English for AVT specialists. Английский для специалистов в сфере аудиовизуальных технологий. Сборник текстов и упражнений по английскому языку - страница 5

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Throughout the 1930s specialists at Bell Laboratories (also called Bell Labs and formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories) carried out experiments with different multichannel audio formats, including three-channel stereo or system 3.1 (left, center, right). In 1938, Walt Disney triggered off the idea of adding surround sound to his upcoming animated film, Fantasia. The soundtrack was recorded using a technology called Fantasound developed by Disney engineers. Fantasound was a pioneering sound reproduction system, which stored three channels of audio (3.1) and a control track on the film itself. The sound was playbacked through five channels: three front speakers and two rear ones. This speaker configuration, sans subwoofer, was the prototype of the 5.1 arrangement, which is in common use today. Besides – amazingly – the same group of engineers invented multitrack recording, panning, and overdubbing! Thus, Fantasia became the first commercial cinematic release shown in stereophonic sound.

Unfortunately, war preparations dramatically curtailed further advance of surround sound technologies in entertainment. However, multichannel audio was used by the military for identifying the source of the sound: independent speakers were dedicated to various alarm sounds (for example, klaxon, bell, horn) aboard warships and it helped sailors in an emergency instantly locate the entering sound.

Essential glossary


• antiphonal – одноголосый, монофонический

to incorporate – соединять (ся), объединять (ся)

sonic – звуковой

score муз. оркестровать

horn – рожок, рог, горн, труба, духовой инструмент

conductor – дирижёр

surround sound system – система объёмного звучания

store – сохранять, запоминать

film – плёнка

to playback – воспроизводить, считывать

speaker – динамик, громкоговоритель, акустическая система, колонка

subwoofer – низкочастотный динамик, отдельная низкочастотная колонка

panning – панорамирование

overdubbing – накладывание одной (магнитофонной) записи на другую

entertainment – сфера развлечений

alarm – тревога

emergency – чрезвычайные обстоятельства

to locate – определять местонахождение


7. Scan the reading passage. What are the answers to the questions in exercise 5?


8.Read the text quickly. Put the names and the events mentioned in the text in the chronological order.