DR RAY DOLBYI would like to thank the Association of Motion Picture Sound for the award of its Honorary Fellowship to me. I am very pleased and grateful for this honour, and would like to express my appreciation and thanks to the Council, and to the membership of the Association. I regret very much that I cannot accept it in person. due to a long planned trip to Africa with my family. When l started my company in 1965 l had several goals - first to improve recording quality in professional sound recording, and second to improve recording quality in motion pictures, I knew that if these could be achieved then there would be an eventual spill-over into the consumer environment. So as soon as I got the A-type noise reduction system designed, built, and operating in the recording studio environment, I was eager to try this technology on motion picture sound tracks. In August 1966, just four months after delivering the first noise reduction units to Decca Records in London, I contacted Elstree Studios and was warmly welcomed by Tony Lumkin and Geoff Labram. Together we set out to make some experiments, After a couple of days it was clear that just plugging noise reduction in would not make the dramatic improvement that we had hoped for. It seemed that the whole recording and reproducing chain had to be cleaned up from top to bottom if distortion, frequency response. noise levels and other quality parameters were to be improved and brought into balance with each other. What good would noise reduction be if the frequency response was limited by the established Academy Characteristic, or if the mag dubber distortion was high due to low bias frequencies, or if the ground noise reduction system on the Photographic Recorder chopped off signal transients? And what about the abysmal condition of the reproducing equipment in the cinemas? Regretfully, I had to say, "This is too big for my little company to tackle right now. Give me some time. I'll be back." Tony Lumkin reminded me in 1968. 1 said, "Things are coming together- just a little more time". We had just started selling our equipment into the multi-track music market. In 19691 was lucky enough find Ioan Allen, and in 1970 I said to him, "Now is the time. Go study the situation in the whole motion picture sound recording and reproducing process and track down every source of trouble." This Ioan did. The engineers in the studios and in the theatres were eager to cooperate. They knew that something had to be done to make movie sound competitive with what people, could hear on their own stereo setups at home. Tests, measurements, and experiments were done. The information and ideas loan generated were used by David Robinson, me, and others in our engineering efforts to design the equipment required to solve the problems. This general pattern, initiated in 1970, has continued to this day. Gradually we were able to make the improvements that we all use and enjoy today. I am very grateful that I seem to have been in the right place at the right time, and I acknowledge the dedicated efforts of loan Allen, David Robinson and others, both inside and outside my company, over these past three decades. It is a source of great delight and satisfaction that high quality sound in the cinema is here, widely accepted, and indeed is even taken for granted. Again, I am most grateful to the Association of Motion Picture Sound for this award. Thank you. |  
Dr Ray Dolby Stefan Kudelski STEFAN KUDELSKI Pardonnez moi de vous écrire en français, mais mon orthographe anglaise est perfectible etje n'ai plus de secrétaire. Pardonnez moi aussi de vous ëcrire si tard, mais je suis un 'old man' passant ce qui lui reste a vivre a naviguer en mer, d'ailleurs le plus souvent seul car mes enfants sont trop occupés par leur travail ou leur famille. J'ai été très touché par votre geste et je vous remercie. Il y a une pièce de théâtre de Jean Paul Sartre et qui se passe toute entière en enfer. La cellule des héros de cette pièce comporte une fenêtre par laquelle on voit un segment du monde des vivants chaque fois que quelqu'un pense a un d'entre eux. Et un jour, des diables viennent murer cette fenêtre, car, disent-ils, plus personne ne pense a qui que cc soit d'entre vous. Alors, un court instant, j'ai eu l'impression que la fenétre n'est pas encore tout a fait murée. Merci. ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Excuse me for writing in French but my English spell-checker is broken and I don't have a secretary. Also please excuse me for writing so late, but I am an 'old man' passing what is left of his life sailing on the sea, more often than not alone because my children are busy with their work and families. I was most touched by your gesture and I thank you. There is a play by Jean Paul Sartre where everything takes place in Hell. The cells of the heroes of this piece include a window through which one can see a part of the world of the living each time someone thinks of those in this place. On day the devil bricks up this window, saying "no one thinks of you anymore". So for a brief moment I had the impression that the window has not yet been bricked up. Thank you. 
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