Dolby Laboratories Turns 40

[Gregg Lengling]

Dolby Laboratories founded by Ray Dolby on May 17, 1965, celebrates its 40th anniversary today. The company got its start by introducing Dolby A-type noise reduction, which significantly improved the sound of recorded audio by reducing background noise inherent to professional tape recordings. Forty years later, Dolby has helped define high-quality audio entertainment for billions of consumers. From its roots in professional and cinema audio, Dolby has grown into consumer applications as well. Consumers can now experience theater-quality sound in their own family rooms via home entertainment systems powered by Dolby technologies, solidifying Dolby as one of the most recognizable brand names in the entertainment technology industry.


"We are very proud of our accomplishments over the last 40 years and look forward to driving even more improvements to the consumer experience for years to come," said Bill Jasper, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dolby Laboratories. "Dolby's enthusiasm and dedication to improving audio has made it a pioneer in sound technologies and is largely the reason why the company name is synonymous with high-quality entertainment."

In 1972, Dolby made its foray into the cinema with the introduction of the first Dolby cinema sound product, the Model 364. Dolby continued to develop revolutionary products for the cinema including its first multichannel audio technology, Dolby Stereo. In 1977, the technology was featured in two hit films, Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. After the blockbuster success of these films and the impact of the new audio format on moviegoers, it wasn't long before feature films of all genres were being released with Dolby audio technology. Today, approximately 78,000 Dolby cinema processors have been sold worldwide, enabling theaters to provide a more captivating movie experience.

The success of Dolby's innovative technologies in the cinema was eventually ushered into the home, creating what we know today as the home theater environment. With Dolby Surround, a consumer extension of the Dolby cinema project, and subsequent technologies such as Dolby Pro Logic(R) and Dolby Digital, the company helped to launch the emergence of surround sound systems for the home.

Dolby Digital has become one of the most ubiquitous audio technologies. Dolby Digital is an audio standard for Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) digital broadcast television (DTV), and for high-definition TV (HDTV), digital cable, and digital broadcast satellite (DBS) transmissions. As a result, many of today's TV programs are broadcast in multichannel audio for playback on home theater surround sound systems. Viewers can enjoy TV broadcast programming such as the Super Bowl and popular shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Desperate Housewives, and Lost in enhanced surround sound for ultimate viewing. Tens of millions of Dolby Digital decoders have been sold to date, and virtually every DVD includes a Dolby Digital soundtrack.

Dolby continues to pave the way for audio innovation with recent technology introductions that include Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Digital Stereo Creator, Dolby Digital 5.1 Creator, Dolby Digital Recording, and MLP Lossless(TM). These Dolby technologies are playing an integral role in providing consumers with high-quality entertainment experiences in cinemas, home theaters, PCs, games, and automobiles. Whether it's a next-generation video game console, personal video recorder (PVR), digital camcorder, HDTV, media center PC, or the latest in-car entertainment system, Dolby is helping to enhance the entertainment value.

In addition to its commitment to developing exceptional products and technologies for cinema and consumer applications, Dolby is dedicated to providing the content creation, distribution, and exhibition industries with dedicated support services. These efforts help ensure that professionals can deliver high-quality entertainment experiences to consumers through the use of Dolby technologies.

Stemming from success with high-quality audio in the movies, Dolby is now providing a digital cinema solution featuring unsurpassed picture and sound quality. Dolby recently introduced Dolby Digital Cinema, which is being commercially launched in select cinemas worldwide in conjunction with the release of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith.

About Dolby Laboratories

Dolby Laboratories  develops and delivers products and technologies that make the entertainment experience more realistic and immersive. For four decades Dolby has been at the forefront of defining high-quality audio and surround sound in cinema, broadcast, home audio systems, cars, DVDs, headphones, games, televisions, and personal computers. Based in San Francisco with European headquarters in England, the company has entertainment industry liaison offices in New York and Los Angeles, and licensing liaison offices in London, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. For more information about Dolby Laboratories or Dolby technologies, please visit //www.dolby.com.

Certain statements in this press release, including statements regarding the performance, capabilities, and impact of Dolby's products and technologies, the potential benefits that Dolby customers, including consumers, studios, exhibitors and audiences may derive from these products and technologies, the anticipated market acceptance of these products and technologies, the benefits derived by film industry professionals, audiences, and consumers from Dolby's engineering services; market acceptance for these services; and anticipated future technology innovations for the entertainment industries are "forward-looking statements" that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties, which could cause the forward-looking statements to differ materially from anticipated results, include, without limitation, risks associated with building customer and consumer acceptance of and demand for Dolby's technologies and services, including competition risks; risks associated with the development of the entertainment markets generally; rapid changes in technical requirements for digital entertainment; risks associated with introducing new technologies to exhibitors, broadcasters, content creators, manufacturers and consumers; risks associated with providing engineering services to successfully increase the quality of the entertainment experience in homes, theaters and other environments; risks associated with having our products and services adopted as industry standards; and other risks detailed in Dolby's Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for its fiscal quarter ended April 1, 2005. Dolby disclaims any obligation to update information contained in these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Dolby, Pro Logic, and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. MLP Lossless is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories. S05/16330 DLB-F