India's biggest - and Delhi's first - Dolby Atmos screen opens at Delite Cinema

Dolby Laboratories announced on Thursday the first installation of its latest audio technology Dolby Atmos in Delhi. The system has been installed at Delite Cinema in Daryaganj.

Atmos is a positional sound system, with many more channels of audio than a typical surround sound system, and enables the aural tracking of objects in a 3D space, to create a more lifelike sound. Instead of thinking of sound in terms of channels, the technology allows sound editors to work with object oriented sound instead. Using a computer algorithm, Atmos can drive audio across the hall, splitting it across multiple speakers to accomplish a positional effect.

This is a move away from the traditional model where sounds usually come from from in front of or behind the audience, from either side, or from above them. Atmos uses a computerised algorithm to tweak the sound output based on the number of installed speakers, so sound editors can designate where in the cinema space each sound should be coming from, instead of having to consider speaker numbers and placement.

This means, for example, that if someone is kicking a can on screen, instead of having it bounce from side to side across the hall, a director can now choose to have the sound move around a little from left to right in the middle of the hall. An overhead flight of an aircraft will track much more accurately, and gunfire will not be concentrated from one "side" of the hall, but rather, each impact will sound like it comes from a slightly different location.

Major movies such as Brave, The Life of Pi, and Star Trek: Into Darkness have already been made with Atmos in mind, and the same is true for Bollywood as well. In India, films like Dhoom 3, Madras Café, and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag were also made with Atmos sound.

And while Delite is the first Atmos hall in Delhi, in India, there are already several halls (mostly in South India) with Atmos installed. The first hall to use this technology was the Sathyam multiplex in Chennai, but there are more now, including PVR Juhu in Mumbai.

Shashank Raizada, owner of Delite Cinemas said, "I believe Dolby Atmos will be a major differentiator for the movie watching audiences," adding that he sees it as "providing our audiences with new and innovative concepts for an enhanced experience."

Ashim Mathur, Marketing Head, Dolby Laboratories India said, "With Dolby Atmos, you feel as if you are in the movie, not merely watching it. We are confident that moviegoers will be captivated by the remarkable clarity and dimension of the sound, and will keep coming back to Delite Cinemas."