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May 1, 2004, Akron, Ohio--Ray Dolby was inducted into the National Inventors
Hall of Fame today in recognition of his invention of the Dolby® noise reduction
system that electronically reduces the tape hiss and other noise inherent in analog
audio tape recording and playback.
"Ray Dolby changed the face of the recording industry with his noise reduction
system. The multitrack recording techniques that blossomed in the late 1960s and
early 1970s would have been impossible without Dolby's invention because the
tape hiss would have been intolerable," said Fred Allen, head of the Selection
Committee for the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation. "And today, applied
to consumer formats and motion picture sound, the results are even more farreaching.
With the removal of tape noise, cinema sound became higher fidelity and
paved the way for even more sophisticated surround sound formats like
Dolby Stereo."
With Dolby noise reduction, sound is passed through an encoder as it is recorded,
and then played back through a decoder, dramatically lowering background noise
and hiss added by the recording process with none of the side effects inherent in
previous attempts at noise reduction.
At a ceremony today at the National Inventors Hall of Fame headquarters in Akron,
Ohio, Dolby, along with 19 other inventors including Frederick Banting, Charles
Best, and James Collip, the inventors of insulin; Harry Coover, the inventor of
Superglue; and Ivan Getting and Bradford Parkinson, co-inventors of Global
Positioning Systems, joined such legendary inventors as Alexander Graham Bell,
Eli Whitney, and Thomas Edison in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. To qualify
for this distinction, an inductee's invention must have contributed to the welfare of
society and have promoted the progress of science and the useful arts. All nominations
are reviewed by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Selection Committee, comprising
representatives from national science and technology organizations.
Ray Dolby received a BS in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1957 and
a PhD in physics from Cambridge University in 1961. He founded Dolby Laboratories
in 1965 to further develop his ideas about noise reduction. By 1967, major record
labels such as Decca in the UK and RCA, MCA, and CBS in the US were using Dolby
noise reduction.
For nearly 40 years, Ray Dolby and Dolby Laboratories have continued to innovate
and lead sound technology. Highlights include Dolby Stereo, the first Dolby
multichannel surround sound format for the cinema, which gained widespread
recognition with the release Star Wars in 1977. Dolby then brought surround sound to
the home in the early '80s with the invention of Dolby Surround and Dolby Surround
Pro Logic®. The company's reputation as a leader in audio technology was greatly
enhanced in 1986 with the introduction of Dolby SR (spectral recording), a powerful
new system that improved existing professional analog recorders to equal, and in
some respects surpass, very costly digital recorders. In 1992, Dolby Digital was
introduced for multichannel applications, including film sound and digital surround
sound in the home.
Today, Dolby Laboratories continues to bring the entertainment experience forward
with such remarkable technologies as Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Headphone, Dolby
Virtual Speaker, and Dolby Pro Logic II. Dolby technologies have applications in audio
recording and postproduction, cinema, home theater, television broadcasting, PCs,
videogames, automobiles, and personal computers.
Dolby Laboratories has licensed over 1.5 billion consumer products, including over 500
million products incorporating Dolby Digital and almost 200 million home theater
systems incorporating Dolby technology. Additionally, the company has been granted
780 patents in 28 countries and 771 trademark registrations in 96 countries. Dolby
films are mixed in 50 countries.
About Dolby Laboratories
Dolby Laboratories creates technologies that intensify and enhance the entertainment
experience. For nearly four decades, Dolby has been instrumental in defining highquality
audio and surround sound in cinema, broadcast, home audio systems, cars,
DVDs, headphones, games, televisions, and personal computers. Based in San
Francisco with European headquarters in England, the privately held company has
entertainment industry liaison offices in New York and Los Angeles, and licensing
liaison offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo. For more information about
Dolby Laboratories or Dolby technologies, please visit www.dolby.com.
Dolby, Pro Logic, and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. S04/15358
Media Contact:
Adam Anderson, Dolby Laboratories, Inc., 415-645-5176 aja@dolby.com
