Megasound

Megasound was the name of a movie theater sound system created by Warner Bros. in the early 1980s. It was used to enhance the premiere engagements of a handful of Warner features, including Altered States (1980),^[1][2] Outland,^[3] Wolfen^[4] and Superman II^[5] (all 1981).

Theaters equipped for Megasound had additional speakers mounted on the left, right and rear walls of the auditorium. Selected soundtrack events with lots of low-frequency content (thuds, crashes, explosions, etc.)^[6] were directed to these speakers at very high volume, creating a visceral effect intended to thrill the audience. The system was added onto Dolby Stereo 70 mm Six Track systems, which was an early 5.1 system that eventually became the 5.1 surround sound common today.

Megasound is similar to MCA's Sensurround. However, unlike MCA's SENSURROUND, Warner Brothers never attempted to market Megasound to other studios as a general purpose, high-fidelity, sound system like Dolby Stereo.

References

1. ^ http://www.in70mm.com/library/blow_up/year/1980.htm
2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080360/technical
3. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082869/technical
4. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083336/technical
5. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081573/technical
6. ^ http://www.unexplainable.net/artman/publish/article_12418.shtml

External links

• Film-Tech thread