Dolby Atmos® Home Theater Installation Guidelines September 2014
Contents 1. Background on Dolby Atmos 2. General Dolby Atmos Home Setup Guidelines Dolby Atmos Home Playback Dolby Atmos Home Theater Speaker Options Overhead Speakers Alternatives to Overhead Speakers Dolby Atmos Enabled Speakers Use of Existing Speakers Combination: Overhead and Dolby Atmos Enabled Speakers Use of Existing Overhead Speakers 3.
1. Background on Dolby Atmos Many leading Hollywood movies, including recent Academy Award® winning films, are presented in Dolby Atmos®, as this revolutionary sound technology allows filmmakers unprecedented realism and creative freedom. With Dolby Atmos, content creators can precisely place and move sounds almost anywhere, including overhead, to create a multidimensional listening experience.
These installation guidelines are intended to be a resource for integrating Dolby Atmos into a home theater system and unlocking the potential of this revolutionary audio format. Details include use of conventional overhead speakers and Dolby Atmos enabled speaker technology, which enables you to architect a system capable of reproducing overhead sound, even if you’re not able to put speakers in or on a client’s ceiling.
2. General Dolby Atmos Home Setup Guidelines The following components are needed to set up a Dolby Atmos home theater system. 1. A source device to play Dolby Atmos content. Many existing devices will work. 2. A Dolby Atmos capable A/V receiver (AVR) or processor unit. 3. Speakers to reproduce overhead or height audio. 4. Speakers to reproduce listener-level audio. Note: In many use cases, the customer’s existing speakers may be employed in a Dolby Atmos home theater.
AVR connection and setup Most AVRs that support s Dolby Atmos have speake r connection ns labeled H HEIGHT, as show wn in Figure 2. Some AV VRs do not use u the HEIG GHT label fo or all capable channels,, but they instead allow you to t assign sp pecific termin nals for the height spea aker outputs ugh the grap phical user interface i in the setup m menu. Conne ect overhea ad speakers throu or Do olby Atmos enabled spe eakers to those height- capable outtputs.
Many installations currently have systems with a subwoofer and either five or seven speakers positioned at about ear level. These speakers are referred to as the “listener level” in this document. Any speaker type that is capable of accurately representing a stereo pan is suitable to reproduce objects. As in the past, the placement of all listener-level speakers should follow these recommendations, which are based on ITU-R BS.
Mounting considerations If the chosen overhead speakers have a wide dispersion pattern (approximately 45 degrees from the acoustical reference axis over the audio band from 100 Hz to 10 kHz or wider), then speakers may be mounted facing directly downward. For speakers with narrower dispersion patterns, those with aimable or angled elements should be angled toward the primary listening position.
Integ grated speak kers You will w be able to select inttegrated Do olby Atmos e enabled spe eakers that iinclude both h tradittional forwa ard-firing speakers and upward-firin ng speakerss in a single e speaker cabin net. (Those speakers ha ave two sets s of speakerr binding po osts, one forr the tradittional speak ker and one for the upw ward-firing D Dolby Atmoss enabled sp peaker.
Figure 4: Dolby Atmos enabled add-on modules include only upward-firing speakers. You can place them on top of your traditional front-firing speakers or on another surface near them. Comparison to overhead speakers Dolby Atmos enabled speakers produce slightly more diffuse overhead audio that is quite lifelike and, in some cases, may be preferable to the sound that originates from overhead speakers.
speakers or add-on modules) should be in the front left and front right speaker locations of your system. The other two should be positioned in the surround sound speaker locations, ideally at the rear surround speakers, if you have them. If using only two Dolby Atmos enabled speakers, place the Dolby Atmos enabled speakers at the front left and front right speaker locations.
the ceiling is desired; audio reflections from elsewhere within the room should be avoided. Bass management with Dolby Atmos enabled speakers Be mindful to employ proper bass management when installing Dolby Atmos enabled speakers in the customer’s system. Typically, these speakers are not full range, and manufacturer documentation should be consulted for specific details on each model.
Use of Existing Overhead Speakers In some existing home theater systems, overhead speakers are employed to generate audio that would otherwise be created by listener-level speakers (for example, left/right surround speakers). When transitioning to Dolby Atmos, existing overhead speakers should only be repurposed as overhead outputs if a corresponding listener-level speaker can be added to assume the previous overhead speaker feed.
3. Standard Speaker Configurations Dolby Conventions for Speaker Configurations With the debut of Dolby Atmos, there is a new method of referring to surround sound speaker configurations (see the “Dolby Atmos for the Home Theater” white paper for more details). It is based on the standard nomenclature (stereo, 5.1, and 7.1) but adds a number at the end to specify the number of height speakers you employ in the playback system (for example, 7.1.4).
