Cumulus Media to use DTS to broadcast Atlanta Braves baseball in 5.1 surround

[tomservo]

DTS, Dickey Broadcasting Company and Cumulus Media First to Broadcast Major League Baseball in Surround Sound

Apparently DTS is providing the equipment at Turner Field in Atlanta to enable surround sound for the baseball games, and the Neural Surround feature will allow the surround to be decoded through a regular stereo audio signal.

Sounds like a neat idea, but it's another nail in the coffin of HD's built-in capability for surround that has never been tested as far as I know.

iBiquity and HD do get a mention at the very end of the press release.

This is silly on a number of levels. First, I know of exactly ONE sports station broadcasting in HD (WJOX Birmingham) and none that broadcast in analog stereo (WJOX's analog is mono, who knows what the HD does.)

Seems like this would be of bigger benefit to TV viewers since that's where the real surround equipment is in a home, but there's no mention of Braves TV affiliates (FS South, Peachtree TV) in the release.

Oh, and the Braves' flagship station is WCNN. On AM. :

 

[spunker88]

Surround sound has never caught on for most music, the only reason I could see iBiquity wanting to use it is so they can show off something HD Radio can do that the current analog FM cannot. A lot of music listening is done through headphones which are limited to 2 speakers unless you happen to have extra ears ;D.

Surround sound seems to be catching on for TV so thats where this would be useful. Many people end up buying surround sound for their HDTV, because its hard for manufacturers to put decent speakers inside a flat panel TV's form factor (especially those new LED ones). Many put pretty bad speakers in, but the fancy HD screen draws your attention away.

 

[KB1OKL]

Surround sound seems to be catching on for TV so thats where this would be useful. Many people end up buying surround sound for their HDTV, because its hard for manufacturers to put decent speakers inside a flat panel TV's form factor (especially those new LED ones). Many put pretty bad speakers in, but the fancy HD screen draws your attention away.

I don't know what kind of speakers are put in TV's nowadays but I haven't heard a decent sounding TV in many years and most of them seem to have speakers about 1" or less in size. The first thing I do with a TV is plug it's audio out into my receiver. I can't stand tinny audio, I think many speakers nowadays in both radios and TV's would have been used as bad tweeters 20 years ago.

 

[nd2023]

Means nothing if it can't be synced up to a TV.

 

[mgpt6]

NESN- TV broadcast Red Sox home games in Dolby 5.1 surround sound . Many viewers connect their HD Televisions to their home theater audio systems for surround sound. With more sports/talk stations going to FM, we should hear more play by play in Stereo on the radio.

 

[spunker88]

I don't know what kind of speakers are put in TV's nowadays but I haven't heard a decent sounding TV in many years and most of them seem to have speakers about 1" or less in size. The first thing I do with a TV is plug it's audio out into my receiver. I can't stand tinny audio, I think many speakers nowadays in both radios and TV's would have been used as bad tweeters 20 years ago.

Well part of it is manufacturers being cheap, but if you've seen the new LED TVs there really isn't much space. It seems last gen CRTs had better speakers, since there was plenty of room below the tube to stick in speakers. Granted they still weren't any better than your average computer speakers but the bass and low end stuff sounded better than the tiny things they put in flat screens. I have older speakers hooked up to my receiver, many of which I got for free. Its not like speaker technology has really changed much in the last 20 years, and if anything older speakers were built better.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

You're supposed to hook up a high quality surround sound system to your sparkly new DTV. Didn't anyone explain this yet? Do you think the speakers on your laptop do a good job of playing good audio?

 

[tomservo]

You're supposed to hook up a high quality surround sound system to your sparkly new DTV. Didn't anyone explain this yet? Do you think the speakers on your laptop do a good job of playing good audio?

Maybe I just observe the wrong crowd but by and large the tinny laptop speaker and the horrid TV speakers of today's technology seem more than adequate for 99% of the installations I see. It seems like the desire for man to have 5.1 surround is often countered by a nagging wife who doesn't want "ugly" speakers messing up her designer living room. Wealthier people with the extra space often have a home theater room now just for that purpose (a/k/a 'man cave').

This dovetails with the trend towards crappier headphones for mp3 players and smaller speakers on boomboxes replacing the once bulky but rich sounding units of yesteryear, and the near disappearance of radio listening off a dedicated home console or component system.

 

[JohnnyElectron]

From about 1986 thru 1995, WJR-AM 760 Detroit broadcast all HOME Detroit Tigers games in STEREO - C-QUAM AM stereo that is, and it was great to hear the Ernie & Paul and the crowd in stereo on the Delco car radio and on the AMST radio in the Chrysler minivan too.

Stereocasts were also the norm during that timeframe from Ann Arbor for UofM home games AND the Thanksgiving Day parade were all broadcast in CQUAM stereo over WJR whe the late great Ed B was CE.

Then WJR lost the sports contracts to CBS, they added HD, then turned-off the HD, but have not yet turned the CQuam stereo back on WJR. Wish that they would, as even the TOH ID was a blast in stereo.