Dolby Laboratories history

Featuring within the Dolby 361, Dolby A was commonplace in professional studios within a short time of its release in 1966 – just one year after the formation of Dolby Laboratories – coinciding with the time that multi-track recording became the standard for audio recording.

The result was the 1968 introduction of Dolby B-type noise reduction, intended for home tape recorders.

His first United States patent on the technology was filed in 1969, four years later.

Dbx, which had been developed in 1971, was a serious threat to Dolby because it reduced background noise by 40 decibels, a considerable improvement over Dolby's 10.

Callan (1974) was the first film with a Dolby-encoded optical soundtrack.

In 1975 Dolby Laboratories introduced Dolby Stereo, a product aimed at motion picture producers and theaters.

The first true LCRS (Left-Center-Right-Surround) soundtrack was encoded on the movie A Star Is Born in 1976.

1977: Star Wars opens with Dolby Stereo®.

In the 1980s, virtually all prerecorded cassettes used Dolby B. The first major threat to Dolby's positioning began quietly in 1980, when dbx--a Newton, Massachusetts company--sold its system to several audio manufacturers, including the major Japanese company Matsushita Electric.

In April 1982, the competition began to look more serious.

Dolby Spectral Recording (or SR), which was introduced in 1986, worked on magnetic sound tracks for film as well as music cassettes, producing digital clarity from an analog sound system.

The system was used by many professional studios instead of digital recording, and in 1988 Dolby SR was in use at movie theaters showing the films Robocop and Space.

Dolby S was the next level – offering a significantly greater level of noise reduction, but it came along in 1989 when the compact disc (… the CD), was replacing the cassette in the commercial market.

In 1992, Dolby achieved $40 million in revenues, with a third from royalty payments that headed straight to the bottom line.

Introduced to the home theater market as Dolby AC-3 with the 1995 laserdisc release of Clear and Present Danger, the format did not become widespread in the consumer market, partly because of extra hardware that was necessary to make use of it, until it was adopted as part of the DVD specification.

1996: Dolby receives Scientific and Engineering Award from AMPAS for design and development of Dolby Digital sound system.

1998: First live HDTV broadcast with 5.1-channel Dolby Digital audio.

1999: Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace debuts in Dolby Surround EX.

2004: Primetime Emmy® Award presented by NATAS to Dolby for outstanding achievement in engineering development.

On February 17, 2005, the company became public, offering its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol DLB. On March 15, 2005, Dolby celebrated its fortieth anniversary at the ShoWest 2005 Festival in San Francisco.

2006: New Korean office opens in Asia, joining offices in Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong.

On January 8, 2007, Dolby announced the arrival of Dolby Volume at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

On June 18, 2010, Dolby introduced Dolby Surround 7.1, and set up theaters worldwide with 7.1 surround speaker setups to deliver theatrical 7.1 surround sound.

In April 2012, Dolby introduced its Dolby Atmos, a new cinematic technology adding overhead sound, first applied in Pixar's motion picture Brave.

On February 24, 2014, Dolby acquired Doremi Labs for $92.5 million in cash plus an additional $20 million in contingent consideration that may be earned over a four-year period.

Since 2015, she has committed over $160 million to the University of Cambridge, where Ray Dolby earned a Ph.D. in physics.

In September 2018, Dolby donated $20 million to UC San Francisco to establish the Dolby Family Center for Mood Disorders.