Dolby Laboratories founder honoured at Cannes

Ray Dolby, the founder and Chairman of Dolby Laboratories, has received the prestigious ‘Medaille du Festival de Cannes’ in recognition for the company’s ongoing support and provision of technical expertise at the Cannes Film Festival for the past 30 years.
At Cannes, Dolby has supported filmmakers and directors by ensuring that the sound heard in the 48 cinemas is as good as possible. Whether calibrating surround sound systems, installing the latest technologies such as Dolby Digital Surround EX or simply being on hand to help with last minute sound issues in the cinemas, Dolby sound consultants have been at Cannes every year since 1974 and have supported the presentation of award-winning films such as ‘Apocalypse Now’, ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Sex, Lies and Videotape’ among many others. Last year, over 800 film screenings at the festival used Dolby soundtrack technologies.
During the festival itself, the team of sound consultants takes a more active role, sitting in on all film rehearsals, regardless of the hour, to ensure that the film director is happy with the sound presentation of the film. They are also on call if an emergency occurs and also assist with the utilisation of Dolby technologies, both existing and new.
Professional engineers can also call on Dolby for extra services at Cannes, including the rental of specialist equipment and guaranteed Dolby sound consultant attendance at important screenings.
For nearly four decades, Dolby Laboratories has been instrumental in defining high-quality 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.
The Cannes Film Festival is one of the biggest and most well known film festivals in the world, running for ten days every May.
Filmmakers and stars from all over the world attend the event in order to showcase films, drum up support for forthcoming pictures and compete for the prestigious ‘Palm D’Or’ as well as other festival awards.
www.dolby.com
(KmcA)