The technology of surround sound was invented in the 1930’s with the first notable use of it being in Walt Disney’s Fantasia. At this time Disney Studios created what they named ‘Fantasound’ this was a sound system developed with the intent of immersing the audience further in the film. It was a huge success though too expensive to implement for a widespread market; it took until the late 1950’s for the first instance of surround sound in the home to appear, where people were using two channels to record and then stereo audio equipment to listen both at home and on FM radio. Then in 1975 the Dolby Stereo became available, this system had four channels, left, right, front facing and sides/rear. This system was mainly found in theatres but many companies attempted to replicate the technology on a smaller scale so it could be introduced to a mass market for use in the home but at that time it was still proving to be too expensive. This continued to be the case until the invention of the Dolby Surround technology in 1982; this was made up of three channels, left, right and surround. This technological advancement drastically improved the quality of surround sound and made it possible to replicate the experience of a theatre in the home of consumers. That leads us to today, where surround sound is widely available and used in both home and professional settings, with most instances of surround sound configured to fit a 5.1 or 7.1 format.

A brief history of surround sound (no date) KEF US. Available at: https://us.kef.com/blogs/news/a-brief-history-of-surround-sound (Accessed: 08 May 2023)