Harman Kardon AVP-1A Owners Manual - Page 6

Motion

Picture

Sound:

A

Brief

History

In

the

early

40's,

the

large

movie

studios

owned

their

own

theatres

and

could

enforce

quality

standards.

In

those

days

motion

picture

theaters

provided

higher

quality

sound

reproduction

than

home

radios

or

phonographs.

An

anti-trust

action

forced

the

studios

to

sell

their

the-

atre

holdings

in

the

50's.

When

the

theatres

became

independently

owned,

each

theatre

could

chose

which

films

it

wanted

to

show.

In

turn,

the

studios

eliminated

their

technical

staffs

which

had

been

responsible

for

maintaining

sound

quality

standards.

As

a

result,

the

quality

of

sound

in

the

theaters

failed

to

keep

pace

through

the

50's

and

60's.

The

turning

point

came

in

the

70's

with

the

introduc-

tion

of

the

Dolby

Stereo

recording

process

by

Dolby

Laboratories.

The

consumer

electronics

market

tends

to

think

of

Dolby

exclusively

as

a

noise

reduction

sys-

tern'used

in

cassette

decks,

but

a

significant

portion

of

Dolby's

business

is

in

the

professional

audio

industry.

Dolby

Stereo

allows

four

channels

of

sound

to

be

recorded

on

the

two

available

optical

soundtracks

of

a

35mm

movie

print,

with

excellent

results.

One

of

the

first

commercial

successes

of

this

new

technology

was

STAR

WARS

in

1977.

The

impact

of

STAR

WARS

on

the

movie

-watching

public

is

hard

to

overestimate.

The

quality

of

the

sound

track

caught

everyone's

attention

and

changed

what

people

expected

from

film

sound.

Suddenly,

people

rushed

to

see

new

releases

in

better

-sounding

theatres,

and

the

ones

which

upgraded

their

sound

systems

were

rewarded

with

increased

revenues.

Unfortunately,

there

was

no

standard

of

performance

for

the

sound

systems

in

theatres.

Even

the

best

audi-

toriums

sounded

different

from

each

other

and

from

the

sound

the

director

heard

in

the

fi

lm

studio

because

of

variations

in

room

acoustics

and

sound

system.

In

1982,

George

Lucas

gave

his

full

support

to

create

a

new

movie

theatre

sound

system

standard:

the

THX

Sound

System.

The

THX

Sound

System

was

designed

to

complement

and

enhance

the

playback

of

Dolby

Stereo,

which

was

the

established

standard

for

film

sound

recording.

THX

picked

up

where

Dolby

Stereo

left

off,

encom-

passing

standards

and

technologies

for

power

ampli-

fiers,

speakers,

patented

Lucasfilm

technology

and

the

acoustics

of

the

theatres

themselves

to

ensure

the

best

possible

reproduction

of

movie

soundtracks.

By

1991,

THX

systems

had

been

installed

in

nearly

500

movie

theatres

and

studios

worldwide,

with

many

more

in

various

states

of

construction.

THX

has

become

the

industry

standard

for

post

-production

mixing

facilities

as

well

as

for

theatres

and

or

studios.

In

1986

the

sales

and

rental

of

home

video

software

equalled

theatrical

ticket

sales.

George

Lucas

found

himself

back

where

he

started

-

with

no

control

over

how

his

films

would

actually

sound

in

the

home.

For

that

reason,

the

Lucasfilm

Home

THX

Audio

System

was

designed

to

accurately

bring

the

theatre

experi-

ence

home.

Harman Kardon AVP-1A Owners Manual - Page 6

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