There have been quite a few ground-breaking innovations in the world of home theatre recently. LG has once again raised the bar with their 2021 line-up, which includes a CES® 2021 Best of Innovation Award winner, several Innovation Award honourees, and even an Emmy Award for their OLED TVs. With technology in smart TVs and sound developing at a rapid pace, truly immersive home cinema experiences are now more accessible than ever.
While much of the discussion around home cinemas focuses on screen and image innovations, one aspect of a truly great home cinema setup that should certainly not be overlooked is the sound system. Today, more people can enjoy the full cinema experience – including immersive sound – in the comfort of their living rooms and not just at the cinema. Since many theatres are showing movies to empty seats amid the current public health concerns and with as many as 70% of people saying they would rather watch movies at home, people are choosing to invest in at-home entertainment.
The legacy of sound
Sound quality can make or break a cinematic experience as it provides the texture and emotion every movie needs in order to resonate. Without it, any tender moment or action-packed sequence falls flat and loses its emotional impact. With surround sound, a movie truly becomes immersive and you’re able to hear and experience sounds as complete as possible. To truly enjoy everything that films and their makers have to offer, a quality sound setup is essential.
Sound technology has come a long way to be where it is today. The first time audiences heard surround sound was during Walt Disney’s Fantasia in 1941. The setup cost a staggering $85,000 for a unique arrangement that required custom speakers and two projectors – one running the film and audio and another dedicated to four additional audio tracks. Soon enough, magnetic sound-on-film became popular and more theatres could offer surround sound with up to six sound channels. After that, noise reduction created the opportunity to reinvent optical sound technology, but the real breakthrough came when Dolby Stereo was created and allowed four channels to be played on optical tracks.
Sound tech in 2021
Fast forward to 2021, and not only can one Soundbar now replace the need for five to seven speakers in the living room, but surround sound itself has also moved a notch above the rest. Dolby Atmos can now deliver true 3D audio by panning sounds precisely, not only from left to right or front to back, but also from above and below. Think of the added spatial dimension as 4K, but for your ears.
While traditional surround sound systems can only recreate the movement of sounds from left to right, Dolby Atmos adds the dimension of height by also placing them overhead. This makes listeners feel like they’re right in the middle of the scene where every sound has an exact point of origin.
Dolby Atmos also prioritises detail to achieve incredibly realistic sound. It uses a 9.1 bed channel for background sound and music and up to 118 unique sound objects that it mixes simultaneously into one immersive experience to create a more detailed and hyper-realistic soundscape. Voices, instruments, or sound effects are more isolated and distinctly placed in the room, creating incredible clarity and immersion. It’s a must-have for movie-lovers and audiophiles.
Raising the soundbar
Sound technology has certainly seen considerable improvements in recent years. A CES 2020 Innovation Awards Honouree in the audio category that’s certainly worth mentioning is LG’s SN11 soundbar. With 7.1.4 channels of sound (seven normal channels, one dedicated subwoofer, and four additional height channels) and Dolby Atmos, these stylish speakers sound like there’s a full symphony orchestra in your living room. They connect to your smart TV and also have he soundbar also plays sounds at a higher bitrate and it leverages Meridian Audio Technologies to make sounds far more realistic through digital signal processing technologies that use psychoacoustic tuning.
Music to your ears
LG is certainly redefining audio as we know it, and with their exciting 2021 audio range unveiled, it’s easier than ever to have the ultimate cinematic experience in your home. LG’s XBOOM Bluetooth speakers allow you to connect up to 100 devices to create one massive and immersive surround sound system. For people who want to bring the immersive cinema experience to their living room, with all the innovation currently happening in the sound space, 2021 is a great year to do it.
2020 saw more of us consuming sound content be it in the form of podcasts or music. In 2021 this trend isn’t going anywhere, and LG is certainly ensuring consumers have the best technology to enjoy their entertainment experience.
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