Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (often shortened to Dolby Labs and known simply as Dolby) is a company specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and HDR imaging. Dolby licenses its technologies to consumer electronics manufacturers.[4]
Dolby Labs was founded by Ray Dolby (1933–2013) in London, England, in 1965.[5] In the same year, he invented the Dolby Noise Reduction system, a form of audio signal processing for reducing the background hissing sound on cassette tape recordings.[6] His first U.S. patent on the technology was filed in 1969, four years later. The method was first used by Decca Records in the UK.[7] After this, other companies began purchasing Dolby’s A301 technology, which was the professional noise reduction system used in recording, motion picture, broadcasting stations and communications networks.[8] These companies include BBC, Pye, IBC, CBS Studios, RCA, and Granada.[9]
He moved the company headquarters to the United States (San Francisco, California) in 1976.[10] The first product Dolby Labs produced was the Dolby 301 unit which incorporated Type A Dolby Noise Reduction, a compander-based noise reduction system.[9] These units were intended for use in professional recording studios.
Dolby was persuaded by Henry Kloss of KLH to manufacture a consumer version of his noise reduction. Dolby worked more on companding systems and introduced Type B in 1968.
The first film with Dolby sound was A Clockwork Orange (1971). The company was approached by Stanley Kubrick, who wanted to use Dolby’s noise reduction system to facilitate the film’s extensive mixing.[11] The film went on to use Dolby noise reduction on all pre-mixes and masters, but a conventional optical soundtrack on release prints. Callan (1974) was the first film with a Dolby-encoded optical soundtrack.[12] In 1975, Dolby released Dolby Stereo, which included a noise reduction system in addition to more audio channels (Dolby Stereo could actually contain additional center and surround channels matrixed from the left and right). The first film with a Dolby-encoded stereo optical soundtrack was Lisztomania (1975), although this only used an LCR (Left-Center-Right) encoding technique. The first true LCRS (Left-Center-Right-Surround) soundtrack was encoded on the movie A Star Is Born in 1976. In less than ten years, 6,000 cinemas worldwide were equipped to use Dolby Stereo sound. Dolby reworked the system slightly for home use and introduced Dolby Surround, which only extracted a surround channel, and the more impressive Dolby Pro Logic, which was the domestic equivalent of the theatrical Dolby Stereo.[13]
Dolby developed a digital surround sound compression scheme for the cinema. Dolby Stereo Digital (now simply called Dolby Digital) was first featured on the 1992 film Batman Returns. Introduced to the home theater market as Dolby AC-3 with the 1995 laserdisc release of Clear and Present Danger, the format did not become widespread in the consumer market, partly because of extra hardware that was necessary to make use of it, until it was adopted as part of the DVD specification. Dolby Digital is now found in the HDTV (ATSC) standard of the United States, DVD players, and many satellite-TV and cable-TV receivers. Dolby developed a digital surround sound compression scheme for the TV series The Simpsons.[citation needed]