SIR,
In reply to the published letter from Kathleen Ellaway of Dingestow concerning the poor quality of film sound at The Savoy Theatre.
Between August 1993 and July 1997, I was employed by Michael Blakemore as Manager/Technician at this venue. It became a standing joke asking when Dolby Stereo would be installed - the answer was always - "it wouldn't make any difference to the numbers"!
If Monmouth had been successful with the Three Towns Initiative, we would have been allocated £138,000 which would have gone towards the installation of State-of-the-Art projection and sound reproduction equipment.
I eventually resigned due to both non-commitment from Michael Blakemore and bad behaviour from some of the youngsters in the town.
On returning to the cinema to retrieve some personal property, I discovered that a domestic Dolby Pro-Logic decoder was being used to reproduce the film soundtrack, instead of professional Dolby equipment. (I was subsequently informed by a colleague that Dolby Laboratories had enquired as to the non- registration of a Licence for advertising Dolby Stereo!).
I assume from the recent photograph of the interior of the auditorium, that the two loudspeakers mounted on shelves either side of the proscenium arch are used both for live show sound reinforcement, and film sound reproduction.
This is where the problems start to occur. Basic Dolby Stereo uses a clever system of phase-manipulation to encode Left, Centre, Right and Surround information on to two parallel optical tracks running down the right side of the picture on the Release Print.
Subsequently it is necessary to decode the four tracks with professional Dolby Stereo reproduction equipment, licensed from Dolby Laboratories.
Behind the cinema screen (perforated for sound projection), will be three loudspeaker cabinets, one for each of the Left, Centre and Right channels.
Dialogue, Music and Effects are mixed in the Post-production process; with dialogue usually emanating from the Centre channel, but capable of being 'steered' from Left to Right etc. as required.
Assuming that the Savoy Theatre only uses those two Loudspeakers mounted beyond the physical area of the Cinema Screen, there will not be a dedicated Centre Loudspeaker to reproduce the dialogue - which is the most important aspect of the film (as well as a correctly calibrated even illumination of screen brightness).
Also psychologically, the dialogue could be observed to be coming from beyond the person speaking.
Moving on to a post as Relief Projectionist at the ABC Newport (the largest screen in Wales - now sadly closed), we did a weekly calibration of the Dolby Processors to maintain optimum quality.
The current basic sound system in cinemas is Dolby Digital - how sad that not even basic Dolby Stereo is installed in Monmouth!
Mark Elliott
(Abergavenny)