Handbook for Sound Engineers, 4th Edition

Chapter 45

Surround Sound

 

by Joe Hull

45.1 The Origin of Surround Sound

45.2 Surround from Optical Soundtracks

45.3 Digital and 5.1 Surround

45.4 Variations on the 5.1 Theme

45.5 Surround Sound Comes Home

45.6 Digital 5.1 in the Home

45.7 More Home Theater Channels from Existing Content

45.8 The Question of Playback Level

45.9 What's Next for Surround Sound? 1600

45.1 The Origin of Surround Sound

The first commercially successful multichannel sound formats were developed in the early 1950s for the cinema. At the time, stereophonic sound, as it was called, was heavily promoted along with new wide-screen formats by a film industry feeling threatened by the rapid growth of television. Unlike the two-channel format later adopted for home use because ...