Ray Dolby, pioneer in recorded sound, dies at 80 - Washington Post

Mr. Dolby made many key developments in audio design, and his name appears in movie theaters around the world and on countless other products, from video games to DVD players to hand-held devices, that use technology designed by his company.

He first found renown in the mid-1960s, when he invented a "noise reduction" system that virtually eliminated the annoying hiss that was the underlying sound on audiotapes. It allowed musicians to produce recordings of almost pristine audio quality and was first used on a recording of Vladimir Ashkenazy playing Mozart piano concertos.

Among other applications, the technology simplified the practice of multitrack recordings. Although Mr. Dolby was an amateur clarinetist and an aficionado of classical music, his technology quickly developed a following among rock musicians. The Grateful Dead reportedly purchased an early version of his multitrack recording device with a suitcase filled with cash.

In 1977, the movie-going public began to experience Mr. Dolby's innovations when two popular films, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Star Wars," were released. The soundtracks were recorded in multichannel formats that could create an enveloping sensory experience that came to be known as "surround sound." Thousands of theaters around the world were rebuilt with sound systems designed by Mr. Dolby's company.

"Ray's pioneering work in sound played a pivotal role in allowing 'Star Wars' to be the truly immersive experience I had always dreamed it would be," George Lucas, the director of "Star Wars," said in a statement.

Mr. Dolby and his company won multiple Oscars, Emmys and Grammys for technical aspects of sound production.

At the 2012 Academy Awards, when the auditorium in which the awards are presented was named for Mr. Dolby, ­Oscar-winning sound editor Walter Murch said his influence was incalculable: "You could divide film sound in half: There is BD, Before Dolby, and there is AD, After Dolby."

Thomas Robertson, a British musician best known for the 1982 hit "She Blinded Me With Science," adopted the stage name of Thomas Dolby because of his fascination with Mr. Dolby's audio equipment. (To add to the confusion, Mr. Dolby had a son named Thomas. By contractual arrangement, the British Thomas Dolby could not produce or endorse any audio devices.)

In the 1980s, when digital technology began to alter the recording and movie industries, Mr. Dolby found himself behind the technological curve. While he concentrated on refining older analog forms of sound production, other companies stepped into the void. Since the 1990s, however, Dolby Digital regained a large share of the theater market and became the leading maker of sound technology used in home electronics.