On the Dandenong Drive-in thread someone pondered whether it might be possible to get surround sound or at least a better standard of sound in people's cars. After some thought I came up with a proposal that might achieve just that with some degree of simplicity.

Essentially many drive-ins these days use a stereo fm transmission to give stereo sound to those with fm car radios. Radios are often available for hire in the snack bar for those who do not have an fm car radio.

I propose that the drive-in keep its existing fm stereo transmission for usual theatre goers but have supplementary transmissions for those desiring a higher standard of sound.

Here's how I envisage the additional channels would work. (Note that the existing stereo fm transmission would be kept separate to the following so that existing patrons can get their sound as per usual)

Essentially the surround sound would be reduced to 4 channels

front left
front right
rear left
rear right

The front channels would be broadcast as a stereo fm transmission on one fm frequency and then the rear channels would be broadcast as a separate stereo fm transmission on another frequency. All a patron would have to do to get this surround sound would be to come to the drive-in in his fm radio equipped car and bring along a boom box (a portable stereo fm receiver). He would tune his car radio to the 'frontal' stereo fm frequency ensuring of course to fade any rear speakers he has in the car. He would then tune the boom box to the rear stereo fm frequency and place the boom box in the rear of the car or station wagon facing the front of the car. If the boom box speakers are detachable they could be detached and placed at either side of the rear of the car to give greater separation. Lots of people have boom boxes or portable fm radios these days.

This seems like a low cost, technically feasible way of providing a better sound experience to drive-in patrons without interfering with the sound reception system of regular drive-in patrons.

Thoughts please? Feasible? The only problem I can see are that (1) the drive-in would need to ensure that the left and right channels are swapped for the rear stereo fm transmission as the boom box will be facing the opposite way to the car radio and (2) high quality cinema sound systems may have greater then a 4 speaker system. One may have to mix a few channels to reduce the sound down to 4 channels. Even so a 4 speaker system along the lines of that outlined above should give a better sound expererience than just a 2 speaker system.

I'll hand over to our resident sound engineers. Could this work?

cheers Peter

I think that the cost of piping in surround sound to cars (and handing out speakers, not to mention maintenance of the speakers and field) would be cost prohibitive.

There may be some technology available to do what you want, but I have not heard of it if there is.

Just my .02 cents worth.

Paul

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And i don't really think that adding transmitters and a boombox would be worth the hassle. Most of the customers have enough trouble remembering one freq. let alone two of them. I can also just imagine how many people would complain and experience horrible sound because they were on the wrong frequency and were just listening to the rears. Another point is that i don't really think that many people care about the surround sound in a drive-in, think about it, every single mini van and SUV that park backwords and watch the movie from the back of the car is listening to the stereo sound backwords. the right channel is now their left and the left now their right.

If you are looking at getting better sound at a drive-in then get better equipment. like the smart mod II b dit, Reverse scan readers, a good transmitter like one from broadcast warehouse, and a good Stereo compressor/limiter like the behringer ultra-dyne 9024.

Trust me you can tell

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http://www.autoramadrivein.com

Steve

"Next generation" music-only formats like DVD-A and SACD need to have new music title releases made for the format and released on the same day/date as the standard LPCM music CD. This move would put more pressure to install DVD-A, DD, DTS, etc. 5.1 surround capability in car stereo systems. Right now there is very little demand for it because title availability just plain sucks much ass. If a 20 year old Foreigner album is among the best efforts DVD-A's proponents can put out, the format will languish in limbo and eventually die.

A radio broadcasting industry has to settle on a digital transmission format so digital-based receivers can become common in cars.

DVD-Video systems in cars are nice, but really won't drive the car stereo market hard enough alone to make 5.1 surround common in cars. The DVD-A and SACD formats have to do it if at all possible.

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