Figure 7: A traditional 5.1 speaker layout with two Dolby Atmos enabled speakers (5.1.2). Standard Setups for Both Overhead Speakers and Dolby Atmos Enabled Speakers Images of standard setups follow for the most common speaker configurations and are provided for both overhead speakers and Dolby Atmos enabled speakers: 5.1.2 (Fig. 8, Fig. 9), 5.1.4 (Fig. 10, Fig. 11), 7.1.2 (Fig. 12, Fig. 13), 7.1.4 (Fig. 14, Fig. 15), and 9.1.2 (Fig. 16, Fig.17).
Figure 8: Standard 5.1.2 setup with overhead speakers.
Figure 9: Standard 5.1.2 setup with Dolby Atmos enabled speakers.
Figure 10: Standard 5.1.4 setup with overhead speakers.
Figure 11: Standard 5.1.4 setup with Dolby Atmos enabled speakers.
Figure 12: Standard 7.1.2 setup with overhead speakers.
Figure 13: Standard 7.1.2 setup with Dolby Atmos enabled speakers.
Figure 14: Standard 7.1.4 setup with overhead speakers.
Figure 15: Standard 7.1.4 setup with Dolby Atmos enabled speakers.
Figure 16: Standard 9.1.2 setup with overhead speakers.
Figure 17: Standard 9.1.2 setup with Dolby Atmos enabled speakers.
4. Additional Speaker Placement Guidelines In addition to the typical configurations in the previous section, Dolby Atmos can support a variety of additional speaker positions, up to a maximum of 34 total (for example, 24.1.10). This section focuses on the placement of speakers, which may be added to the positions covered in section 3.
Left Center/Right Center speaker pair The Left Center and Right Center speakers should ideally be placed at approximately 15 degrees between the Left and Right speakers and the center-front reference.
Figure 19 shows the range of angles at which the Left Screen and Right Screen speakers may be placed. Rsc Lsc 15° 5° 5° 15° Figure 19: Left Screen and Right Screen speaker placement. Left Surround 1/Right Surround 1 speaker pair The Left Surround 1 and Right Surround 1 speakers should be placed between the Left Surround and Right Surround and Left Wide and Right Wide speakers at approximately 75 degrees from the center-front reference.
Left Surround 2/Right Surround 2 speaker pair The Left Surround 2 and Right Surround 2 speakers should be placed between the Left Surround and Right Surround and Left Rear Surround 1 and Right Rear Surround 1 speakers at approximately 105 degrees from the center-front reference. Figure 21 shows the range of angles at which the Left Surround 2 and Right Surround 2 speakers may be placed.
105° 105° 120° 120° 135° 135° Lrs1 Rrs1 Figure 22: Left Rear Surround 1 and Right Rear Surround 1 speaker placement. Left Rear Surround 2/Right Rear Surround 2 speaker pair The Left Rear Surround 2 and Right Rear Surround 2 speakers should be placed between the Left Rear Surround and Right Rear Surround and Left Center Surround and Right Center Surround speakers at approximately 145 degrees from the centerfront reference.
Left Center Surround/Right Center Surround speaker pair The Left Center Surround and Right Center Surround speakers should be placed between the Left Rear Surround, Right Rear Surround, and Center Surround speakers at approximately 165 degrees from the center-front reference. Figure 24 shows the range of angles at which the Left Center Surround and Right Center Surround speakers may be placed.
Note that, in all of these examples, overhead speakers must be added to the playback system in pairs. Left Front Height/Right Front Height speaker pair The Left Front Height and Right Front Height speakers should be mounted on the front wall (instead of on the ceiling) in line with an approximately 30 degrees horizontal from the center-front reference. This places the Left Front Height and Right Front Height speakers directly above the Left and Right speakers.
Lfh Rfh 30° 30° Listener Figure 26: Top view of Left Front Height and Right Front Height speaker placement. Left Rear Height/Right Rear Height speaker pair We recommend that the Left Rear Height and Right Rear Height speakers should be mounted on the rear wall (instead of on the ceiling) in line with an approximately 30 degrees horizontal from the center-front reference.
op View of Lrh/Rrh Speaker Placement Figure 30° 30° Listener Lrh Rrh Figure 28: Top view of Left Rear Height and Right Rear Height speaker placement.
5. Dolby Surround Upmixer Clients that invest in a Dolby Atmos home theater naturally expect to get full use of all of their components, even when the content they are playing isn’t mixed in Dolby Atmos. This includes taking advantage of overhead and Dolby Atmos enabled speakers to further enhance the playback experience. Included in the Dolby Atmos technology bundle is a new, advanced upmixer designed to be compatible with traditional channel-based as well as Dolby Atmos speaker systems.
