HELP!
Thanx!
Andrew McCrea

P.S. The theatre will begin construction soon. The theatre is slated for a July 20, 2001 opening! I heard that THX has to have special auditorium layouts and I hope our blueprint proto-type can be changed for THX certifications if we choose it!

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As for which Digital system to choose, they each have their good and bad points.

SR-D (Dolby Digital) is placed on about 99.9% of release prints today. In my opinion, it has excellent sound in the lower ranges (bass for explosions and such). Problems with it include tricky alignment (it's printed between the sprocket holes so the little "camera" has to be timed just right), a somewhat high compression rate and the fact that the track is somewhat easily damaged because of its placement on the film.

SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) appears on about 98% of realease prints, gives you 8 track capability (Left and Right Extra between the L / R and Center channels) and has the lowest compression rate. It also, in my opinion, has the best channel seperation (you can easily tell where the sound is coming from). Trouble with it is because it is printed on the very edge of the film (both edges) it is easily damaged. When damage occurs to any of the 8 low compression tracks, the system falls back to a back-up track that contains all 8 tracks at extremely high compression (sounds worse than analog!). This will happen even with brand new from the lab prints. Also, SDDS units are notoriously trouble prone and will fail a lot.

DTS (Digital Theatre Systems) has CD Rom discs which contain the sound so film damage will not affect the sound quality. It appears on about 98% of release prints today and uses the same compression ratio as SR-D. It has, in my opinion, the best seperation between screen and surround channels which will really give you that "being in the scene" feeling. Problems with DTS include the fact that the sound doesn't automatically go with the print (you have to remember to move the discs too and some prints will not have the discs returned with them so you must order new) and their older CD Rom drives are notorious for freezing up and not wanting to read properly.

I hope all this info helps. I can't tell you which system to choose because it really depends on your preference and needs. Good luck!!

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I don't believe this to be the case: DTS uses approximately 3:1 compression whereas Dolby Digital is compressed between 10:1 and 12:1.

For example, THX auditorium are designed to be very quiet. To keep outside noises as low as possible, one thing they will specify is that any AC compressors be mounted over the booth area rather than the auditoriums. The compressors may be mounted using vibration-isolation mounts; the exact type of isolation mount must be calculated by someone, based on the size and weight of the compressor (so you can't just go out and buy any mount.) They also usually specify the the HVAC ducts be internally padded/insulated. They may require that the ducts zig-zag once to reduce patrons hearing the fan noise.

So if a theater hard-mounts AC compressors directly over the auditorium using a very short, uninsulated duct, it could be very expensive to change later.

Go to the Manuals section here, and download the document; "THX Architectural Suggestions" for some idea of what involved.

When our theaters were THX approved 6 years ago, it cost $10,000 per auditorium ($1,000 a year after the first.) That price changes depending on how many auditoriums you want to do at one time, if they are all the same basic, "standard" design, etc.

I think if I were pressed for money, I would buy digital sound equipment and contact a person who has done THX auditoriums before and ask them to help with the design. It might not be perfect, but you would avoid several pitfalls if you do it yourself, and perhaps try for THX at a later date.

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Best Tech Support: DTS. No contest.
Most Maitenance Free: DTS from my experiences. SRD is also very good, though.
Easiest format to work with: SRD. Thread it up and your done. Virtually everything is in SRD.
Cheapest as by MSRP: DTS. Followed by SRD and then SDDS.
Best Channel Seperation: DTS followed very closely by SDDS. I find SRD to be "acceptable".
Best sound: DTS then SRD then SDDS in my opinion. SRD ranking that high is quite interesting considering that it has about 3 times the compression as SDDS does.
My suggestion: CP 650 with a DTS 6D deck and an EX decoder. Will give you SRD-EX, SRD, DTS and DTS-ES.

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I disagree. While DTS does an excellent job of telephone and Internet tech support(Karen RULES!), I have to say that in my experiences, Dolby has far superior support... As always YMMV...

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