San Francisco-based Dolby brings mind-blowing sound to Oscars

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dolby is providing far more than the venue for Hollywood's biggest night. The San Francisco company has its fingerprints all over the technology used to make and show some of the year's biggest films.

La La Land is nominated for 14 Oscars, but when it was screened at Dolby's headquarters in San Francisco, on thing stood out as much as the music -- incredible sound.

Hacksaw Ridge and La La Land are the two Best Picture nominees mixed using Atmos, described as a sound designer's dream.

"If you want to put a helicopter in a scene and you want to move it around over the audience's head, Dolby Atmos, our latest sound tech, allows you to do that simply and easily," said Dolby Chief Marketing Officer Bob Borchers.

It's also invisible. You don't see any speakers, so there's no distraction from trying to find where the sound is coming from.

Theaters built with the new Dolby cinema standard can have dozens of speakers all hidden in the walls. They also have a really bright projector that actually makes the dark stuff look better.

"If you imagine a dark scene, you can actually see in the alleys or dark corners, a scene vs. it being washed out," said Dolby Cinema Marketing Director Chris Kukshtel.

The bundling light travels through fiber optics to the projector, where it's blasted onto the screen, including the giant screen at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood during the Oscars.

So far, there are 60 Dolby Cinemas around the country, including the one at San Francisco's Metreon and they say these technologies will also be in your living room before you know it.

Don't miss the 89th Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. ET| 4 p.m. PT LIVE on ABC. Red carpet coverage begins at 5 p.m. ET | 2 p.m. PT with "On The Red Carpet At The Oscars." Check your local listings.