Roots of Ray Dolby's India connection
Ray Dolby, who passed away on Sept. 12 in the US at the age of 80, created a niche area and made amazing
products, ensured that products continuously evolved and dramatically
improved over five decades. He also ran a profitable corporation
successfully without getting too greedy or becoming arrogant; and, with
his wife, contributed liberally to philanthropy.
After undergraduate education, Dolby moved to Stanford for his Master's Degree in 1957 and then to the University of Cambridge for his PhD in Physics in 1961.
He took the unusual step of working for the United Nations for the next couple of years and that brought him to India for a Unesco assignment in New Delhi. He had to record several pieces of Indian music (both classical and folklore) and for this, he went to several ashrams in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Those were the days of analogue audio recording -- both spool and cassette type. Dolby would carry loads of audiotapes and got frustrated when he found that concerts of amazing quality he had personally listened to were terrible on recorded tape, primarily due to the "hissing" noise created by the sitar and veena and the ceiling fan noise. His genius converted the challenge into an opportunity.
By "amplifying low-level high-frequency sounds during recording, and cutting them out during playback, Dolby Laboratories managed to produce much better sound in audio cassettes. 'Dolby' became synonymous with high-quality audio. After his India assignment, he went back to Cambridge and with an initial savings of $25,000 started the company in 1965. The company moved to the US in 1976, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Dolby Laboratories started with its first product Dolby 301 with Type A Dolby Noise Reduction. Over the years, the company created products for stereo and surround sound, embraced the digital world and pioneered high-quality sound for thousands of movies, including 'Star Trek'. Recently, it addressed the need for high-quality sound in mobile handsets and smartphones.
By following an unusual business model of directly making professional-grade audio equipment, and only licensing its technology for consumer equipment and by capitalizing its intellectual property through dozens of patents (Dolby alone had more than 50 patents) yet charging very low royalty, Dolby Sound touches more than 7.2 billion consumers today. Dolby Systems has won several Emmy, Grammy and Oscar awards.
An inspiring engineer, amazing products and an admirable corporation, thy name is Dolby.
(Prof Sadagopan, director of IIIT-Bangalore, discovered Dolby's India connection several years ago when he met him by chance in an airport lounge)
After undergraduate education, Dolby moved to Stanford for his Master's Degree in 1957 and then to the University of Cambridge for his PhD in Physics in 1961.
He took the unusual step of working for the United Nations for the next couple of years and that brought him to India for a Unesco assignment in New Delhi. He had to record several pieces of Indian music (both classical and folklore) and for this, he went to several ashrams in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Those were the days of analogue audio recording -- both spool and cassette type. Dolby would carry loads of audiotapes and got frustrated when he found that concerts of amazing quality he had personally listened to were terrible on recorded tape, primarily due to the "hissing" noise created by the sitar and veena and the ceiling fan noise. His genius converted the challenge into an opportunity.
By "amplifying low-level high-frequency sounds during recording, and cutting them out during playback, Dolby Laboratories managed to produce much better sound in audio cassettes. 'Dolby' became synonymous with high-quality audio. After his India assignment, he went back to Cambridge and with an initial savings of $25,000 started the company in 1965. The company moved to the US in 1976, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Dolby Laboratories started with its first product Dolby 301 with Type A Dolby Noise Reduction. Over the years, the company created products for stereo and surround sound, embraced the digital world and pioneered high-quality sound for thousands of movies, including 'Star Trek'. Recently, it addressed the need for high-quality sound in mobile handsets and smartphones.
By following an unusual business model of directly making professional-grade audio equipment, and only licensing its technology for consumer equipment and by capitalizing its intellectual property through dozens of patents (Dolby alone had more than 50 patents) yet charging very low royalty, Dolby Sound touches more than 7.2 billion consumers today. Dolby Systems has won several Emmy, Grammy and Oscar awards.
An inspiring engineer, amazing products and an admirable corporation, thy name is Dolby.
(Prof Sadagopan, director of IIIT-Bangalore, discovered Dolby's India connection several years ago when he met him by chance in an airport lounge)
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