Sunday night is the big show, people. It's Oscars night. And whether you're rooting for Argo, Lincoln, Life of Pi, or Frankenweenie, most home theater fans have at least a little bit of interest in the night's outcome -- whether you want to admit that out loud or not!
When it comes to the evening's events, we here at Big Picture Big Sound aren't all that interested in what the stars will be wearing. Instead, we want to know more about where they're going to be wearing it. The Dolby Theatre will host this year's festivities, and it's a pretty cool venue. However, that theater has undergone quite a few changes since last year's host signed off for the night. Any idea who that was?
Billy Crystal returned to the big stage, after Eddie Murphy backed out. Feel free to mention that during this year's Oscar party as a tidbit of trivia. However, there are a ton of interesting things about the Dolby Theatre that we're guessing that most of your guests won't know. Want to be the king of this year's Oscar trivia? Let's highlight a few of our favorite tidbits about the Dolby Theatre.
What's in a name? If you didn't remember last year's host, chances are you don't remember that the Dolby Theatre was previously known as the Kodak Theatre. The name-change received its own big debut last June, with the premiere of Disney-Pixar's Brave. The Kodak Theatre made its big debut in 2002, the same year that Halle Berry (Monster's Ball) and Denzel Washington (Training Day) took home the Oscars for Best Actress and Best Actor in a motion picture.
We need more power! The new Dolby Theatre deserves its own award, considering all of the goodies it has packed inside. The updated venue includes 200 new speakers, a 60-by-32-foot screen, a Dolby 3D system, two Christie 4K digital cinema projectors, and 13 new subwoofers.
Atmos for rest of us. The Dolby Theatre is the first to support the newly launched Dolby Atmos audio format, which delivers the ultimate immersive experience using up to 64 speakers. Can you name the Best Picture nominee that was released with Atmos format? Ang Lee's Life of Pi.
Back for more? Two of this year's Oscar nominees had their premieres held at the Dolby Theatre -- and they couldn't be more different. Those two films include Best Picture nominee Zero Dark Thirty and Best Animated Feature nominee Brave.
Tickets, please. Most standard movie theaters have seating for 200 people. However, the Dolby Theatre will be housing as many as 3400 attendees on Oscar night.
Sound off. Dolby is best known for its sound technologies, which are present in all of the nominated films in the Achievement in Sound Editing and Achievement in Sound Mixing categories. Those nominees include Argo, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall, and Zero Dark Thirty, and the formats include Dolby Digital, Dolby Surround 7.1, and/or the newly released Dolby Atmos.
The 85th annual Academy Awards program will be televised live from Hollywood's Dolby Theatre in high definition and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio by ABC on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. (ET)
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