Surround sound
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Multichannel audio denominates the techniques for enriching (expanding and deepening) the sound reproduction quality, of a recorded source, with additional, recorded sound channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. The three-dimensional (3D) sphere of human hearing can be virtually achieved with audio channels above and below the listener. To that end, the multichannel surround sound application encircles the audience (left-surround, right-surround, back-surround), as opposed to "screen channels" (center, [front] left, and [front] right), i.e. ca. 360° horizontal plane, 2D).
The first, documented use of surround sound was in 1940, for the Disney studio's animated film Fantasia. Its multichannel audio application was called 'Fantasound', comprising three audio channels and speakers; the sound was diffused throughout the cinema, initially, by an engineer using some 54 loudspeakers; the surround sound was achieved using the sum and the difference of the phase of the sound.
Surround sound technology is used in both cinema and "home theater" systems, video game consoles, and personal computers, et cetera. Commercial surround sound formats include videocassettes, Video DVDs, and HDTV broadcasts encoded as Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Digital, or DTS. Other commercial formats include the competing DVD-Audio (DVD-A) and Super Audio CD (SACD) formats; and MP3 Surround. Cinema 5.1 surround formats include Dolby Digital, DTS, and Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS).
Mostly, film production companies and video game creators are the principal users of surround sound; however, some consumer camcorders have such capability, either in-built or discrete. Some AV receivers, stereophonic systems, and computer soundcards contain integral digital signal processors and / or digital audio processors to simulate surround sound from a stereophonic source.
