DolbyÆ Laboratories Announces Dolby E Partner Program

Program Allows Third-Party Manufacturers To Design DolbyÆ E Compatible Products

12-Apr-00

At NAB 2000, DolbyÆ Laboratories announced its new Dolby E Partner Program, which allows third-party manufacturers of Dolby E-compatible broadcast equipment to promote their productís capability to the growing number of broadcasters and production houses that require an integrated solution for multichannel audio.Dolby E is one of the companyís latest innovations, allowing broadcasters and producers to easily move multichannel audio through existing digital audio infrastructures, prior to encoding into Dolby Digital for delivery to consumers.As a member of the Dolby E Partner Program, a manufacturer will have access to technical information and Dolby engineering support. This will enable Dolby E-capable products to be manufactured more simply in the future. It will also allow these manufacturers to test the ability of current products to pass the Dolby E stream accurately. ""By working with Dolby, partners in the program will be well placed to prepare for DTV requirements using Dolby E,"" said Peter Cole, Dolbyís Marketing Manager, Professional Products (UK). ""By providing a recognizable logo for this, we make it easy for broadcasters and postproduction houses to see which companies are working on multichannel audio solutions with Dolby E."" Several companies are already building equipment that is Dolby E compatible and will continue to manufacture broadcast equipment friendly to Dolby E-encoded signals. These companies include Sony, Panasonic, Grass Valley Group, Tandberg, 360 Systems, Pluto, Quantel, Omneon, Videotek, and Wohler. ""With the increasing popularity of multichannel DTV broadcasting, manufacturers can lay the groundwork for long-term benefits by designing Dolby E-compatible products,"" said Tom Daily, Marketing Manager, Broadcast Products. To ensure that products can reliably pass Dolby E bitstreams, Dolby has published a detailed guide for manufacturers, ""Technical Requirements For Dolby E Product Compatibility."" Membership in the Partner Program is open to any manufacturer that meets these standards and is committed to the goal of using Dolby E as the format for multichannel DTV audio production and distribution.About Dolby LaboratoriesDolby Laboratories is the developer of signal processing systems used worldwide in applications that include motion picture sound, consumer entertainment products and media, broadcasting, and music recording. Based in San Francisco with European headquarters in England, the privately held company also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Tokyo.