The History And Basics Of Surround Sound

Introduction :

Ever since Stereophonic sound became popular in the 50's the race has been
on to create the ultimate home listening experience. Even as far back as the
1940's, Walt Disney incorporated his surround sound technology in order to
totally immerse the audience in both the visual and audio sensations of his
animation achievement, Fantasia. Although this, and other early
experiments in surround sound technology could not really be duplicated it
didn't limit the quest by recording engineers for both music and film to
develop processes that would eventually result in the surround sound
formats that are enjoyed in home theaters all around the world today.

Monophonic Sound :

Monophonic sound is a single-channel, unidirectional type of sound

reproduction.

All elements of the sound recording are directed using one amplifier and
speaker combination. No matter where you stand in a room you hear all the
elements of the sound equally (except for room acoustic variations). To the
ear, all the elements of the sound, voice, instruments, effects, etc... appear to
originate from the same point in space. It is as if everything is "funneled" to
a single point. If you connect two speakers to a Monophonic amplifier, the
sound will appear to originate at a point equidistant between the two
speakers, creating a "phantom" channel.

Stereophonic Sound :

Stereophonic Sound is a more open type of sound reproduction. Although

not totally realistic, stereophonic sound lets the listener experience the
correct sound staging of the performance.
The Stereophonic Process :

The main aspect of Stereophonic sound is the division of sounds across two
channels. The recorded sounds are mixed in such a way that some elements
are channeled to the left part of the soundstage; others to the right.

One positive result of stereo sound is that listeners experience the correct
soundstaging of symphony orchestra recordings, where sounds from the
various instruments more naturally emanate from different parts of the stage.
However, monophonic elements are also included. By mixing the sound
from a lead vocalist in a band, into both channels, the vocalist appears to be
singing from the "phantom" center channel, between the left and right
channels.

Limitations Of Stereo Sound

Stereophonic Sound was a breakthrough for consumers of the 50's and 60's,
but does have limitations. Some recordings resulted in a "ping-pong" effect
in which the mixing emphasized the difference in the left and right channels
too much with not enough mixing of elements in the "phantom" center
channel. Also, even though the sound was more realistic, the lack of
ambience information, such as acoustics or other elements, left Stereophonic
sound with a "wall effect" in which everything hit you from front and lacked
the natural sound of back wall reflections or other acoustic elements.

Quadraphonic Sound

Two developments occurred in the late 60's and early 70's that attempted to
address limitatons of stereo. Four Channel Discrete and Quadraphonic
Sound.

Problems With Four-Channel Discrete

The problem with Four Channel Discrete, in which four identical amplifiers
(or two stereo ones) were needed to reproduce sound, was that it was
extremely expensive (these were the days of Tubes and Transistors, not IC's
and Chips).

Also, such sound reproduction was really only available on Broadcast (two
FM stations each broadcasting two channels of the program simultaneously;
obviously you needed two tuners to receive it all), and four channel Reel-to-
Reel audio decks, which were also expensive.

In addition, Vinyl LP's and Turntables could not handle playback of four
channel discrete recordings. Although several interesting musical
performances were simulcast using this technology (with a co-operating TV
Station broadcasting the Video Portion), the whole set-up was too
cumbersome for the average consumer.

Quad - A More Realistic Surround Approach

Taking a more realistic and affordable approach to surround sound

reproduction, than that of Four Channel Discrete, the Quadraphonic format
consisted of matrix encoding of four channels of information within a two
channel recording. The practical result is that ambient or effects sounds
could be imbedded in a two channel recording that could be retrieved by a
normal phono stylus and passed through to a receiver or amplifier with a
Quadraphonic decoder.

In essence, Quad was the forerunner of today's Dolby Surround (in fact, if
you own any old Quad equipment--they have the ability to decode most
analog Dolby Surround signals). Although Quad had the promise to bring
affordable surround sound to the home environment, the requirement to buy
new amplifiers and receivers, additional speakers, and ultimately lack of
consensus amongst hardware and software makers on standards and
programming, Quad merely ran out of gas before it could truly arrive.

The Emergence Of Dolby Surround

In the mid-70's Dolby Labs, with breakthrough film soundtracks such as

Tommy, Star Wars, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, unveiled a new
surround sound process that was more easily adaptable for home use. Also,
with the advent of the Hi Fi Stereo VCR and Stereo TV Broadcasting in the
1980's, there was an additional avenue for which to gain public acceptance
of surround sound: Home Theater. Up to that point, listening to the sound
portion of a TV Broadcast or VCR tape was like listening to a tabletop AM
radio.
Dolby Surround Sound - Practical For The Home

With the ability encode the same surround information into a two channel
signal that was encoded in the original Movie or TV soundtrack, software
and hardware manufacturers had a new incentive to make affordable
Surround sound components.

