Dolby and HBS Bring 5.1-Channel Surround to the FIFA World Cup

This summer the FIFA World Cup^™—one of the world’s most popular sporting events—takes place in Germany, and for the first time every one of the 64 matches to be played over the next four weeks will be made available to broadcasters in 5.1 surround sound.

Dolby is working with Host Broadcast Services (HBS), the dedicated host broadcast organization for the World Cup, to ensure that broadcasters will have access to 5.1 surround sound feeds of every game, from all 12 stadium venues around Germany. Fans of teams from the 32 countries taking part will have the chance to experience all the pitch-side drama with Dolby^® Digital surround sound. This is the first time that the entire tournament will be made available so widely in 5.1 surround sound—from the Stage 1 kickoff, featuring host nation Germany versus Costa Rica in Munich on June 9, to the final in Berlin on July 9.

“Watching a football match with surround sound brings the thrill of the stadium to your home. And as not all of us can be there to support our own countries, hearing the cheering of the crowds and the ball kicks in enveloping surround sound is the next best thing,” commented Francis Tellier, CEO, HBS. “We are pleased to be working with Dolby to deliver this to our broadcast partners around the world.”

Dolby has provided HBS with a wide range of equipment, staff training, and design consultation. The 5.1 soundtracks will be created in specially constructed audio control rooms in the HBS International Broadcast Centre which have numerous DP571 Dolby E Encoders, DP572 Dolby E Decoders, and DP570 Multichannel Audio Tools provided by Dolby to enable distribution of 5.1 audio to the rights-holding broadcasters. In addition, LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meters will be used for loudness and confidence monitoring, and DM100 Bitstream Analyzers will be on hand for initial commissioning and fault finding. In addition to the equipment, Dolby is providing an on-site engineer to support all broadcasters throughout the tournament.

Dolby is also supplying equipment to individual broadcasters across Europe that have chosen to feature 5.1 audio in their transmissions. So far, Sweden’s SVT; Germany’s Premiere, ARD, and ZDF; France’s Canal+, M6, and TF1; and Italy’s Sky Italia have announced their intention to show the tournament using 5.1 surround sound. Dolby has provided these broadcasters with the equipment necessary to decode the Dolby E feeds from HBS and to reencode the signal into Dolby Digital for final transmission to viewers.

Broadcasters around the world will also transmit the thrilling World Cup games to their viewers in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. In Korea, three networks will do so: Korea Broadcasting System (KBS), Munhwa Broadcasting System (MBS), and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS). In South America, TV Globo in Brazil will broadcast the games in 5.1 via the Globosat satellite service to viewers in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Additionally in Brazil, the Band Sports satellite service will also broadcast the World Cup games in Dolby Digital 5.1. In Japan, broadcasters will take the Dolby E feed from HBS, and broadcast the games in 5.1 using MPEG-2 (AAC) audio.

Learn more about broadcast distribution with Dolby E.

Telephone companies worldwide—including major telcos in Europe and North America—are gearing up to provide television programming using Internet protocol (IP) over broadband connections. Using a new generation of video processing, usually MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), IPTV can be transmitted more efficiently than is possible with current cable or satellite services. It promises to compete vigorously with these existing operators, both in real-time and VOD applications.

Another advantage of IPTV is its two-way capability, as well as point-to-point distribution, allowing each viewer in a household to view an individualized broadcast. These features allow viewers a much more personal media experience than has been possible with traditional television.

A great deal of today’s programming includes Dolby^® Digital surround sound. Virtually all prime-time scripted programs, sports, and special events on major networks are produced and broadcast in HD with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, as is programming on many standard-definition and HD cable networks. To compete, IPTV services will need to provide similar capabilities, but they must do so within tighter bandwidth constraints.

To meet these requirements, Dolby has developed Dolby Digital Plus. Based on Dolby Digital technology, Dolby Digital Plus offers both increased features and significant bandwidth savings over its predecessor. With Dolby Digital Plus, telcos (and traditional broadcasters) can deliver surround sound audio at a bit rate tailored to their next-generation delivery systems, offering significant bandwidth savings. Dolby Digital Plus provides IPTV-friendly data rates around 200 kbps for 5.1-channel audio and 96 kbps for stereo, complementing the reduced video bit rates made possible by advanced video codecs such as H.264. Dolby Digital Plus also maintains full compatibility with the millions of existing Dolby Digital–equipped home theater systems.

Designed for implementation into next-generation set-top boxes, Dolby Digital Plus audio decoding is available within the same integrated circuits as H.264. Incoming audio—mono, stereo, or surround—can be decoded and output in a variety of ways, making it simple for IPTV operators to implement one audio solution for all of their customers’ needs. Read the Sound Bytes stories in this edition for more information on integration of Dolby Digital Plus technology in next-generation set-top boxes.

See additional information and articles on Dolby Digital Plus.

	Atmos 5.1 microphone array at the European Grand Prix.

May 7 saw the fifth race of the FIA Formula One^™ World Championship take place at the Nürburgring track in the Eifel Mountains of Germany. The local rights-holding broadcaster, RTL, covered the event, and for the first time in Formula One history, RTL chose to transmit the European Grand Prix live in Dolby^® Digital 5.1 sound. In total, RTL's coverage reached nearly seven million German viewers.

