Dolby Laboratories, Inc. , often shortened to Dolby Labs, is an American company specializing in audio noise reduction and audio encoding/compression. Dolby licenses its technologies to consumer electronics manufacturers. Dolby Labs was founded by American Ray Dolby in Great Britain in 1965. He moved the company to the United States in 1976. The first product he made was Type A Dolby Noise Reduction, a simple compander. One of the features that set Dolby's compander apart was that it treated only the quiet sounds that would be masked by tape noise. Dolby marketed the product to record... companies. Dolby was persuaded by Henry Kloss of KLH to manufacture a consumer version of his noise reduction. Dolby worked more on companding systems and introduced Type B in 1968. Dolby also sought to improve film sound. As the corporation's history explains: The first film with Dolby sound was A Clockwork Orange , which used Dolby noise reduction on all pre-mixes and masters, but a conventional optical sound track on release prints. Callan was the first film with a Dolby-encoded optical soundtrack.
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| NYSE symbol: | DLB |
| Headquarters: | Wootton Bassett, United Kingdom |
| Annual revenue: | $719,500,000 |
| Net income: | $242,990,000 |
| Operating income: | $363,670,000 |
| Market cap: | $5,600,000,000 |