Inventor of sound recording technologies: Ray Dolby
The name Dolby is no stranger to many of us. Some of us know this name from the Dolby Digital or Dolby Surround logos we see before the movies. Some of us, on the other hand, remember it from the text on the key used to reduce the "hiss" sound on cassette players.
Ray Dolby made very important innovations in the fields of sound technology and sound engineering with the company bearing his surname, which he founded in 1965. The first of these is the "noise reduction" system, which is used to reduce the bottom noise in the audio tapes.
For almost the entire second half of the twentieth century, sound recordings were made on magnetic tape. However, there was always some background noise on these tapes. Also known as tape squeak or "white noise", this sound was particularly evident in quieter musical passages. To solve this problem, the Dolby Noise Reduction technique was invented.
Ray Milton Dolby OBE (January 18, 1933 – September 12, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor of the noise reduction system known as Dolby NR. He helped develop the video tape recorder while at Ampex and was the founder of Dolby Laboratories.
In 1965, electrical engineer Dr. Ray Dolby (1933) proposed the first magnetic tape sound reduction system. Dolby was able to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the recording by reducing the hiss level without affecting the quality of the sound. To do this, Dolby first tried to "compensate" (compress and then re-expand) the sound. During recording, a coding circuit was inserted between the recording source and the tape; the purpose of this circuit was to compress the dynamic range of the recording. During playback, a decoding circuit was installed between the tape recorder and the playback amplifier, which once again extended the dynamic range. Quieter sounds in the audio spectrum gave a greater proportional increase, resulting in a lowered signal level, filtering out higher frequencies (where the crackling sound was). As a result of all this, the scratching sounds were less audible during the playback of the recording.
50 patents registered in his name
Another of Dolby's most important innovations is the development of systems called Dolby Stereo (1975), Dolby Surround (1982) and Dolby Digital (1991) for cinema technology.
These systems pioneered the shaping and standardization of modern audio technologies used in cinemas and home theaters today.
Considering his works and the fact that there are 50 patents registered to his name, it would not be wrong to describe Ray Dolby as an "inventor". Dolby is also the winner of two Oscars and a Grammy.
Undoubtedly, Ray Dolby was a very good engineer, but it was his love for music and cinema that underpinned his success, made him constantly take the lead like a locomotive and forced him to innovate.