Set in Universal City, CA, near Hollywood, the show was fun. Fun, if you're into pro audio, surround sound, issues surrounding planned audio formats, and that sort of thing.
There were few exhibits, so it wasn't like AES, NAB, or NAMM.
Dolby had a room there where they set up five Genelec speakers for a surround music demo.
Most of the functions were seminars with panels of some of the top names in audio.
But hey, this isn't an Audio Musician People's magazine report. I wanted just to say a few words about the trends and developments in audio and surround sound.
Typically in the past, surround setups in the consumer's abode was mainly for movies. DVD-Video brought surround video to the masses. Just get a decent display, set up five speakers hooked up to a Dolby Pro-Logic (or Dolby Digital) receiver, a nice DVD player, and you were set.
But the advent of DVD-Audio has changed a few things.
A bit of fun history
First of all, when surround came out for the consumer, it was quad. That died. It was very much a music format. Surround videos weren't out yet. Then came Dolby Pro-Logic. Nice, but a bit limited. It had Front Left, Center, and Right, and Mono Surrounds (typically in the Rear). But this gave surround its marketing push. Millions of Dobly Pro-Logic receivers were sold. It was becoming cool for Jo Consumer to have a surround setup.
Then AC-3 came along, which, in a strange marketing move became Dolby Digital (I think). Dolby Digital differed in that the Surrounds were now separated, one Left and one Right, and a Sub-woofer channel was added. This is known as 5.1 surround. Competing formats emerged, a few of which were mentioned above. They all serve pretty much the same purpose.
The 5.1 surround format is nice, if not limited. Again, you get Front Left, Center, and Right, Surround Left and Right, and Sub-woofer. That's six speakers, folks. And an amplifier for each (either in the receiver/amplifier, or in each speaker).
When surround started becoming popular, the surround amplifiers were far less powerful than the front speakers. You might get 100 Watts per channel in the Front Left and Right, less or the same in the Center, and still less in the Surrounds. After a few years, the consumer industry decided to make the Surround amplifiers more powerful. But Surround speakers were typically still much smaller, and handled less power.
Enter surround music
Surround music is where setup views for surround start to change. In surround film, it's important that the fronts blast, and the subwoofer shakes. That takes a lot of power. The surrounds are typically used for effects from time to time. They don't really need to be that big. But if you want to listen to surround music, and you want the sound to be heard equally from each speaker, this takes five speakers of the same full-range capability. This is especially true for those who make the mixes. You could mix for the lower-end systems that most people have, small speakers in the rear, and maybe no subwoofer. Or you could mix primarily for the person who has equal power and equal speakers.
It makes sense to have smaller speakers for surround effects in videos. It makes sense to have equal speakers for a uniform surround music experience. And here is where audio is changing.
It seemed that all the panelists agreed that it is very important for those who mix surround music to have equal speakers at the five points.
Think of the potential. It would be like being in a cathedral. Organ at one end. Choir at the other. Power from both sides!
It would be like being in the middle of a group of five guys, all singing a cappella right at you.
It might be a little disconcerting (no pun). It might seem a little unrealistic. But it might be a blast. And that's why I think they all agreed that equal power would give equal audience to the sounds of music (this is getting theatrical).
Dear audio mixers
(Since this is intended to be read on the Internet, I don't know who it is that will read this. If you're just a consumer, this section might or might not interest you.)
When you mix, they agreed, we need to find a veritable standard at which the subwoofer begins to kick in. They talked about 80 Hz to 125 Hz, if I remember correctly. A standard hasn't completely been hammered out or agreed upon yet. (Keep your ears open!) But one thing they did agree on is that you don't want to rely on the subwoofers for your bass, if the audience is to be the consumer, because many will not have a sub, and your audio will go unheard.
They also agreed that the surrounds for mixing should represent the full range of sound, again, not relying on a sub to make up for tinny speakers.
What else was there? Hmm. That's about all I got. Hold it: You pro audio guys who sell this stuff. Keep in mind that surround for music is different from surround exclusively for film. Don't make the mistake of selling smaller speakers to your clients than they will really require. I have a feeling that the industry will come to agree that surround for music should be equal power in all the speakers, and that the speakers should be able to represent pretty much all the frequencies that one would mix to if one were to mix to only two speakers. Do check the mixes in stereo, and in mono, for compatibility with two speakers, and typical MONO devices, such as TVs, AM radios, etc.
What else is there to talk about.
Regardless, I think surround audio - film, video, and music - is here to stay. And it should be a blast.
Stephen DeVore, Seattle, WA
7/25/1999