Showplace Icon Theater Gets Upgraded Sound System

If you ask us, the Showplace Icon Theater at Roosevelt Collection is the best movie theater we've ever been to.  Yes, it's in the South Loop so we're partial, but the image quality and sound is so engulfing it's hard for us to contemplate how this could get any better.

Well apparently this weekend, it's about to.  From the Chicagoist blog:

This weekend the ICON offers an extra treat: it is one of only 14 theaters in the country to showcase a new "3D Sound" technology from Dolby at screenings of Pixar's Brave. 

Dolby has dubbed the new audio platform Atmos and billed it as the successor to 7.1 Surround. Nobody not named Phil Spector pines for the days of Mono, but the march from mono to stereo to 5.1 surround sound to 7.1 surround sound can make one's head spin. Are we ready for 64 separate channels and two arrays of overhead speakers? Well that depends.

So what does that even mean?  Here is an interesting (and pretty technical) video explaining the evolution to Dolby's Atmos platform:

Pretty cool.  I wonder if we will be able to tell the difference.

Regardless, can't wait to try it out.  Glad to see that our theater continues to be state-of-the-art and pushing the boundaries of what the movie experience should be about.