Add-on Dolby Surround processors became available for those that already
owned Stereo-only receivers. As the popularity of this experience reached
into the more and more homes, more affordable Dolby Surround sound
receivers and amplifiers became available, finally making Surround sound a
permanent part of the Home Entertainment experience.

Dolby Surround Basics

The Dolby Surround process involves encoding four channels of

information--Front Left, Center, Front Right, and Rear Surround into a two
channel signal. A decoding chip then decodes the four channels and sends
them to the appropriate destination, the Left, Right, Rear, and Phantom
Center (center channel is derived from the L/R front channels).

The result of Dolby Surround mixing is a more balanced listening

environment in which the main sounds derive from the left and right
channels, the vocal or dialog emanates from the center phantom channel, and
the ambience or effects information comes in from behind the listener.

In musical recordings encoded with this process the sound has a more
natural feel, with better acoustical cues. In movie soundtracks the sensation
of sounds moving from front to rear and left to right adds more realism to
the viewing/listening experience by placing the viewer in the action. Dolby
Surround is easily useful in both musical and film sound recording.

The Limitation Of Dolby Surround

Dolby Surround does have its limitations however, with the rear channel
being basically passive, it lacks precise directionality. Also, overall
separation between channels is much less than a typical Stereophonic
recording.

Dolby Pro Logic

Dolby Pro Logic addresses the limitations of standard Dolby Surround by
adding firmware and hardware elements in the decoding chip that emphasize
important directional cues in a movie soundtrack. In other words, the
decoding chip will add emphasis to directional sounds by increasing the
output of the directional sounds in their respective channels.

This process, although not important in musical recordings, is very effective

for film soundtracks and adds more accuracy to effects such as explosions,
planes flying overhead, etc.. There is greater separation between channels. In
addition, Dolby Pro Logic extracts a dedicated Center Channel that more
accurately centers the dialog (this necessitates a center channel speaker for
full effect) in a movie soundtrack.

The Limitation Of Dolby Pro-logic

Although Dolby Pro-Logic is an excellent refinement of Dolby Surround, its

effects are derived strictly in the reproduction process, and even though the
rear surround channel employs two speakers, they are still passing a
monophonic signal, limiting rear-to-front and side-to-front motion and
sound placement cues.

Dolby Digital is often referred to as a 5.1 channel system. However, it must

be noted that term "Dolby Digital" refers to the digital encoding of the audio
signal, not how many channels it has. In other words, Dolby Digital can be
Monophonic, 2-channel, 4-channel, 5.1 channels, or 6.1 channels. However,
in its most common applications, Dolby Digital 5.1 and 6.1 is often referred
to as just Dolby Digital

The Benefits Of Dolby Digital 5.1

Dolby Digital 5.1 adds both accuracy and flexibility by adding stereo rear
surround channels that enable sounds to emanate in more directions, as well
as a dedicated Subwoofer Channel to provide more emphasis for low
frequency effects.

Also, unlike Dolby Pro-logic which requires a rear channel of only minimal
power and limited frequency response, Dolby Digital encoding/decoding
requires the same power output and frequency range as the main channels.

Dolby Digital encoding on DVDs, Laserdiscs, and Satellite programming is

very common and has solidified this format in the marketplace. Since Dolby
Digital involves its own encoding process, you need to have a Dolby Digital
receiver or amplifier to accurately decode the signal, which is transferred
from a component, such as a DVD player, via either a digital optical
connector or digital coaxial connector.

Dolby Digital EX

Dolby Digital EX is actually based on the technology already developed for

Dolby Digital 5.1. This process adds a third surround channel that is placed
directly behind the listener.

In other words, the listener has both a front center channel and, with Dolby
Digital EX, a rear center channel. If you are losing count, the channels are
labeled: Left Front, Center, Right Front, Surround Left, Surround Right,
Subwoofer, with a Surround Back Center (6.1) or Surround Back Left and
Surround Back Right (which would actually be a single channel - in terms of
Dolby Digital EX decoding). This obviously requires another amplifier and a
special decoder in the A/V Surround Receiver.

The Benefits Of Dolby Digital EX

So, what is the benefit of the EX enhancement to Dolby Digital Surround

Sound?

Essentially, it boils down to this: In Dolby Digital, much of the surround

sound effects move towards the listener from the front or sides. However,
the sound loses some directionality as it moves along the sides to the rear,
making a precise directional sense of sounds from moving objects moving or
panning across the room difficult. By placing a new channel directly behind
the listener, panning and positioning of sounds emanating from the sides to
the rear are much more precise. Also, with the additional rear channel, it is
possible to originate sounds and effects from the rear more precisely as well.
This places the listener even more in the center of the action.

