Surround sound specialist Dolby Laboratories expects its India business to grow, thanks to two discernible mega-trends in the home entertainment industry.
The first is the growing preference to high-definition channels. Today, there are a little over 15 HD channels. When the number grows to close to 40, business will boom, says Pankaj Kedia, Country Manager—India of the US-based company.
The second is digitisation. Kedia feels that digitisation will happen whether or not there is legislative push, sooner or later. When digitisation happens, it will be possible for operators to provide the “experience” to the consumers. As they provide a higher experience, “there will be a lot of focus on driving subscription revenue.” The business model will change from only advertisement revenue to a mix of ad plus subscription revenue. But to provide the kind of better experience like being there in the scene they are watching, surround sound is inevitable.
Dolby’s principal challenge is to fight ignorance about high definition and bring about awareness, says Kedia.
Dolby gets its revenues from the software it licenses to set-top-box manufacturers. The software (basically, a decoder) enables output of surround sound, if the content is also produced with surround sound.
But it also does activities towards pushing the market towards high definition and surround sound. For instance, the company is training the personnel of retail TV show rooms, and also setting up experience booths in the outlets, to let the customer get a taste of high definition picture with surround sound.
People think that when they buy a HD television set, they have got HD. It is not true, says Kedia. He says that a HD television set is only one of the four elements required. The other three are HD set-top-box, content created with surround sound and home theatre systems.
He feels that in about a couple of years there will be more than 40 HD channels.
Since Dolby gets its revenues from licensing software to the set-top-box manufacturers, the India market is a demand driver. The revenues come from other countries where the STBs are produced. However, the company gets its India revenues from the other big entertainment segment—Cinema.
The Indian cinema, Kedia says, is very “mature” and Dolby Laboratories is in the process of bringing its latest technologies (Dolby Atmos) to the country soon.