LR: Frederica Braithwaite (Comcast), Chip Cookston (Dolby), Chip Powell (AES), Doug Ribordy (Dolby), Ellis Reid (Dolby), Thomas Louvet (Dolby), Cherylene McKinney (Dolby), Marc A. Gallo (AES), Tim Carroll (Dolby), Nick Sweet (Comcast) Philadelphia AES Section, Dolby Atmos — Create the Next Generation of Immersive Audio Content, 5/ 16/ 2023
The genesis of this event started back in 2019 to explore how Dolby Atmos was changing the art of music mixing. Partnering with Dolby Labs and Comcast, we had a program and date set to go in March of 2020 only to be shut down by the pandemic. Fast forward to 2023 our efforts were finally realized and improved by being able to expand the program to include how Dolby Atmos was being combined with Dolby Vision HDR imaging technology to further enhance how audiences consume entertainment.
The event was held in the Ralph J. Roberts Forum, a state-of-the-art 64 speaker Dolby Atmos / Dolby Vision theater on the Comcast Technology Center Campus in Center City Philadelphia. We had an estimated attendance of 500 people consisting of Comcast employees, Dolby personnel, college students and professors, plus AES / ASA members from Philadelphia, New York and Washington, DC in attendance.
This was the largest and most successful event the Philly Section has produced to date; featuring an AES membership recruitment table, numerous demo stations and three Dolby Atmos playback system giveaways to augment and reinforce the main presentation.
We had co-sponsorship help from the Philadelphia Chapter of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Felicia Doggett of Metropolitan Acoustics serving as Chair. Introductory remarks were presented by Chip Powell, Chair of the AES Philadelphia Section.
Ellis Reid (Sr Brand Manager for Broadcast and Sports, Dolby Labs) discussed how these technologies are abundantly used in film and animation along with Comcast's ability to broadcast Dolby enhanced content throughout its network ecosystem. Snippets from the movies 1917, The Rise of Gru, Northman and Fast X were screened to illustrate his points.
Cristina Gomila (Managing Director Content Technology & Innovation, Sky Broadcasting, UK), Darry Jefferson (SVP Engineering & Technology, NBCUniversal Sports & Olympics) and Karl Malone (Global Broadcast Audio Architect, NBCUniversal Sports & Olympics) provided insight on the challenges they faced broadcasting the Beijing Olympics in Dolby Atmos / Dolby Vision during the pandemic and gave us a preview of their plans to do the same for the Paris Summer Games in 2024.
In keeping with our commitment to education, Tim Carroll (Sr Director of Sound Technology, Office of the CTO, Dolby Labs) explained to our audience how easy it is to get started creating content in Dolby Atmos. He showed readily available tools, some even free, that can enable anyone to jump right in. A particular highlight of his presentation was the playback of a stellar Atmos mix of "Rocket Man" by Elton John. To say it was breathtaking would be an understatement.
