Surround Sound

Ray Dolby, the inventor of many things including surround sound has passed away.

He was 80 and had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease  and was recently diagnosed with leukaemia. Mr Dolby will be remembered as the man who cut out the background hiss in audio recordings, worked on videotape recording and most of all, for his contribution to home stereo and cinema fans. His Surround Sound technology which, as I understand it, encodes audio information in such a way that the playback sounds like it comes from players and singers in place rather than from a fixed position. It was thanks to him that our record collections sound so good and that we have home theatres today.

Of course advances in technology have meant that Ray Dolby's ideas have moved on. How about this for an amazing performance, incorporating people and sounds from across the world. Watch the whole thing to get an idea of how powerful music can be and how the concept of surround sound has moved on. Ray Dolby would be proud!