When the “prequel” to George Lucas’s Star Wars saga, The Phantom
Menace, hits cinemas next year it should sound good even to people at the
back of the cinema. The existing Dolby cinema sound system provides six channels
of sound: one from the centre of the screen, a pair from speakers to the left
and right of the screen, a pair to the rear, and one that drives a low-frequency
woofer for special effects. Dolby’s new Surround EX format squeezes an extra
channel into the same 320 kilobits per second data stream, which will be used to
provide sound from the rear-centre of the auditorium.
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