Technology Demo at Dolby, SXSW 2023 – Austin, Texas

When you go to marketing events, they’re usually selling a product, though what that product is may be unclear. In the case of Dolby, you can only buy their stuff indirectly because it’s embedded in products sold by other companies. For example, Dolby Atmos, a surround sound technology, and Dolby Vision, an HDR video technology, are in audio systems and televisions. So this event was an exercise in brand marketing.

However, there were technology demos galore. They showed high-end cars with fancy stereos, gaming computers, simulated living rooms, and headphones with surround sound. And, of course, the obligatory VR setup.

I didn’t bother with listening to headphones. Though I wonder how many actually knew what Dolby did?

Some were suitably impressed, as seen by this woman’s reaction. Beyond the glitzy demos, Dolby caters to developers showing tools that help create immersive content.

I met these folks in the developer area. Unlike many “staff” at the event, these women worked for Dolby supporting software developers. Many others are just hired hands from a 3rd party company to demo a product or help staff the venue.

As an aside, a post-processing note: Notice how the first three pictures have a blue-ish-purple-ish hue? That was the overwhelming color at this party-like event. I pressed the white balance tool on a lark, which created unexpectedly great skin tones. It was an extreme transformation showing the power of shooting in RAW, which I use for all my photos. You couldn’t radically change a JPEG image without extensive image degradation.

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