The first movie with a DTS soundtrack was Jurassic Park. In 1993 the dinosaurs roared out of theater speakers on every side, played from a CD synced to the film. Universal, the studio behind the film, had invested in the small company that year. A decade later DTS sound was in theaters, DVD players and home receivers, and it had an Oscar for its playback system. In July 2003 the company went public on Nasdaq.

Sound on a Separate Disc

Digital Theater Systems was founded in 1990 in Southern California. Engineer Terry Beard was behind its early work. The company's trick was to put a movie's sound on a separate disc and keep it in step with the film using a timecode. That gave theaters several clean channels of sound, each from its own speakers. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave DTS a Scientific and Engineering award for the theater system.

From the Cinema to the Living Room

Digital Theater Systems priced 3.84 million shares at $17 on July 9, 2003, and began trading on Nasdaq as DTSI the next day. Shares rose fast enough that the company sold more stock in November at $25.75. In 2005 it changed its name to DTS. Its money came more and more from licensing its sound to makers of home theater gear and phones. In 2016 Tessera bought DTS for $42.50 a share in cash, about $850 million.

Cover: The Actor Ichikawa Ebizo III as the Thunder God, an Incarnation of Sugawara Michizane, in the Play Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the Eighth Month, 1776, Katsukawa Shunsho. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the thunder god (booming sound).