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Author Topic: Dolby SLS Express Series Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-18-2017 02:11 PM                     Does anyone in this forum know much about the new Dolby SLS Express Series product line? I guess it's something that is brand new or coming soon and geared toward lowering the costs of a Dolby Atmos installation. Dolby is offering SLS 3-Axis speakers, an SLS Rapid Rigging system and new Dolby multi-channel amplifiers, available in 24 and 32 channel configurations. One Dolby amplifier can replace up to 16 individual stereo amplifiers. I hadn't heard anything about these products until stumbling upon it at the Dolby web site. In one respect I like the idea of Dolby introducing 24-channel and 32-channel amplifiers. Hopefully it will light a fire under the butts of rival companies like QSC. If you want to build an Atmos system around QSC's Q-Sys setup you'll still be buying at least a couple dozen or even more individual power amplifiers.  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 03-18-2017 07:17 PM                       Dolby is showing the finished Amp at Cine Com week after next. They will probably show the SLS hardware as well.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-18-2017 07:36 PM                     An amp similar to this no doubt... https://www.bgw.com/amplifiers/vxi/vxi88 AB systems had a 6 channel amp in the early 2000's that was a semi disaster like most of their stuff was. Personally, it's not worth installing an amp that if one channel goes bad or something in the transformer primary circuit fails it takes the whole room off line for days. Plus the Atmos systems around here would certainly qualify as "Express" systems, or bare minimum. There is nothing at all exciting about them. There are better sounding 7.1 systems around here.... Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-18-2017 07:48 PM                     They had the amp at CinemaCon last year (in prototype stage). Can be powered off of 3-Phase, as I recall (think about how much power you are using with that many channels!). But the power was configurable. I liken it to the Altec Incremental Amplifiers. Dolby, last year, proclaimed it to be just for the various surround speakers. I'm wondering if, for Atmos, people wouldn't be better served by self-powered speakers and just running a circuit down the side walls another couple in the ceiling. Get the speakers on Blulink and you are down to pretty cheap wiring, overall. Particularly on a new build.  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 03-18-2017 08:30 PM                       Single phase only. I asked the same question a while back.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 03-18-2017 10:12 PM                     So, I'm guessing (actually, hoping) an amp with this many channels has fully redundant power supplies, so that if a stupid diode or cap craps out, you don't suddenly loose all 24 channels.., no?  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-18-2017 11:49 PM                     All valid questions to be answered. Hopefully Dolby (and its rivals have good answers to those questions). I really think commercial movie theaters need to move beyond the conventional 5.1 or 7.1 paradigm that is easy and cheap to reproduce in home theater. Dolby Atmos may be available in home theater setups, but not many people are willing to buy all the speakers and go through the work/expense of having that hardware installed. In the home theater end of things it seems like easy to install (and cheap) sound bars are all the rage. Still, I wouldn't mind having an Atmos 7.1.4 setup in my living room. I just don't want to collapse my living room's plaster ceiling in the process of installing the ".4" part of the sound system.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-19-2017 01:03 AM                     The problem, Bobby, is that because there is no distinction between home Atmos (or iPad Atmos, for that matter) and professional theatrical Atmos, the home, in the potential patron's ears, is the same. It is sort of Blu-ray in HD versus DCP in 2K...you can talk until you're blue in the face that they are not the same but the patron won't know the difference. There is zero marquee value in advertising "2K" or "4K". Homes already have those.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 03-19-2017 05:22 AM                     quote: Steve Guttag I'm wondering if, for Atmos, people wouldn't be better served by self-powered speakers and just running a circuit down the side walls another couple in the ceiling. Get the speakers on Blulink and you are down to pretty cheap wiring, overall. Particularly on a new build. Similar to what Meyer Sound are doing. I would be concerned to have, say, 35 speakers in the auditorium and also 35 amplifiers located in very difficult to access positions. If a 4-ch amplifier fails in the booth, it's a 10 minutes job to replace. If a top surround speaker fails, you'll need a tower. And the more components you add in the speaker, the more likely they are to fail. If I remember the Dolby amplifier I was shown, it has modular sections for the secondaries but the primary is a single module so yes, there is a chance to lose the whole set of channels in one go  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-19-2017 07:33 AM                     Conversely, if one amplifier fails, you affect just one speaker, not four (or more).  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 03-19-2017 11:08 AM                     Well the Meyer Sound solution has the primary section of the amps in the booth - so you still have a single point of failure somewhere. Your solution would be the most reliable but most expensive to service in case of failure. In the end amplifiers can be very reliable and I can't recall many cinemas losing amplifiers very easily. I'd rather have them in an accessible place than on the ceiling to be honest.  |  IP: Logged Pietro Clarici Expert Film Handler Posts: 136 From: Foligno (PG) Italy Registered: Sep 2008 posted 03-19-2017 11:53 AM                        Is the CP850 able to re-render Atmos tracks on the fly, automatically compensating for a failed channel? That would be a plus for independent active surrounds, IMO. Then you'd only need to get to the affected speaker at the end of the show: can't remember exactly where, but I believe I saw pictures of a setup with rows of Atmos speakers mounted on light motorized trusses. Could help with retrofitting and maintenance.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-19-2017 12:07 PM                     I can't see it being easier/cheaper to run power and signal to each (of many, in these systems) surround. Copper isn't cheap... but I doubt the overall cost of installing power outlets and Cobranet (or equivalent) cabling is less than running speaker wires. Yes, a 12 channel amp will drop 12 speaker channels if/when it fails. But replacing it in a sound rack is not much of a chore. Accessing a ceiling surround to service an integrated amp... that's a chore! A Meyer system sounds pretty sweet. Also hella expensive and a bit less common than hen's teeth. One problem - it has no amp output monitoring capability that I know of: I think Cobranet can include that. I haven't been fond if high channel count amps. For a 5.1 or 7.1 system I like the flexibility of 2ch amps. Going to Atmos the amp count can quickly get ridiculous - there's a decent saving in rack size, power distribution, and amp cost when you use (at least) 4ch amps for the surrounds. Dolby obviously recognizes this. They took on SLS to have an in-house speaker supplier to reduce Atmos project speaker cost. Adding an amplifier product makes sense. I'd like to see an Atmos booth monitor too. The fairly common practice of using a DCM for screen channel crossover/monitoring leaves all the surrounds unmonitorable.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-19-2017 02:19 PM                     Having an electrician put in outlets along the surround route, particularly on a new-build is going to be practically free, with respect to the building costs. running CAT cable is as cheap as copper gets for audio. running speaker wire, either plenum or in conduit is far from free.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-19-2017 04:01 PM                     As systems become more complex with many identical components, the obvious direction to take the hardware is to modularize it. Many hard drives in a system and replacements can be changed easily. Many audio amplifiers hot swap-able. Reducing the fixed pieces of the system to highly reliable components to make the entire system more reliable. Like common power supplies with extreme designed components. Probably one spare per multiplex. The broadcast industry has made the concept of minimum failures with duplicate spares a way of life. Why not theatres? Modern stage lighting systems are an example with many swap-able dimmers operating from the same supply. DMX controls managed through swap-able drivers in the rack.  |  IP: Logged

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