Dolby surrounds Olympics

HD viewers of the Winter Olympics from Torino will get the full 5.1 Surround Sound experience as both NBC and NBC Universal HD will rely on Dolby encoders and Dolby E transmission gear.

Dolby will provide multiple encoders and decoders for NBC’s use at
individual venues, at the International Broadcast Centre in Torino, and
at NBC’s U.S. broadcast centers. A Dolby engineer will be on-site in
Italy to support the equipment installation and to provide expertise in
multichannel audio mixing and encoding throughout the events.

Multichannel audio signals will cross the Atlantic to New York and Los Angeles broadcast centers where they’ll be turned around and sent out to NBC viewers.

NBC will broadcast all events produced in high-definition video with Dolby Digital 5.1. These events include the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, figure skating, speed skating, ice hockey, ski jumping, aerials, freestyle skiing, and much more.
NBC says the events will be produced with 5.1 channels of audio at the venue and then engineers will encode the program into Dolby E for transmission. NBC HDTV affiliates throughout the country will receive the multichannel audio signal from the network and perform the final encoding into Dolby Digital 5.1 for broadcast to viewers.