AES Section Meeting Reports

San Francisco - July 27, 2010

Meeting Topic: The X-Curve: Its Origins and History

Moderator Name: David v.R. Bowles

Speaker Name: Ioan Allen, Sr. VP Dolby Laboratories, Inc.

Other business or activities at the meeting: Announcement of section elections and upcoming 129th convention in San Francisco.

Meeting Location: Dolby Theater, San Francisco, CA, USA

Summary

Mr. Allen presented excerpts of his SMPTE paper on "Electro-Acoustic Characteristics in the Cinema and the Mix-Room, the Large Room and the Small". This traced the beginnings of cinema sound equalization standards in the early 1930s in the USA and UK. He spoke of work on the X-was carried out in the early 1970s and followed the various developments since that time. This electro-acoustic characteristic is now employed in most theatres throughout the world. The "X" stood for "experimental," an epithet that now seems inappropriate for something that's been a national and international standard for 30 years!

Three excerpts from movies were presented (roughly from 1950, 1975 and 2000). The exceptional acoustics of the Dolby Theater contributed in no end to underscore the vast differences between those soundtracks. The evening ended with a Q&A.

Additional Information

Ioan Allen's X-Curve presentation (QuickTime Movie - 117.0 MB - Length: 53:35)

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