Gadgetory

now the dragon is a menacing beast especially when moviegoers experiences scenes from the hobbit the desolation of smaug in a theater with a dolby atmos sound system we would have smaug's voice and his growls do this interesting thing where they would emanate from his from his mouth but then they would flow through the room and then bounce off the back wall the Atmos system is the first to put individually controllable speakers in the ceiling in addition to the standard front back and side walls of a theater essentially increasing the audience in a bubble of sound that way we can actually make sound more naturalistic more lifelike so when something moves through the room it basically goes from speaker to speaker to speaker to speaker instead of the way it does normally it hits every speaker then fades surround sound is a loud powerful tool but not very precise with Dolby Atmos every sound can be isolated so the audience contracts a the individual flutter belief around the room or the buds of the helicopter across the sky the Atmos technology gives sound mixers like Academy award-nominated Christopher Boyce precision control over sound effects placing individual sounds around the room if I took a specific wind and put it up in the ceiling and then took different winds and moved them in different places of the the room that I got this very expansive feeling and you felt like you were up on top looking at this huge Vista around you in the movie gravity sound mixers used Atmos to manipulate the position of voices like Edie Harris's and Mission Control to talk to astronauts played by George Clooney and Sandra Bullock Explorer this is Houston I have a mission abort this sound is actually being positioned into the ceiling so you're kind of hearing it as if you're as like as George and Sandra Bullock are in that space hallways which gives the overall feeling to the audience that they're along for the ride really helps focus you in the moment as to what's going on and really pushes you into the screen of the story normally when you go to the movies you want to sit in a very center to get the best sound experience the sweet spot but now with Dolby Atmos you get that same great sound experience whether you sit here or here or even here right now only 450 theaters are equipped with the Dolby Atmos system expansion plans are in the works so more movie goers can experience alongside their favorite characters do not think I won't killing walls in San Francisco I'm Kara Tsuboi cnet.com for CBS News