Peter Knight had a catch-up with Michael Archer, Vice President, Worldwide Cinema Sales at Dolby Laboratories in advance of CinemaCon for the latest news and updates from Dolby.
Amplifier
The 16 channel amplifier has seen its power increased to 600w meaning that it is now able to power a complete 7.1 cinema surround system. The advantage of the 16 channel system is that it takes less space, meaning that cinemas do not need to buy such large racks for all the equipment, it produces less heat and thus requires less cooling. This means that Dolby are now able to offer the complete B chain for a cinema through their servers, processors, amplifiers and speakers. It is all about solution based engineering now at Dolby, according to Mike, to provide need to end options.
Jinyi Cinemas
Jinyi Cinemas and Dolby have recently announced that they were going to extend the partnership
to offer the Dolby experience in China. Jinyi Cinemas is one of China’s largest circuits with over 350 cinemas in 24 provinces. As part of the partnership, Jinyi plans to open 20 Dolby Cinema locations across China over the next four years, with an additional 630 Dolby digital cinema systems being deployed. These systems include Dolby Integrated Media Servers, Dolby cinema audio processors, Dolby Multichannel Amplifiers, and SLS Cinema Series Speaker Systems.
Dolby Atmos
With over 3600 screens worldwide in six years and over 400 others in progress or confirmed, including an impressive 41 sites that are now 100% Dolby Atoms across all their screens, Dolby Atmos continues to strive and grow as one of the biggest technology take ups in cinema history. This according to Mike is in part because of the great content that is available in the format.