Guidelines for Dolby Atmos® installation

7.1.4 is the minimum preferred Dolby Atmos® layout.

Each number separated by a dot corresponds to a specific height.

A. Monitors at ear level this is 1.2m on average.

B. Subwoofers, ideally placed on the floor.

C. Overhead monitors.

Note: It is, however, possible to add additional audio sources to achieve a 17.X.10 format

(see Dolby Atmos Home Entertainment Studio technical guidelines).

A Dolby Atmos installation requires a minimum room volume of 50m³.

For an optimal setup, the area that contains the monitors should meet

the following requirements:

A. HEIGHT ≥ 2.4M

B. WIDTH ≥ 3M

C. DEPTH ≥ 3.5M

D. DISTANCE BETWEEN THE MONITORS AND THE MIXING POSITION

< 4M OPTIMAL 

< 5M MAX.

Note: These layout dimensions are independent of your room volume.

There are two types of layouts:

The equidistant layout and the orthogonal layout. The choice is mainly based on the space you have available and where your mix position is located.

An orthogonal layout will favor a set back sweet spot as well as a control room with significant depth, whereas an equidistant layout will be more suitable for large rooms and is not subject to time alignment issues between channels.

The center, left, right and surround monitors constitute the first height to be considered for your

setup. The other channels are distributed from angle 0, determined by the center monitor.

The angles of the surround channels depend on the chosen layout.

The acoustic center of each monitor (point where the sound seems to arrive from the speaker) should be 1.2m high.

Note: In an equidistant layout, this distance is the same for all the monitors in your setup.

The horizontal positioning of the Top monitors (Ltf, Rtf, Ltr, Rtr) is done in the same way as the monitors at ear level (L, C, R and Surrounds). They surround the mix position which is also the center of the top speaker array. Their acoustic center (point where the sound seems to arrive from the speaker) must be at least 2.4m high and oriented to the mix position at a vertical angle of 45°.

Note: This angle is applicable for Front and surround monitors at ear level with no vertical tilt. We strongly recommend to keep the setup this way.

However, If the front and surround monitors are higher than ear level with a vertical tilt, please refer to the Dolby Atmos Home Entertainment Studio technical guidelines chapter 2.3.4.