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Dolby is well known for its powerful audio-visual technology, and you must have seen the company's logo when playing games and watching movies. It is reported that Dolby intends to deepen the field of games in the future, and the editorial board of "FamiTong" interviewed Mr. Yukihiro Osawa, chairman of Dolby Japan, to listen to him talk about the company's future strategy.
▲ Yukihiro Osawa (hereinafter referred to as Osawa), Chairman of Dolby Japan
Strive to convey real and natural sounds and images
—— First of all, please tell us about what kind of company Dolby is and your company's business policy.
Osawa: Dolby Corporation is a company founded by Mr. Ray Dolby in 1965 to convey natural, true, and three-dimensional sound to the public. Later, the company began to enter the imaging field, and is currently developing in the audio and imaging industries.
—— When did your company start to get involved in the imaging industry?
Osawa: About 15 years ago, the company was particularly focused on HDR (HDR) – in Japanese it means "brightness " and "contrast between sides" . High resolution is naturally a good thing, but it involves areas that ordinary people can't distinguish. Expanding the range of brightness and contrast on this basis will present a decisive gap, but this is something that has been forgotten in the industry.
That said, did the concept of HDR exist a long time ago?
Osawa: Yes. The concept has been around for a long time, but the scope of application is limited. While Dolby insisted that "resolution and HDR are just as important," it wasn't until five or six years ago that more people agreed. Today, the concept of HDR has become a trend.
The new generation of home consoles is also paying special attention to HDR, and Dolby's ideal vision has finally become a reality.
Osawa: The most fundamental essence lies in the creator's original intention to "convey the original sound and image of everything to the audience as it is". Whether it's a game, a movie, or a TV series, it's our mission to bring out the images that the creators want to express.
What has been achieved with the advancement of HDR technology?
Osawa: It's hard to explain it to the reader in words (laughs), but the easiest thing that comes to mind is that the image becomes more three-dimensional. There is also an example of a pencil set that was originally only 6 colors, but has now been increased to 100 colors. In this way, the picture can show more colors, the color gradient is more abundant, and the colors presented are more accurate. In other words, the graphics will be more beautiful and the expressiveness will be greatly improved, and this is the HDR technology used by Our Dolby Vision. As we all know, HDR is not our own unique standard, but we've been honing the technology for 15 years, so we're proud of our technology. Fortunately, Japanese TV manufacturers have adopted Dolby Vision on all 4K TVs.
—— Is it time to gather the culmination of your 15 years of research?
OSAWA: Yeah, but then again, HDR technology is advancing every day, so the research is never-ending. Dolby Atmos, on the other hand, is the result of our research in the field of sound.
—— It can often be seen in movie theaters and other places.
Osawa: So far, Dolby Surround Sound has provided everyone with a surround wrapped sound effect. But in reality, the real sound will sound more three-dimensional, right? Perhaps the first time in human history that 3D sound was performed was Dolby Atmos.
- There used to be 5.1ch surround sound, etc., is this related to the number of speakers?
Osawa: Although of course the more speakers, the better, but Dolby Atmos has surpassed the number of speakers and channels. Dolby Atmos is often used in smartphones with only two speakers to deliver an open, wide sound. Dolby Atmos is like setting up a coordinate axis for each sound, and with Dolby Atmos, it is possible to correctly express natural sounds that have not been possible until now.
- Is Dolby Atmos a technology that existed before?
Osawa: Yeah. The technology itself was developed by Dolby about 10 years ago. It is often referred to as the "Echo System" in the IT industry and has begun to be applied to fields such as film and live broadcasting, and the number of hardware products that support this system is gradually increasing, and the recognition has suddenly increased significantly. In addition, starting in June this year, Apple Music will be compatible with Dolby Atmos.
▲Dolby's official website can view the comparison between Dolby Vision and SDR video. Compared to the past, the differences in brightness, contrast and color can be clearly seen
It is important to be able to accurately express the developer's ideas
I heard that Dolby will also enter the game industry in the future.
Osawa: Dolby has a wide range of areas, but one of the areas that best demonstrates Dolby's effectiveness is the game industry. The game's demand for interaction and presence is very high, whether it is a battle or a fantasy world structure, it must give people an immersive feeling. As I said earlier, it is our mission to convey the most authentic sounds, images and sense of atmosphere as they are. This is also one of the most challenging areas.
—— Since the game is interactive, it should be difficult to restore the sound realistically, right?
Osawa: The game is immediacy and delays are not allowed. And we finally have the ability to bring Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technology to major gaming platforms.
As it turns out, home consoles have entered a new generation, does the Xbox Series X/S use Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos?
Osawa: Yes. More than 43 games have been released that support Dolby Atmos. As for Dolby Vision, when the Xbox Series X/S announced support for Dolby Vision, it had already stated that "more than 100 old games will support Dolby Vision." These works will be hardware-backed and output as Dolby Vision. Of course, new works will be launched in the future. The recent release of Halo: Infinity supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, with the focus on supporting Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
In other words, wouldn't it be difficult to import your technology if it wasn't for large-scale projects?
Osawa: No, in fact, the threshold for introducing our technology is quite low. Assuming Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos are supported from the start, the overall cost won't change much. Conversely, this actually means that the development environment is already set up to use Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos from the start. If you're making it for the first time, we'd love to give you free advice (laughs).
By the way, what do game developers think of your technology?
Osawa: Everyone responded well. Many developers have told us that "this is really a natural sound", "this is the voice I want to express", praising the final result as they expected. Not only in the field of gaming, but also in various industries. The same is true in terms of images, with some commenting that "colors that are difficult to describe in words are perfectly presented." One of Dolby's top priorities is "being able to accurately express what developers think," and we feel from everyone's feedback that we've done it.
Is it possible for Dolby's technology to support PS5 and NS in the future?
Osawa: It's in the process of recommending. I believe that the importance of restoring real sound and imagery for the game is the common understanding of all platform manufacturers, so I hope to support our technology in the future.
—— Please tell us about the future direction of your company.
Osawa: At the moment, the number of titles that support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos in home console and PC games is steadily increasing, but mobile games are still in their infancy. Although not yet known, we hope to support mobile gaming more aggressively from now on. In addition, we believe that Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos are technologies that can be used in the field of e-sports, and there is room for further growth in the future.
- Finally, tell us about Dolby's goals for entering the gaming space.
Osawa: We hope to be able to express the ideas of the creators more completely, let players feel a stronger sense of immersion, and contribute our technical strength to the development of more realistic and exciting games for various manufacturers.
Compilation 丨 Shimei pear
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