Ray Dolby facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ray Dolby
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Dolby (left) being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2004
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| Born |
Ray Milton Dolby
January 18, 1933 Portland, Oregon, U.S.
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| Died | September 12, 2013 (aged 80) |
| Education | Stanford University (BE) Pembroke College, Cambridge (PhD) |
| Spouse(s) |
Dagmar Bäumert
(m. 1966) |
| Children |
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| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Electrical engineering, physics |
| Institutions | Dolby Laboratories |
| Projects | Dolby NR |
| Significant design | Surround sound |
| Awards |
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| Military career | |
| Service/ |
 United States Army |
Ray Milton Dolby (born January 18, 1933 – died September 12, 2013) was a brilliant American engineer and inventor. He created the famous Dolby NR system, which made sound much clearer. Ray Dolby also helped develop the video tape recorder and started his own company, Dolby Laboratories.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Ray Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1933. His father, Earl Milton Dolby, was also an inventor. Ray went to Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California.
As a teenager, he worked part-time at a company called Ampex. There, he helped with their very first audio tape recorder in 1949.
While studying at San Jose State College and later at Stanford University, he worked on early versions of video tape recorders. He even served two years in the United States Army.
In 1957, Ray earned his degree in electrical engineering from Stanford. He then won a special scholarship called the Marshall Scholarship. This allowed him to get his Ph.D. (a high-level degree) in physics from the University of Cambridge in England in 1961.
Ray Dolby's Career and Inventions
Even before getting his Ph.D., Ray Dolby played a big part in creating the first Quadruplex videotape recorder for Ampex in 1956. This invention was a major step for recording video.
After finishing his studies, Ray worked as a technical advisor for the United Nations in India. In 1965, he returned to England and started his own company, Dolby Laboratories. He began with just four employees.
The Dolby Noise-Reduction System
In 1965, Ray Dolby invented the Dolby noise-reduction system. This system was a special way to process sound for analog tape recorders. It helped to make recordings sound much better by reducing unwanted background noise, like tape hiss.
The system worked by making quiet, high-pitched sounds louder during recording. Then, during playback, it would make those sounds quieter again. This process also lowered the annoying tape hiss, making the music or voices much clearer.
Improving Film Sound
Ray Dolby also wanted to make movie sound better. He found that old movie sound systems had a lot of background noise. To hide this noise, high-pitched sounds were often cut out, which made the sound less clear.
Ray's system helped fix this problem. The first movie to use Dolby noise reduction was A Clockwork Orange in 1971. The movie Callan (1974) was the first to have a Dolby-encoded soundtrack.
In 1976, the movie A Star Is Born featured the first true surround sound (LCRS) soundtrack. This made movies sound much more immersive. Within ten years, 6,000 movie theaters around the world were using Dolby Stereo sound.
Dolby Digital and Beyond
Later, Ray Dolby developed a digital surround sound system called Dolby Stereo Digital. This is now known simply as Dolby Digital. It first appeared in the 1992 film Batman Returns.
Today, Dolby Digital is used in many places. You can find it in HDTVs, DVD players, and many satellite and cable TV systems.
Ray Dolby was also a leader in the Audio Engineering Society. He even served as its president.
Death and Legacy
Ray Dolby passed away on September 12, 2013, at his home in San Francisco. He was 80 years old and had been battling leukemia. He left behind his wife, Dagmar, his two sons, Tom and David, and four grandchildren.
Kevin Yeaman, the head of Dolby Laboratories, said that they had lost "a friend, mentor and true visionary." Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, said Ray Dolby "changed the way we listen to music and movies for nearly 50 years." He added that Dolby's inventions will continue to impact artists and filmmakers for many generations.
In his will, Ray Dolby gave £35 million to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he had studied. This was a very large donation for the college. In 2017, his family gave another £85 million to Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory. This money helped fund a physics professorship and a new building called the Ray Dolby Centre.
Awards and Honors
Ray Dolby received many awards and honors for his amazing work:
- 1971 — AES Silver Medal
- 1979 — 51st Academy Awards — Academy Award, Scientific or Technical (Scientific and Engineering Award)
- 1983 — SMPTE Progress Medal
- 1985 — SMPTE Alexander M. Poniatoff Gold Medal
- 1986 — Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE)
- 1988 — Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor
- 1989 — 61st Academy Awards — Academy Award, Scientific or Technical (Academy Award of Merit)
- 1989 — Emmy Award by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS)
- 1992 — AES Gold Medal
- 1995 — Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award
- 1997 — U.S. National Medal of Technology
- 1997 — IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award
- 1999 — Honorary Doctor degree by the University of York
- 2000 — Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Cambridge University
- 2003 — Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2004 — Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame
- 2010 — IEEE Edison Medal
- 2012 — Berlin International Film Festival Berlinale Kamera
- 2014 — Induction into the Television Hall of Fame
- 2015 — Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
U.S. Patents
- U.S. Patent 3,631,365, Frequency selective, symmetric signal compressor/expander (Dolby noise reduction); application filed October 20, 1969, patent granted December 28, 1971
See also
In Spanish: Ray Dolby para niños
