Two of Lenovo’s next laptops will be the first to introduce Dolby Voice, an audio technology that aims to make it easier to hear people during conference calls. The feature combines elements such as background noise reduction and dynamic leveling to make meetings “clearer, more natural and less tiring,” says Dolby. Lenovo’s upcoming ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 and X1 Yoga Gen 6 laptops will include the technology, but Dolby declined to say what other laptops it might come to in the future.
Dolby Voice is not exactly an entirely new piece of technology. Dolby had previously used similar underlying technology for its Dolby Conference Phone and Dolby Voice Room, which were business-oriented conferencing solutions. The difference is that it will now be available directly on a pair of laptops without the need for separate Dolby hardware.
The technology includes a few different features that work in conjunction with the speakers and microphones to make the audio of the call easier to hear. “Full room capture and dynamic leveling” adjusts the audio of a call to make it easier to hear people who are quieter or further away from the microphone. The voice also includes noise reduction to eliminate echo and background noise. Finally, Dolby says that Voice makes speech easier to hear when there are several people talking on the same call, thanks to the “voice separation” feature.
The technology works with incoming and outgoing audio, so you should sound clearer to the people you’re talking to and you’ll also hear a benefit. Dolby Voice features can be controlled using the Dolby Access application.
Your combination of hardware and software will determine which of these features can be used. Dolby says that total space capture, dynamic leveling and noise reduction work “out of the box” with both laptops, regardless of the software used. External 3.5 mm microphones connected to a laptop can also benefit from noise suppression and dynamic leveling. However, the requirements for the voice separation feature are slightly higher, and the feature will only work when using the laptop’s built-in microphones with selected services, including Zoom.
As many people stayed at home during the past year, there was a strong interest in using software to improve audio quality during calls. Some chat services like Discord and Google Meet have incorporated background noise reduction technology directly into their services, while Nvidia’s Broadcast software works in different chat applications, as long as you have the right hardware (Nvidia).
Dolby Voice can combine the best parts of the two approaches. Its features are not necessarily confined to any chat service, nor does it require a video card with lightning tracking capability. We should know how it performs when the two compatible laptops from Lenovo are released in February.