DOTM Getting Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Cars 2, and Kung Fu Panda 2 will be using Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound. Previous 7.1 releases include Tron 2 and Toy Story 3. If you are a true audiophile that just so happens to live close to a brand new theatre or one that recently upgraded their sound system, then this is good news. Considering only 1,300 or so theatres have the necessary equipment installed, most of us are just out of luck. If curious, more information can be found here and here. Below is THR's summary of the tech. Thanks to Sahara for the heads-up. (via Seibertron)

The format is aimed at improving the spatial dimension of soundtracks and enhancing audio definition.

Enabling content creators to mix in a discrete 7.1 format, Dolby Surround 7.1 provides four surround zones to better orchestrate audio channels in a movie theater environment. The four surround zones incorporate the traditional left surround and right surround with new back surround left and back surround right zones.

In total, the Dolby Surround 7.1 format comprises eight channels of audio with a channel layout of left, center, right, low-frequency effects, left surround, right surround, back surround left and back surround right.