"Serge Auckland" wrote in message
...


The BBC's Matrix H was yet another matrix system, but one that came out of
Michael Gerzon et. al's work on ambisonics, and which was evaluated for
broadcast. The BBC did some test transmissions in Matrix H, but it never
went into full service as it didn't have full mono compatibility
(something the BBC was somewhat paranoid about at the time)

As I remember it a fair number of programmes were transmitted in Matrix H, I
still have a Matrix H off-air recording of "The Tempest" (the version
staring Paul Schofield, still my favourite version of the play).

and anyway, the whole quad thing had pretty much gone away by then.

There was also the RCA "FM4" system, which seems to be the one you are
thinking of. This used a frequency-modulated carrier around 20kHz to
carry the band-limited rear channels.

You're thinking of CD4, which was the system used by RCA, JVC, Denon and
others. It was developed by JVC.

Indeed, my mistake for relying on my memory rather than looking it up!


As one who lived and worked through the Quadraphonic era, it was a very
interesting time, and might have succeeded if there hadn't been three
competing and incompatible systems (UD4 was the fourth system, but it
never came to Europe). SQ and QS worked acceptably well for classical
music and jazz if ambiance only was recorded in the rear channels, giving
a much better impression of the venue. For rock music, I thought it worked
less well, given that producers wanted to use the surround for effect,
swinging instruments not only side to side, but also front-back and
diagonally.

QS was used for the initial release of the film of "Tommy" (with the
addition of a discrete centre channel) just the job for bouncing the pinball
sound around the cinema!

It's a great pity that Ambisonics never caught on,

I agree.

it was being sponsored by the state-run NRDC at the time, with the
predictable result when marketing is handled by civil-servants.

It also came too late.

Of the competing systems, SQ was probably the most successful
commercially, but CBS, EMI and others lost interest and never fully
developed the potential.

SQ was also the worst system (shades of VHS?) and was no advert for "quad".

Dolby later realised that what didn't work for music could well work for
movies, and launched the analogue matrixed Dolby Surround, which then led
to the discrete Dolby Digital we know and love.

Though of course Dolby Stereo (as it is known in cinemas) provides L, C, R
and (mono) surround, rather than LF, RF, LR and RR, which makes things a bit
easier, and used "logic" steering from the word go, at least in cinema use.

David.