Dolby Digital EX Compatibility

Dolby Digital EX is completely compatible with Dolby Digital 5.1. Since

the Surround EX signals are matrixed within the Dolby Digital 5.1 signal,
software titles encoded with EX can still be played on existing DVD players
with Dolby Digital outputs and decoded in 5.1 on existing Dolby Digital
Receivers.
Although you may end up buying new EX-encoded versions of films you
may have already in your collection when you finally get your EX setup
running, you can still play your current DVDs through a 6.1 Channel
Receiver and you will be able to play your new EX-encoded discs through a
5.1 channel receiver, which will just retain the additional information with
the current 5.1 surround scheme.

Although the previously outlined Dolby surround sound formats are

designed to decode surround that is already encoded on DVDs or other
material, there are thousands of music CDs, VHS movies, Laserdiscs, and
television broadcasts that contain only simple analog two channel stereo or
Dolby Surround encoding.
Surround Sound For Music

Also, with surround schemes such as Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital-EX
primarily designed for movie viewing, there is a lack of an effective
surround process for music listening.

In fact, many discriminating audiophiles reject much of the surround sound

schemes, including the new SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-Audio
multi-channel audio formats, in favor of traditional two-channel stereo
playback.

Manufacturers, such as Yamaha, have developed sound enhancement

technologies (referred to as DSP - Digital Soundfield Processing) that can
can place the source material in a virtual sound environment, such as a jazz
club, concert hall, or stadium, but cannot "convert" two or four channel
material into a 5.1 format.

The Benefits Of The Dolby Pro Logic II Decoding Process

With this in mind, Dolby Labs has come to the rescue with an enhancement
to its original Dolby Pro-Logic technology that can create a "simulated" 5.1
channel surround environment from a 4-Channel Dolby Surround signal
(dubbed Pro-Logic II). Although not a discrete format, such as Dolby Digital
5.1 or DTS, in which each channel goes though its own encoding/decoding
process, Pro Logic II makes an effective use of matrixing to deliver an
adequate 5.1 representation of a film or music soundtrack. With
advancements in technology since the original Pro-Logic scheme was
developed over 10 years ago, channel separation is more distinct, giving Pro
Logic II the character of a discrete 5.1 channel scheme, such as Dolby
Digital 5.1.

Extracting Surround Sound From Stereo Sources

Another benefit of Dolby Pro Logic II, is the ability to adequately create a
surround listening experience from two-channel stereo music recordings. I,
for one, have been less than satisfied trying to listen to two-channel music
recordings in surround sound, using standard Pro Logic. Vocal balance,
instrument placement, and transient sounds always seem to be somewhat
unbalanced. There are, of course, many CD's that are Dolby Surround or
DTS encoded, which are mixed for surround listening, but the vast majority
are not and thus, can benefit from the application of Dolby Pro-Logic II
enhancement.

Dolby Pro Logic II also has several settings that allow the listener to adjust
the soundstage to suit specific tastes. These settings are:

Dimension control, which allows users to adjust the soundstage either

towards the front or towards the rear.

Center Width Control, which Allows variable adjustment of the center

image so it may be heard only from the Center speaker, only from the
Left/Right speakers as a "phantom" center image, or various combinations of
all three front speakers.

Panorama Mode which extends the front stereo image to include the
Surround speakers for a wraparound effect.

A final advantage of a Pro-Logic II decoder is that it can also perform as a

"regular" 4-channel Pro-Logic decoder, so, in essence, receivers that include
Pro-Logic decoders can, instead, include Pro Logic II decoders, giving the
consumer more flexibility, without having to having the expense of
requiring two different Pro-Logic decoders in the same unit.

Dolby Pro Logic IIx

Lastly, a more recent variant of Dolby Pro Logic II is Dolby Pro Logic IIx,
which expands the extracting capabilities of Dolby Pro Logic II, including
its preference settings, to 6.1 or 7.1 channels on Dolby Pro Logic IIx-
equipped receivers and preamps. Dolby Pro Logic IIx serves to deliver the
listening experience to a greater number of channels without having to remix
and reissue the original source material. This makes your record and CD
collection easily adaptable to the latest surround sound listening
environments.

Dolby Virtual Speaker

Although the trend towards surround sound relies on adding additional

channels and speakers, the requirement of multiple speakers around an entire
room is not always practical. With that in mind, Dolby Labs has developed a
way to create a fairly accurate surround experience that gives the illusion
that you are listening to a complete surround speaker system, but is utilizing
just two speakers and a subwoofer.

