venue that has more than 16,500 square meters, a 26-meter-high ceiling and a capacity of 3,400 seats.

Two thousand five hundred guests paraded down the carpet last night. Dolby Hollywood Theater to attend the Oscars ceremony.

David Gray, Dolby's technical director for premieres and in charge of the design of the Dolby Atmos sound system in the popular stage venue, has highlighted the enormous effort necessary to prepare this space so that the Oscar team could design the elaborate sets and prepare for the show. To better understand the magnitude of the pre-Oscar film preparation work, it is necessary to consider the size of the Dolby Theater in proper perspective.

With more than 16,500 square meters, a 26-meter-high ceiling and a capacity of 3,400 seats, the Dolby Theater is one of the largest cinemas in the country; four times more than its neighbor, the TLC Chinese Theatre, known as Grauman's Chinese Theater. In contrast, the Ziegfeld in New York, one of the country's iconic marquee theaters, has about 1,300 seats, while the theaters we go to more regularly, such as AMC and IMAX theaters, have a capacity of about 500 and 300-400 seats respectively.

However, the elements that make the Dolby Theater such an impressive place to enjoy a movie, such as the hundreds of speakers and the enormous screen, present an obstacle when it comes to putting on a live show with many protagonists. Most of the work that Gray, vice president of International Services and Industry Relations, and his team do before the Oscars is removing hundreds of technical elements from the theater to accommodate a custom set, making room for all the presenters and stars , and make sure that all guests have a good view of the stage from their seats.

Firstly, to make room for the large Oscar stage, it was necessary to dismantle the gigantic 18x9 meter screen that hangs from the proscenium arch of the stage thanks to a complex and very heavy fixing system that supports both the screen and the numerous speakers. This fixing system includes 58 meters of the metal structure that supports the weight of the screen, about 27 meters of another that holds the curtain and 7 meters of bars from which the fabric hangs. All this must be dismantled and, in addition, the screen speakers (there are 58 on it alone), 30 motors and fixing points, 8 huge subwoofers, sound equipment, electrical distribution systems, various packages and cable covers. When the screen is taken down, it is rolled up and placed in a protective box.

Gray's team and the cinema staff have carried out all this disassembly in a very meticulous way.

Next, it was time to move some surround sound speakers. The Dolby Theater boasts 201 of the best speakers in the world, with 261 channels of power amplification. It has an incredible 143 surround sound speakers, 68 of which must be removed to host the Oscars. Gray's team also removed the massive electrical distribution systems, which he describes as “very strong boxes” filled with literally tons of electrical cables. To get an idea of ​​the equipment that is needed for the cinema to have the best image and sound systems available, there are more than 15,000 meters of cables alone.

When the thousands of tons of speakers, cables, machines and the iconic and colossal movie screen were finally dismantled by a team of around twenty professionals over three days, the dilemma arose of what to do with everything. Every piece of equipment removed from the cinema was classified and catalogued. Everything that needed maintenance has been carefully placed inside a trailer of more than 13 meters, and moved to a warehouse. The rest of the equipment and cables have been stored in a custom-made space in the Dolby Theater parking lot.

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