Dennis Michael writes: I just returned from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where I was working as a consultant to DTS, the Cinema and Consumer Surround Audio company. I gave 15 presentations a day about DTS, complete with film clips and music videos, and to no one’s surprize, the lead-off clip in our presentation was a 6.1 DTS-ES Discrete Surround clip from The Two Towers…Frodo, Sam and Gollum in the marshes hiding from the Black Rider on a Fell Beast. (And I had nothing to do with the selection of the clip, fyi…it was a done deal even before I was hired.) Cast members were well represented, because the other clips shown were from Pirates of the Caribbean with Orlando Bloom prominently shown, and a X-Men 2 clip with Sir Ian.
Brass from New Line dropped by at one point in the trade show to catch our 15 minute demo, and left with big smiles.
In the few moments that I was able to check out the other exhibitors in the gigantic trade show, I noticed that TTT-EE was probably the most popular programming on Monitors, Plasmas, Flatscreens and Home Theatre arrays, with only “Finding Nemo” in the same echelon. Moreover, during the entire four day trade show, we only had one opportunity to relax and watch any programming for our own entertainment, and the DTS staff went for TTT-EE. We watched the end of the battle of Helm’s Deep and the destruction of Isengard on a demonstration home theatre system valued at roughly 600 thousand dollars retail, tuned up by some of the leading audio engineers in the business. (and oh my goodness, did it ever rock.) The Audio Industry clearly recognizes the incredible quality of the sound work in the trilogy, and I fully expect ROTK to be featured in a similar way next year.
Hope you guys are all doing well, look forward to seeing you in town at OscarTime.