Dolby’s Sound Pioneer Goes silent at 80

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RAY MILTON DOLBY AT AMPEX

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September 12^th 2013! This would be a day which would be itched on memoirs of music and sound enthusiasts or in rather words would become historic. The cause is the sudden demise of Ray Milton Dolby who pioneered the famous Dolby’s noise reduction and surround sound audio & video technology rendering as building block to music and film industry. The dreaded combo of Alzheimer’s and Leukemia (blood cancer) has swallowed up yet another great visionary cum leaders of sound and technology world at age of 80 years like it has many victims in past.

Ever heard the word Dolby?? Yeah, the same word which reminisce oneself about the sound system that powers our digital, film or theatre and world of mass media & telecommunication. No doubt that with the silence of its pioneer a void space has been left which will be very hard to swallow as well not easy to be occupied.

Dolby gave the world the digital quality sound for the first time when he started his own venture Dolby Laboratories in 1965 in United Kingdom which was then moved to San Francisco, California United States in 1976. Since then Dolby has pioneered into many sound quality reduction systems which are used in entertainment sector to even digitalize our gadgets and other products. Dolby digital are the only sound pioneers having undoubted monopoly and singlehandedly revolutionize surround sound quality with superior noise reduction technology safer to humans.

Ray Milton Dolby was no doubt a visionary with a heart of steel as his first patent Dolby’s Sound System was not accepted and filed till 1969, four years later company was founded. Despite the initial hiccups, Dolby Laboratories got accolades globally and since dawn of late 19^th century have seen continuous rise with their creativity, utility arena and have remained in contention as sound pioneers since then. Though being listed into top Forbes 400 billionaire bandwagon since 1980’s his quotes prove that he was humble, realistic, and passionate of new inventions as well a simplistic gentleman’s character in his heart.

Some of his favorite quotes are as follows:

v "I was never a gold-digger, or an Oscar-digger, or anything like that. I just had an instinct about the right sort of things that should be done in my business. So all the things just fell into place."

v "There is no major next step. It's a matter of constantly being aware of one's environment, of keeping track of what's happening in the various industries that we're operating in and just sort of sensing what's possible and what's not possible, what's needed, what's not needed - just having all your antennae going, sensitized to all the signals that are out there."

v "Remember that most of my life was that of an adventurer, not of somebody who is trying to invent something all the time. I wanted the experience of traveling to many parts of the world. Inventions were part of my life, but they didn't overtake everything that I was doing."

v "To be an inventor, you have to be willing to live with a sense of uncertainty, to work in this darkness and grope towards an answer, to put up with anxiety about whether there is an answer."

Well in academics, teaching as well as sound prodigy with an engineered mind, he had a humblest beginning since his birth at Portland, Oregon, raising at San Francisco US, to higher education at Sequoia High School at California to being a fully fledged graduate from Stanford University.

His career started at age of just 20 years when youngsters would just start their enrollment in getting step closer to their college education. He joined Ampex Corporation as a sound instructor cum sound design strategist and rose to level of chief designer where he was instrumental in developing first successful and never heard prototype of world’s first video tape record system.

It’s being said that “God bestows best talents to only few and the art of molding ordinary people into extraordinary talent comes in small packs”. Same was with the vision; commitment and already discussed traits of a humble cum simple logical creative mindset in him found his company grew from just 04 employees initially to a million human beings employed presently. He was an institution in himself.

Awards and Recognitions:

ü Marshall Scholarship for Ph.D (1961)

ü Awarded coveted Oscar award in 1989.

ü TV Emmy an award for Television fraternity in 1989 and 2005.

ü Grammy Awards in 1995

ü Honorary officer of the Order Of the British Empire (1987).

ü National Medal of Technology (1997).

ü President of Audio Engineer Society since 1990 to 2011.

Under his coveted guidance and amidst leadership Dolby laboratories won more than 10 Oscars and 13 Emmy Awards for their achievements.

For Dolby Labs and sound enthusiasts as well for whole entertainment industry he would ever be cherished and though an illustrious stalwart has dissolved in space, his works will ever remain etched in hearts of all!

Last but not the least let us pay a fitting tribute to this legend and for the soul to rest in peace with wordings of few famous people of what they have in heart for Ray Milton Dolby-The Sound Stalwart.

I. Kevin Yeaman-President & CEO of Dolby Labs:

-“Today we lost a friend, mentor and true visionary who founded Dolby Labs based on 5 core success principles-Commitment, creating Value/utility space envisioned with innovation and last but not the least impassioned and ardent belief to continuously grow as a inspired motivated unit”.

II. Neil Portnow- President of the National Recording Arts and Sciences, which hands out Grammys in his tribute to Mr Dolby talked the way “ How He single handedly changed the way one listens to music and movies and great contribution in form of Dolby 3D surround sound and digitalization of audio-video media”.

III. Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan: With Choked voice and emotions “A Void has filled across film and entertainment fraternity as sound has lost its famous charmer Ray Dolby forever”.

Hope his soul rest in peace and may the legacy of Dolby Industries continue and reign supreme with all its charm!