Interest in Dolby Atmos, across content, consumers and creators, has seen incredible growth in the past few years. As Dolby Atmos-enabled platforms continue to grow and expand so does the need for creators who are versed in it. This demand has led to more educational training, certifications, and materials being created. In this article, we will explore three different options audio professionals or facilities can peruse.
Pro Tools | Dolby Atmos Production
Avid have partnered with Dolby to create a Dolby Atmos certification course. The course is a mix of 40 hours of self-paced eLearning, followed by 18 hours of instructor-led training. This is a professional course so those intending to take the course will need experience in using Pro Tools | Ultimate as well as understanding session and media management, mix signal flow, post-production mix techniques, and speaker calibration and loudness targets.
The best aspect of this course is that after completing, the training attendees will be considered “Professionally Certified” by Dolby and Avid. Thus, attendees will be able to highlight their expertise in working in immersive audio. We think this course could be exceptionally good for freelancers, recent graduates, or small facility owners. It is a great way to get a leg-up in a new and expanding area of audio. The Pro Tools Dolby Atmos Production course can be purchased from HHB directly, learn more here.
While perfect for Pro Tools users the obvious pitfall for this certification is that it is only for creators working in Pro Tools. Dolby Atmos work can be and is, done in other DAWs for example Nuendo 11 allows users to author content completely in the box. Similarly, this training also focuses on post-production so music professionals may find themselves under served. Facilities may also find that this type of training is not always ideal, the training and certification are done on an individual basis so it could be a costly endeavour to train a team rather than an individual.
HHB offers several bespoke training courses for different areas of audio. The courses are developed by HHB’s CTO, John Johnson. The training is tailored to different competencies and backgrounds, including users with limited previous exposure to Pro Tools, Dolby Surround, or Immersive Audio. Training can either be hosted in the Scrub Demo Facility, on-site, or remotely via video and audio conferencing with screen share. Due to the bespoke nature of the training, the duration can vary.
This training course is all about the individuals or facility that requested it. Getting professionals up to speed on the latest audio technology has long been an important part of what HHB does. Attendees can expect hands-on help while learning and after having participated, they will have the ability to reach out to the HHB team with questions. For individuals this may not be the best way to learn Dolby Atmos. Facilities and teams hoping to expand their expertise will find this training to be the best and fastest way to get started creating immersive content.
Dolby Professional | Free Course
For content creators just learning about Dolby Atmos or getting started with immersive audio, attending a training or certification can be an unnecessary leap into the deep end. An excellent alternative are the free courses, webinars, and materials provided directly by Dolby.
Fully aware that Dolby Atmos content must come from somewhere the team at Dolby have created a Dolby Atmos Post and Music Production online course. This course is self-paced and fully free on Dolby’s website. Audio professionals can also find multitudes of resources on the Dolby professionals’ website.
No matter what training content creators choose it is important for audio professionals to become familiar with Dolby Atmos and immersive audio. It has only been nine years since the first Dolby Atmos movie made its debut and now it is expected to a feature of most major motion pictures. With Apple music now supporting Dolby Atmos, the demand for immersive music is growing rapidly. The time to learn this format is now.
Contact HHB for more details
Both the Avid Pro Tools | Dolby Atmos course and bespoke HHB Scrub courses are available to purchase from HHB. HHB also has a free Dolby Atmos for Music eBook which can be downloaded here when you sign up for the HHB newsletter.