All Press Releases Back
Oct 11, 2018
Dolby Laboratories Founder Honored for Innovation at the Gateway to American Culture and Future Entertainment Exhibition at Smithsonian
The Ray Dolby Gateway to American Culture Opens Oct. 19 at the National Museum of American History WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Visitors to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will explore American history through culture, entertainment and the arts beginning Oct. 19 in the Ray Dolby Gateway to Culture which will focus on music and sound with a preview of the themes and objects in a 2020 major exhibition. Entertaining America, in the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Hall of American Culture.
The Ray Dolby Gateway to Culture exhibit opens to the public at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. on October 19, 2018.
The Ray Dolby Gateway to Culture brings visitors into a series of installations centered on sound, stage, stadium and screen, including the Ruby Slippers, which return to view after an 18-month conservation. The first display is America's Listening which focuses on the public's experience with recorded sound, including five of the innovations that kept them listening: Thomas Edison's phonograph, Alexander Graham Bell's graphophone, Emile Berliner's gramophone, Ray Dolby's noise reduction system, and Apple's iPod. This leads to the Culture Wing's landmark object - a 14-foot stained-glass window from one of four windows that graced the tower of the Victor Company's headquarters in Camden, New Jersey. It features what became the RCA company's iconic trademark image of a dog Nipper listening to his master's recorded voice.
In the center of the installations on the museum's culture floor will be the Nicholas F. and Eugenia Taubman Hall of Music with side-lobby displays highlighting the museum's jazz and classical instrument collections. Outside the music hall, will be two cases highlighting new entertainment-related additions to the arts and culture collections. A 1923 Yankee Stadium ticket booth will highlight baseball as one of the country's favorite pastimes. Two screens will explore America through the virtual landscapes depicted in popular video games and this space will feature a seating area with charging stations. A vivid mural commissioned by the museum from the Washington, D.C. studio of No Kings Collective brings creativity, color and patterns to illustrate the concept of American culture.
The Ruby Slippers will be in a separate gallery within a state-of-the-art display case. The October opening will feature two additional artifacts related to the popular 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.
Entertainment provides a lens through which our visitors can better understand history and we are grateful to Dolby for making this gift and enabling us to share these popular artifacts with millions of people, said Sue Fruchter Interim Director, National Museum of American History. The power of culture will help our audiences discover a range of new and unexpected ways by which we can all engage in, improve and expand the promise of our democracy.
Ray's story is the epitome of the American Dream, said Dagmar Dolby, wife of Dolby Laboratories founder Ray Dolby. After returning from military service he followed with college and began on a path to make entertainment look and sound more lifelike. His boundless curiosity made him a tremendously successful inventor and he would be thrilled to have some of his work showcased with Bell, Edison, Berliner, and Jobs.
Ray set the tone for multigenerational innovation in music, television, and film that has continued for more than five decades, said Andy Sherman, EVP and General Counsel at Dolby Laboratories. His legacy lives on through the immersive entertainment experiences that Dolby creates for the eyes and ears throughout the world and the inventor's DNA that remains at the core of everything we do.
Entertaining America, scheduled to open in late 2020, is a major exhibition that will explore American history through the longstanding power of entertainment and will examine the deep and enduring influence of our nations entertainment. The nearly 7,000-square-foot exhibition will examine how entertainment brings Americans together, shapes us and provides a forum for important national conversations about politics, society, culture and what it means to be an American. The exhibition will focus on the culture makers who broke barriers, changed our American sound and transformed sports, movies, theater, television-and the national audience. In an immersive introductory experience, the simply stated key message, Americans Love Entertainment, will be reinforced with exciting media elements to show why entertainment matters.
The Ray Dolby Gateway to Culture leading to the newly named Ray and Dagmar Dolby Hall of American Culture where the Entertaining America exhibition will be located was made possible in part by a $5 million contribution from the Dolby family. Renovations to the 270 seat Warner Bros. Theater, at the main entrance of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, is scheduled to be completed in 2020 utilizing in-kind contributions from Dolby Laboratories to create a modern cinema to ensure a truly immersive audio and visual experience.
About Dolby Laboratories
Dolby Laboratories (NYSE: DLB) is based in San Francisco with offices in over 20 countries around the globe. Dolby transforms the science of sight and sound into spectacular experiences. Through innovative research and engineering, we create breakthrough experiences for billions of people worldwide through a collaborative ecosystem spanning artists, businesses, and consumers. The experiences people have - in Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, Dolby Cinema, Dolby Voice, an
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS and Amazon Web Services have announced the network is using generative AI to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
All Press Releases Back 
