Pixar Gets Dolby to Invent ’Rain of Sound’ to Match 3-D Movies

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Pixar Gets Dolby to Invent ’Rain of Sound’ to Match 3-D Movies

By Ryan Flinn

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Walt Disney Co.’s Pixar made the latest installment of its “Toy Story” franchise in 3-D to satisfy the growing appetite for immersive visual effects.

Its next challenge: getting the sound effects to match.

The current setup in most theaters, known as 5.1, couldn’t direct sounds precisely enough to specific parts of the theater, says Paul Cichocki, post-production supervisor at Pixar. The audio didn’t feel like it was putting the viewer in the middle of the action, he says.

“We really wanted to take sound to the next level, and we just weren’t able to do much in 5.1,” Cichocki said. “If we could put sound in the right places, it helps your brain look in the right place.”

That’s why Pixar urged Dolby Laboratories Inc. to develop a new version of its sound system, the dominant audio technology in theaters. The resulting Dolby Surround 7.1 standard lets movies deliver sounds through seven speakers, plus one subwoofer, which handles bass. For Dolby, the technology helps the company keep pace with other cinema improvements -- from crisper digital images to reclining seats -- and give audiences a reason to keep coming back.

Sound technology alone doesn’t compel people to see a movie, says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com’s box-office tracking division. It’s just a subtle part of improving the experience, he says.

‘Generates Goodwill’

“It’s kind of hard to convince people to pay more for better audio,” he said, “but I think it pays dividends just in how it generates goodwill with audiences, and how audiences perceive your theater.”

Adding digital video and other enhancements to theaters has helped U.S. cinemas raise ticket prices to about $7.95 this year on average, up 7 percent from 2009, according toHollywood.com Box Office, an industry website.

“Toy Story 3,” which debuts on June 18, is the first film to use the 7.1 technology. Cichocki faced the limitations of 5.1 when re-editing some of Pixar’s earlier movies. In a scene from 1999’s “Toy Story 2,” a film the studio is rereleasing in 3-D, the characters are riding though a store and crash into a pile of balls that fall around them. The sound originally didn’t match the action on screen closely enough, Cichocki says.

“We went in and recut the ball effects, so that now those things are falling from all the speakers in the room,” he said. “It’s this rain of sound, omni-directional all around you.”

‘Toy Story’ Franchise

The first two “Toy Story” films generated more than $800 million at the box office, according to IMDb.com, a movie- tracking website. And “Toy Story” merchandise has grossed $8 billion in global sales since the first movie was released in 1995, according to Disney.

The new 7.1 system is the first upgrade to the technology since Dolby Digital Surround EXcame out for “Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace” in 1999. It breaks out the sound channels in the back of the theater, allowing for four separate surround-sound zones. All of them can be used independently.

“It really shows off,” said Fred Walraven, technical director for Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, which owns about 96 cinemas with 973 screens. “If there’s an action that goes down, say, the right wall or left wall, it can actually turn behind you, and it does, and it’s very evident.”

For theaters already equipped to run EX, switching to 7.1 only requires a free software update, says Stuart Bowling, technical marketing manager for San Francisco-based Dolby. Locations without the current Dolby system may have to add speakers and rejigger wires. At most, he says, “you’re looking at an investment of around $700.”

Small Investment

Kerasotes’ new 16-screen location in Chicago is already wired to use the new technology, Walraven says.

“You can just swap a bunch of pins, and then you balance the channels, and you’re set. It really is not a very expensive option to put on,” he said. “Probably other guys in my same position with their companies are going to start doing the same thing.”

Some form of Dolby’s 5.1 surround sound, which debuted in 1979 on Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” is already in most theaters worldwide. The company is working to extend its technology beyond movies into mobile phones and personal computers. That expansion helped Dolby boost sales 19 percent last quarter to $243.4 million. The company also has started to provide 3-D video technology to theaters, opening up a new source of revenue.

Impact of ‘Avatar’

“Avatar,” the highest-grossing film of all time, opened the floodgate to 3-D movies. It’s taken in more than $2.7 billion in worldwide box-office receipts since its Dec. 18 release. Three-dimensional films, such as “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Alice in Wonderland,” have continued to dominate, leading the box office in 12 of the first 19 weeks of the year.

“They’re trying to create a unique experience now by giving a giant screen, better seating and more powerful sound systems,” Dolby’s Bowling says. Several theater chains had approached Dolby before Pixar about improving their audio. “They were saying to us, ‘How can we move forward, how do we do this?’”

Consumers won’t go to see a bad movie just because it looks and sounds good, but they may spend more on a film if a theater has the latest technology, Dergarabedian says.

“I don’t know that kids say, ‘Mom, I got to go see this movie, it’s in 7.1 Dolby,’” he said. “But once they see the movie, they may be so blown away by both the visual and audio experience they may want to go back and see it again.”