Where do you expect to hear surround sound?

If I had to guess, either a movie theater or your home TV set-up. 

But why isn’t surround sound ubiquitous with live theater?!

Live performance allows the sound designer to calibrate the exact speakers that every audience will listen to the production through. Robert Wilson’s Mary Said What She Said at NYU Skirball is the latest demonstration of how Spatial Audio can make specific noises in the mix sound like they’re coming from precise locations pinpointed around the house. 

Can you say immersive theater?

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Relatedly, Kenneth Branagh’s King Lear at The Shed was the first New York production in Dolby Atmos; the actors sounded like they were speaking directly into my ear…

I was sitting in the last row.