What is the Ideal Audio Channel configuration for a commercial movie theater?

[COgilvy]

A continuation of my last post https://dcpomatic.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 2eb#p15098

Both StephW999 and Perepiol commented that they seemed to notice that my DCP file had audio only going through the left and right audio channels. Attached is a picture of the DCP's audio channel configuration which I took when editing the DCP to have it state it contained burned in English subtitling

DCP Audio Input.jpg

From what I can see is that there is audio going through all 8 available channels, so I'm not sure how both users reached the conclusion there is only audio going through the left and right speakers. I am concerned about this because Perepiol stated that a cinemas center channel yields the best results for "an event involving dialogue," which I take to mean as dialogue from the characters in the film.

Can channel audio be further explained to me, and how can I ensure that the sound will pass through multiple and correct channels when it is applied to a commercial movie theater?

[Kewl]

How many channels has your source file? Is it a stereo mix, 5.1, 7.1, something else?

[Carsten]

You posted this screenshot:

https://dcpomatic.com/forum/download/file.php?id=1780

It clearly shows that 8 channels of audio only carry active signal in channels 1 and 2 (left and right). So, while your DCP, (and also your source DCP) contains 8 channels, only 2 of them carry actual audio signal. The other 6 are silent. In the process of creating your source (DCP), someone used a stereo signal as the initial source, but decided to make a DCP with 8 audio channels. In that case, DOM copies the two active source channels 1&2/left and right), into the first 2 channels of an 8ch audio MXF/DCP.

That is pretty common in the cinema world for low cost documentaries or advertising.

You may try DCP-o-matics Mid/Side-Decoder (under the DCP->Audio tab).