Rockford Fosgate First Manufacturer To License New DolbyÆ Pro Logic II Surround Decoder

Now Shipping, Rockford Fosgate's RFQ5000 Surround Processor Is Used For Decoding All Surround-Encoded And Stereo Information To The Car Audio Environment

20-Jun-00

Rockford Fosgate, manufacturer of high performance car audio, has announced that it is the first company to license and implement the next generation of DolbyÆ Surround Pro Logic decoders - the Jim Fosgate-designed Dolby Pro Logic II. This revolutionary new technology has been implemented into Rockford Fosgate's RFQ5000 Surround Processor system, which includes a new circuit design that allows 5-channel surround sound from all surround-encoded and stereo sources. The RFQ5000 is now shipping.Gary Suttle, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rockford Corporation, says, ""Jim Fosgate not only founded Fosgate Electronics back in 1973, the company that eventually became Rockford, but it is widely accepted that Jim is the grandfather of surround sound processing. Of course, the best aftermarket car audio company for Fosgate to bring this new circuitry to market is Rockford Fosgate. He understands our passion for high performance, we understand his pursuit for perfection in high fidelity surround.""Jim Fosgate, President of Fosgate Laboratories, says, ""I have personally been pioneering surround sound technology for more than 20 years. This new technology will accomplish a greater sense of space and depth, with added front-back dimension, and added clarity. This depth and clarity is something that the original development of stereo has had to compromise since its development in the 1930s.""Roger Dressler, Director of Technology Strategy at Dolby Laboratories, explains, ""The core technology in Pro Logic II is a totally new approach in matrix decoding, and it comes from one of the most respected names in surround decoder design, Jim Fosgate. Mr. Fosgate has dedicated himself to continuously advancing the art of surround decoding since the quadraphonic era of the late 1960s. Dolby is proud to be handling the licensing and technical support of this exciting new technology.""The Rockford Fosgate RFQ5000 is used for decoding all surround-encoded information to the car audio environment. Additionally, this groundbreaking circuitry has the ability to unveil hidden information in standard 2-channel stereo recordings regardless of recording technique and age of recording, thus allowing these recordings to become large soundfield, surround sound experiences.Dolby Pro Logic II bridges the gap between Pro Logic and discrete Dolby Digital 5.1-channel audio by presenting existing Dolby Surround encoded programs with a new sense of spatiality and directionality heretofore achieved only with discrete multichannel audio. For the first time, Dolby is offering a surround decoder equally capable of bringing out the hidden spatial cues in all existing music recordings in a natural, convincing way.For the car audio environment with the Dolby Pro Logic II technology, the RFQ5000 will now allow for front/rear fader, or ""panorama"" mode as well as center image width control, which were not available with the original Pro Logic technology.According to Dressler, the key to Pro Logic II is the first fundamentally new approach to matrix decoder design since the basic Scheiber model still found at the core of every other active matrix surround decoding system, including Pro Logic. The system includes global feedback around the logic steering process. This has a dramatic influence on steering accuracy and dynamic behavior. The concept of feedback control has long been a mainstay of sophisticated analog control systems such as Dolby noise reduction where it improves accuracy and dynamic characteristics. The feedback design in Pro Logic II (patents pending) achieves a new level of performance from an elegant, deceptively simple solution that can be made with either analog or digital circuitry.Features Of The RFQ50005-Channel Surround - The RFQ5000 has 5 discrete channel outputs: left, center, right front plus left and right rear. This technology includes a new circuit design that allows 5-channel surround sound from all surround-encoded and stereo sources.Steering Indicator - Mounted via a small DIN-type of connector. The Steering Indicator lets listeners see the surround unit in action via 5 LEDs. The LEDs respond to the direction of the dominant sounds in the soundfield, in real time. This unit can be mounted in the dash or anywhere in a custom installation.Translation Defeat - A single switch in the center of the Steering Indicator allows users to defeat the surround effect.Capability - The RFQ5000 will correctly decode any surround sound encoded software regardless of which laboratory invented it, e.g. Dolby Surround, DTSÆ, Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic.""The name says it all,"" explains Dressler. ""There is a new generation of Dolby Surround Pro Logic decoders, with significant improvements and new features, but with something else just as important: an abiding respect for the original intent of the artist and recording/mixing engineer.""Rockford Fosgate is a division of Rockford Corporation in Tempe, Arizona, a publicly traded company under the NASDAQ stock symbol ROFO. The company Web sites can be viewed at www.rockfordfosgate.com and www.rockfordcorp.com.

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