RELIEF is at hand for cinema-goers who can’t stand the blaring soundtracks of
some movie trailers. The movie studios have agreed to curb their excesses by
deploying an “annoyance meter” developed by Dolby Laboratories—the
American company that gave cinemas the technology to play louder sound in the
first place.
In the 1970s, Dolby modified the analogue noise reduction system it had
developed for tape to enable film soundtracks to deliver super-loud stereo and
surround sound for blockbuster movies such as Star Wars, Close
Encounters of the Third Kind and The Right Stuff. Dolby has since
developed digital systems that…