With Dolby on site in an advisory role, RTL deployed ten 5.1 SPL Atmos mic arrays around the 5.148 km (3.199 mile) circuit to provide the surround effect, and routed the commentary to the Center channel exclusively. “By having the commentary only on the Center channel,” said Hans Biermann, Head of Audio at RTL, “users have the option of turning off the commentary without losing any of the sound, which has proven popular with our viewers.”

Now that the race has aired, RTL is looking ahead. Germany hosts two Grand Prix events each season, and Biermann and his team will produce the next race, the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim on July 30, making full use of the exciting audio possibilities Dolby Digital offers.

Learn more about HDTV and delivery of 5.1-channel surround sound in Europe.

Dolby^® Digital Plus has been adopted by OEM manufacturers Harmonic and Axon Digital Design; both companies plan to integrate Dolby Digital Plus technology and/or Cat. No. 561 Dolby Digital Plus Encoder Modules in current and upcoming stand-alone and video encoder products. See Axon's Dolby Digital Plus announcement and Harmonic's plan for Dolby Digital Plus.

Broadcom Corporation announced that its family of AVC/MPEG-2/VC-1 high-definition (HD) digital video decoder chips for satellite, cable, and IP set-top boxes now support Dolby Digital Plus. For more information on Broadcom's Advanced High-Definition Video Compression Chips supporting Dolby Digital Plus, please click here.

On May 1, Fox Sports received two Sports Emmy^® Awards for its coverage of NASCAR and the Daytona 500 in 2005. One was for Outstanding Technical Team Remote, and the other for Outstanding Live Event Audio/Sound (which Fox shared with HBO World Championship Boxing). The Outstanding Technical Team Remote award for the Daytona 500 was especially rewarding for Fox personnel, who also provided coverage of the Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., that same month.

“I’d like to thank all of the people who showed up starting on Wednesdays and going home on Sundays and Mondays, doing it every week,” said Jerry Steinberg, Vice President of Field Operations for Fox Sports. “This is special, because last year we commuted between Jacksonville and Daytona, and there were a lot of long nights and people driving up and down I-95 to get this done.”

Fox Sports relies on Dolby E technology to get multichannel audio from the racetrack to the network, and Dolby Digital (for HD stations) and Dolby Pro Logic^® II (for SD analog stations) to transmit audio from the network to the home.

At the 120th AES exhibition and conference in Paris, Dolby’s demonstration of the Dolby Media Producer software suite attracted a great deal of interest from attendees. Many post houses are preparing to migrate to the production of next-generation disc media, and Dolby booth presentations highlighted the software’s ease of use, as well as its quick integration into existing Macintosh^® platforms.

In addition to the demonstrations, Dolby staff participated in a digital cinema question-and-answer session, presented a paper on the new audio coding systems for HDTV, and met with many broadcasters looking to add Dolby Digital to their TV services.

Dolby Media Decoder is now shipping. For additional information on the Dolby Media Producer suite of software, please click here.

In April, Home and Garden Television launched its HGTV-HD channel and began broadcasts in Dolby Digital 5.1. Upgrades to its production facilities performed over the past year include the addition of several LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meters for measuring dialogue levels and Dolby DP570s for monitoring and authoring metadata (in addition to the Dolby E encoders and decoders already in place to make delivery masters). Another HD channel, Food Network HD, is scheduled to launch at the end of June and will also feature Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

	England captain Andrew Flintoff celebrates a dismissal during the first test against Sri Lanka.

British Sky Broadcasting, the UK pay-TV satellite broadcaster, launched its HD service May 22 in a blaze of publicity. The Sky package, which uses a new version of its acclaimed Sky+ PVR, offers a wide range of HD programming, including two movie channels, a dedicated sports channel, National Geographic and Discovery channels, and HD versions of the popular Sky One and Artsworld channels. Sky has pledged to deliver programming in Dolby Digital whenever possible, and has equipped its new service with Dolby E equipment from both Dolby and Axon to enable as much content as possible to be delivered in 5.1.

Key 5.1 surround programming includes live sports coverage on Sky's HD sports channel, Sky Sports HD. Sky and its facility providers have invested in comprehensive support for the live production and distribution of 5.1 audio with extensive use of Dolby E. Sky HD viewers have already had the chance to enjoy HD coverage of the England versus Sri Lanka cricket series complete with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and can look forward to Premiership soccer in full 5.1-channel surround later this year.

With the release of its new Broadcast Audio Manager and GridCoder applications, Agnostic Media has integrated support for Dolby Laboratories’ new Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer. The Broadcast Audio Manager creates a simple and scalable solution for coding and transcoding Dolby audio formats, while the GridCoder offers broadcasters audio encoding, decoding, and transcoding of the entire Dolby line of broadcast audio formats, as well as providing Dolby’s latest loudness correction technology for automatically analyzing and correcting loudness variances.

Additional information on Agnostic Media's support for Dolby's DP600 Program Optimizer can be accessed here.

Be part of the future and join the collaborative team at Dolby Laboratories. We have several career opportunities available in our San Francisco offices, including Software Design and Project Engineers, Product Managers for Professional Licensing and Digital Cinema, Broadcast Product Coordinator, and US Broadcast Partner Marketing Manager. For complete job listings and to apply, please visit our website.