7.1 Mission
Dear Gary:
I so much admire your steadfast drive to further the art of home theatre. Very few folks embody your spirit and tenacity.
While I no longer work for Dolby®, nor do I speak for them, I’d like to contribute to your mission for a unified 7.1 surround platform by underscoring some of the key points of your article in Issue 142 [“7.1 Surround: Time To Get It Right”], that may have been somewhat obscured by the many complex issues presented.
The preferred 7.1 loudspeaker layout is:
L/R at 30 degrees
Ls/Rs at 90 degrees
Lb/Rb at 150 degrees
First, let’s celebrate where there is total consensus:
DTS® supports this layout as their standard for 7.1
Dolby supports this layout as their standard for 7.1
WSR supports this layout as their standard for 7.1
More than half of all 7.1 discrete productions were mixed to this layout
That sounds like pretty solid agreement, and it’s worth concentrating all ongoing effort to bringing the rest of the industry into alignment. That means setting aside all other extraneous distractions—such as height loudspeakers, wide loudspeakers, and alternative surround loudspeaker locations—from the discussion of how 7.1 discrete programs are to be mixed and played. Those things simply do not matter.
Let’s also forget about inventing new Blu-ray Disc™ marking icons that cover anything other than the optimal 7.1 layout.
And let’s forget about supporting alternative 7.1 loudspeaker setup screens in A/V processors.
Finally, let’s forget about metadata that informs the playback system that an alternative 7.1 layout was used during production.
Entertaining any of these only validates the existence of alternative layouts and encourages their use, thus stalling the progress toward unifying the industry on the single 7.1 layout. Being a free country, there will, of course, always be some folks who continue to do things other ways. That’s their choice. They will live with the consequences, good or bad. We need not expend energy on them, other than to extol the virtues of following the de-facto standard.
It would help the cause if Dolby, DTS, WSR, and any others participating in 7.1 content creation and playback began referencing a single layout diagram, much as happened when the ITU diagram became the de-facto 5.1 standard. A simplified version of your Diagram 2 would be what I’d suggest, making it as clean and clear as possible, as shown below.
Getting the message across to all stakeholders will require clear communication and a strong, compelling case to persuade those outside the tent to join the party within. If I may be of help, feel free to let me know.
Roger Dressler, Bend, Oregon
Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Gary Reber Comments:
It is gratifying to me personally that you are supporting our 7.1 mission to standardize the optimal 7.1 channel allocation and loudspeaker layout we have been advocating in Widescreen Review. You have succinctly described the mission and I intend to further promote the cause through the magazine and Webzine and reach out to manufacturers, motion picture studios, music producers and labels, and to the creative people who make it all happen. This topic will be a focus of the Technology Conference At Sea on the upcoming 2009 Home Theater Cruise, November 7 to 15, with both DTS and Dolby participating, as well as Mi Casa Multimedia, a prominent 7.1 surround post-production studio, and others.
I hope that others will express their support through Letters To The Editor, which I will publish, and together we can made this a true standard for 7.1 surround and eliminate the rampant confusion that now exists.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ editorgary@widescreenreview.com