Dolby Virtual Speaker, when used with standard stereo sources, such as CD,
creates a wider sound stage. However, when stereo sources are combined
with Dolby Prologic II, or Dolby Digital encoded DVDs are played, Dolby
Virtual speaker creates a 5.1 channel sound image using technology that
takes into account sound reflection and how humans hear sound in a natural
environment, enabling the surround sound signal to be reproduced without
needing five or six speakers.

SRS Labs
DTS (Digital Theater Systems)

Dolby Labs, however, is not the only player in the home surround sound
market, Digital Theater Systems has also adapted its surround sound process
for home use. Basic DTS is a 5.1 system just like Dolby Digital 5.1, but
since DTS uses less compression in encoding process, many feel that DTS
has a better result on the listening end. In addition, while Dolby Digital is
mainly intended for the Movie Soundtrack experience, DTS is being used in
the mixing and reproduction of Musical performances

CD-only players now come equipped with DTS outputs that allow a DTS-
equipped amplifier or receiver to decode the DTS signals imprinted on
"select" DTS-encoded music CD's.

DTS-ES

DTS has come up with its own 6.1 channel systems, in competition with
Dolby Digital EX DTS-ES Matrix and DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete. Basically,
DTS-ES Matrix can create a center rear channel from existing DTS 5.1
encoded material, while DTS-ES Discrete requires that the software being
played already has a DTS-ES Dicrete soundtrack. As with Dolby Digital EX,
DTS-ES and DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete formats are backwards compatible with
5.1 channel DTS Receivers and DTS encoded DVDs.

DTS Neo:6

In addition to DTS 5.1 and DTS-ES Matrix and Discrete 6.1 channel
formats, DTS also offers DTS Neo:6. DTS Neo:6, functions in a similar
fashion to Dolby Prologic II and IIx, in that, with receivers and preamps that
have DTS Neo:6 decoders, it will extract a 6.1 channel surround field from
existing analog two-channel material.

SRS: Tru-Surround

Dolby Labs and DTS aren't the only forces in surround sound technology,
SRS Labs also has innovative technologies that can enhance the home
theater experience.

Tru-Surround is a sound-scheme that has the ability to take multi-channel

encoded sources, such as Dolby Digital, and reproduce the multi-channel
surround effect by just using two-speakers. The result is not as impressive as
true Dolby Digital 5.1 (the front and side surround effects are impressive,
but the rear surround effects fall a litte short, with the sense they are coming
from just to rear of your head rather than from the back of the room).
However, with many consumers reluctant to fill their room with six or seven
loudspeakers, Tru-Surround does give the ability to enjoy 5.1 channel sound
within a normally-limited two channel listening environment.

SRS Circle Surround and Circle Surround II

Circle Surround, on the other hand, approaches surround sound in a unique

way. While Dolby Digital and DTS approach surround sound for a precise
directional standpoint (specific sounds emanating from specific speakers),
Circle Surround emphasizes sound immersion. To accomplish this, a normal
5.1 audio source is encoded down to two channels, then re-decoded back
into 5.1 channels and redistributed back to the 5 speakers (plus subwoofer)
in such a way as to create a more immersive sound without loosing the
directionality of the original 5.1 channel source material.

The results are more impressive than that of Tru-Surround.

First, panning sounds such as flying planes, speeding cars, or trains, sound
even as they cross the sound stage; often in DD and DTS, panning sounds
will "dip" in intensity as they move from one speaker to the next.

Also, rear-to-front and front-to-rear sounds flow smoother as well. Second,

environmental sounds, such as thunder, rain, wind, or waves full the sound
field much better than in DD or DTS. For example, instead of hearing rain
coming from several directions, the points in the soundfield between those
directions are filled, thus placing you within the rain storm, not just listening
to it.

Circle Surround provides an excellent enhancement of Dolby Digital and

similar surround sound source material without degrading the original intent
of the surround sound mix.

Circle Surround II takes this concept further by adding an additional rear

center channel, thus providing an anchor for sounds emanating from directly
behind the listener.

Headphone Surround: Dolby Headphone, SRS Headphone, and

Yamaha Silent Cinema.

Surround Sound is not limited to the large-multi channel system, but can
also be applied to headphone listening. SRS Labs, Dolby Labs, and Yamaha
all have incorporated surround sound technology with the headphone
listening environment.

Normally, when listening to audio (either music or movies) the sound seems
to originate from within your head, which is unnatural. Dolby Headphone
SRS Headphone, and Yamaha Silent Cinema employ technology that not
only gives the listener an enveloping sound, but removes it from within
listener's head and places the sound field in the front and side space around
the head, which is more like listening to a regular speaker-based surround
sound system.

Conclusion - For Now...

Today's surround sound experience is the result of decades of evolution. The

surround sound experience is now easily accessible, practical, and afforable
for the consumer. Go get surrounded!