Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB) announced today that it is providing technical services as well as cinema technology solutions to the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the 15th year in a row. By using Dolby® Digital Cinema and Dolby E technologies this year, TIFF transitions into the digital age, allowing filmmakers the ability to showcase their digitally developed movies in an immersive digital audio and video environment for attendees.
"Digital technology is now prevalent throughout the entire ecosystem of moviemaking-from shooting and editing to postproduction, making digital playback an ideal solution for festivals and theatres alike," said Bill Allen, Senior Director, Production Services, Dolby Laboratories. "We are proud to offer our support and solutions to the Toronto International Film Festival, ensuring that filmmakers can more accurately share their creative vision and audiences get the best possible experience."
TIFF will outfit all of the Toronto video-capable venues with Dolby E decoding, thus providing emerging filmmakers the flexibility to showcase their 5.1-channel mixes before engaging in the complex film postproduction process. Dolby E is a professional digital audio coding technology that optimizes the delivery of multichannel audio through a two-channel infrastructure, enabling festival filmmakers who use Dolby E to present their six-channel mix directly from a HDCAM tape.
In addition, the Festival will outfit four venues with Dolby Digital Cinema, a complete digital system for storing, managing, and playing digital movies, for the presentation of movies that have gone through digital cinema packaging (DCP) in postproduction. Dolby is a leader in DCP packaging, providing both services and encoding equipment. Unlike traditional film, digital movies maintain pristine quality and a rock solid image for every presentation, eliminating film scratches and screen dust that distract from the moviegoing experience.
"We are thrilled to have Dolby engineers David Berti and Paul Sacco on site and to use Dolby's technologies at the festival to ensure that our movie screenings look and sound the best they possibly can," said Andrei Gravelle, Technical Manager, Toronto International Film Festival. "We believe that Dolby's quality and standards provide a professional level of playback and give filmmakers the flexibility they look for when showcasing their art. Dolby truly advances the festival into the digital moviemaking age."
The 33rd TIFF will be conducted from September 4-13 at venues throughout Toronto, Canada.
