On September 12, Ray Dolby, one of the greatest pioneers of our age, succumbed to leukaemia and complications from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 80. Dolby, whose name has become synonymous with advances in sound engineering, was one of those rarest of people – his contributions have permeated into a variety of media and affect us in more ways than we realise in our day-to-day lives.
Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon on January 18, 1933. He grew up in California and received his early schooling there. It was also there that, as a teenager, he worked part-time at an electronics company called Ampex. He would work on early prototypes of video recording technology while at Stanford University, even helping Ampex release their first videotape recorder as a non degree-holding “consultant.”
After graduating from Stanford with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in electrical engineering, Dolby received a Marshall Scholarship for PhD in physics in Cambridge, UK, where he was a Research Fellow at Pembroke College. Following the completion of his formal education – “formal” being a distinction Dolby himself liked to use as he believed no one ever stopped learning – he acted as a technical adviser to the United Nations in India.When he returned to England, it was in London that he founded his most enduring legacy, Dolby Laboratories, with a staff of just four people. He also invented the Dolby Sound System, a revolutionary electronic filter, that same year.
Dolby Laboratories would go on to radically change the sound recording industry. With Dolby at the helm, the company created noise reduction technology to first reduce and then eventually remove the “hiss” from audio tape recordings. The noise reduction system is gradually becoming obsolete due to the move towards digital audio recordings, but its impact on the recording industry cannot be praised enough.
The company also invented surround sound, which is now used in all forms of television and film media. Dolby moved his company to San Francisco in the late 1970s. Not long afterwards, he was awarded an Oscar for his contributions to cinema. Other entertainment industry awards he won included a Grammy and two Emmy Awards. In 1986, he was made an honorary OBE, joining an elite list of non-Britons to have received a Royal investiture.
Dolby’s career was one of technological innovation and scientific genius. Yet, as his son Tom often recollects, his driving force, his true passion, was a love of cinema and the arts. His is a life that proves you can contribute to what you care about the most, even if your qualifications might make it seem otherwise, as long as you are dedicated.
In an age where students are constantly thinking of pursuing narrowed, specialised education to further their careers, Dolby’s extraordinary professional trajectory should serve as reminder that determination and originality are still the strongest skills you can have if you want to follow your dreams.
