Las Vegas, January 4, 2011—Today at the 2011 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show), Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB) unveiled an entirely new suite of audio technologies as part of the fourth generation of the Dolby® PC Entertainment Experience program. Acer will release the first products utilizing these new technologies in its high-end Aspire® Ethos consumer multimedia notebooks, which Dolby will demonstrate at CES in the Central Hall, booth 7853. The Aspire Z Series all-in-one PCs from Acer will also feature new Dolby PC Entertainment Experience technologies.
“Acer strives to improve people’s lives through technology and we know that high-quality audio and cinematic surround sound are important pieces of the overall PC consumer experience. For this reason, we continue to partner with Dolby to bring its industry leading PC Entertainment Experience to our consumer PC lines,” said Jim Wong, President of IT Products Global Operations, Acer Inc. “The Aspire Ethos and Aspire Z Series are professionally tuned to achieve this goal, turning digital consumption into a truly captivating sensation.”
The latest generation of Dolby PC audio technologies creates a solution to the growing number of challenges associated with providing a high-quality PC audio entertainment experience. These issues include those caused by stereo content that lacks cinematic surround sound, poorly mixed content with unintelligible dialogue, and inconsistent volume levels across entertainment sources. In addition, laptop speakers are typically small, not loud enough, and cause distortion when volume is maximized.
“Dolby understands that the traditional ways people consume content are evolving, and increasingly the computer is becoming a central entertainment hub through which music, movies, and games are enjoyed,” said Ramzi Haidamus, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Dolby Laboratories. “That’s why we continue to perfect Dolby’s audio technologies to help our partners, like Acer, deliver revolutionary entertainment experiences on laptops.”
The Dolby PC Entertainment Experience program offers two technology suites, Dolby Home Theater® v4, which delivers immersing surround sound and high fidelity audio for all forms of entertainment content, and Dolby Advanced Audio v2, which delivers a consistent listening experience and virtual surround sound via built-in PC speakers as well as high-fidelity audio for all forms of entertainment content.
The following features are included in Dolby Home Theater v4:
- Surround Decoder: converts stereo content into 5.1- or 7.1-channel surround sound and converts 5.1 surround sound into 7.1 surround sound
- Surround Virtualizer: creates a virtualized surround sound experience over the PC’s built-in speakers or over headphones
- Dialogue Enhancer: improves intelligibility of dialogue across all types of content
- Volume Leveler: maintains a consistent volume across all content and applications according to where the user sets the volume level
- Volume Maximizer: boosts the level of the audio signal so users can turn up the volume without causing noise or clipping
- Intelligent Equalizer: monitors and adjusts audio to match the user’s chosen preset
- Graphic Equalizer: lets consumers tailor audio to their exact specifications using high-quality digital filtering
- Dolby Digital Output: provides real-time encoding of PC content into the Dolby Digital format over S/PDIF or HDMI™ outputs; users can then enjoy audio content from their PCs in surround sound on their home theater systems
- Audio Optimizer: improves the frequency response of the PC’s built-in speakers so content sounds true to the creator’s intent
- Audio Regulator: eliminates or reduces distortion caused by the combination of overdriven speakers and amplifiers
Dolby Advanced Audio v2 offers Surround Virtualizer (for built-in speakers), Volume Leveler, Volume Maximizer, Graphic Equalizer, Audio Optimizer, and Audio Regulator.
Dolby also created a new consumer interface app that provides people easy access to enable, disable, and customize the new audio technologies on their laptops. Its design is intuitive and ensures that consumers know when Dolby technology is activated in their PCs. Consumer interface app availability will vary based on PC models.
The Dolby logo on laptops indicates that consumers can immerse themselves in premium audio that transforms their PC entertainment experiences. For more information on the latest generation of Dolby’s PC technologies, visit www.dolby.com or watch the Dolby Home Theater v4 informational video at http://bit.ly/dolbyhometheaterv4.
