is a
cinema sound system developed by
Sony. Compressed digital sound information is recorded on both outer edges of the
35 mm film release print. The system supports up to eight independent channels of sound: five front channels, two surround channels and a single sub-bass channel. The eight channel arrangement is similar to
large format film magnetic sound formats like
Cinerama and
Cinemiracle. The five front channels are useful for very large cinema auditoriums where the angular distance between center and left/right channels may be considerable. SDDS decoders provide the ability to downmix to fewer channels if required.