DTS is a series of multichannel audio technologies owned by DTS, Inc. (formerly known as Digital Theater Systems, Inc.), an American company specializing in digital surround sound formats used for both commercial/theatrical and consumer grade applications. It was known as The Digital Experience until 1995.
In 2008, the cinema division was divested to form DTS Digital Cinema. In 2009 DTS Digital Cinema was purchased by Beaufort International Group Plc. and became known as Datasat Digital Entertainment. Beginning in 2011, the DTS cinema branding has been dropped, in favor of the Datasat Digital Sound branding. The original DTS Inc. company continues to exist developing and licensing DTS products in the home consumer market. Datasat Digital Entertainment has also announced a range of very high-end consumer audio processing products.
In 2012 DTS acquired the business of SRS Labs, including over 1,000 audio patents and trademarks.
Work on the format started in 1991, four years after Dolby Laboratories started work on its new codec, Dolby Digital. The basic and most common version of the format is a 5.1-channel system, similar to a Dolby Digital setup, which encodes the audio as five primary (full-range) channels plus a special LFE (low-frequency effects) channel for the subwoofer.