Dolby & Intel Develop PC Surround Sound Experience

Dolby And Intel To Aid Developers In Bringing Premium Surround Sound Experience To PCs

Dolby Laboratories and Intel Corporation today announced the two companies are collaborating to provide developers with tools to enable high-end audio for Intel-based PC platforms. As a result, consumers can enjoy a premium surround sound experience on their computers whether they are on the go, in the living room or bringing the audio studio into their den.

The powerful combination of Dolby’s audio expertise and Intel’s industry enabling efforts based on Dolby Master Studio’s rigorous audio specifications will lead to the creation of advanced High Definition (HD) Audio solutions. Intel’s new product reference designs and guidelines will support the Dolby PC Entertainment Experience Initiative. Intel’s latest PC platforms based on the Intel® 915 and 925X Express Chipsets and fast Intel® Pentium® 4 processors with Hyper-Threading Technology** provide the performance and headroom for emerging audio applications.

Dolby and Intel will offer quality assurance and engineering support to the ecosystem of developers designing solutions using the HD Audio architecture. To help ensure compliance, performance and broad availability of solutions, Intel and Dolby are providing developers with the tools and engineering support they need to design solutions that make the most of Dolby’s audio technology. PC manufacturers will now be able to offer a range of consumer-focused digital home PCs with integrated system-wide support for Dolby premier technologies such as Dolby HeadphoneTM, Dolby Virtual SpeakerTM, Dolby Digital LiveTM and Dolby Pro LogicTM IIx.

“When consumers hear the name ‘Dolby’, they recognise that it stands for an exciting experience in entertainment audio,” said Rob Crooke, Intel vice president and general manager, Desktop Marketing and Strategic Planning for the Desktop Platforms Group. “The Intel and Dolby collaboration will deliver to consumers a compelling set of audio features and capabilities once only available in consumer electronics entertainment systems. These types of enhancements to the PC platform will bring consumers closer to the digital home vision where they can enjoy content any time, anywhere and on any device.”

“We are excited to maintain momentum with Intel, building upon the industry excitement generated by our announcement at Spring IDF,” said Richard Hockenbrock, Dolby’s vice president of Licensing Operations. “By working with developers across the PC industry to leverage our respective companies’ expertise, we have the opportunity to guide the industry in creating a higher level of performance and more complete set of Dolby integrated audio solutions for digital home PCs.”

A key element of the Dolby PC Entertainment Experience Initiative is the Dolby PC Logo program unveiled at Spring IDF in February, which is designed to make it easy for users to choose a PC with Dolby technologies capable of meeting their specific entertainment needs. An overview of Dolby's offerings under this program is as follows:

Dolby® Master StudioTM—An advanced set of audio presentation capabilities with up to 7.1 channels of surround sound for the most compelling, natural and dramatic listening experience possible from all your entertainment, and the power to author DVDs with surround sound.

Dolby Home TheatreTM—True home theatre surround sound from your content with the flexibility to tailor your listening experience to fit your media, mood, audience and environment.

Dolby Sound RoomTM—All the excitement and natural ambience of a perfectly configured 5.1 speaker home theater system from any source, using just two speakers or headphones.

About IDF The Intel Developer Forum is the technology industry's premier event for hardware and software developers. Held worldwide throughout the year, IDF brings together key industry players to discuss cutting-edge technology and products for PCs, servers, communications equipment and handheld clients. For more information on IDF, visit http://developer.intel.com/idf/.

About Dolby Laboratories
Dolby Laboratories creates technologies that intensify and enhance the entertainment experience. For nearly four decades, Dolby has been instrumental in defining high-quality audio and surround sound in cinema, broadcast, home audio systems, cars, DVDs, headphones, games, televisions and personal computers. Based in San Francisco with European headquarters in England, the privately held company has entertainment industry liaison offices in New York and Los Angeles, and licensing liaison offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo. For more information about Dolby Laboratories or Dolby technologies, please visit www.dolby.com.

About Intel Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.

Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. **Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with an Intel Pentium 4 processor supporting HT Technology and an HT Technology enabled chipset, BIOS and operating system. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use. See www.intel.com/info/hyperthreading for more information including details on which processors support HT Technology.

© Scoop Media