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Ray Dolby, the pioneer of noise reduction on music and cinema recordings, has died aged 80.

Dolby built a billion-dollar business from improving sound quality in the film and music industries.

His name became synonymous with surround sound systems and he won many awards for his work.

He died at home in San Francisco having had Alzheimer’s in recent years and leukaemia since July.

His son novelist Tom said: “Though he was an engineer at heart, my father’s achievements in technology grew out of a love of music and the arts.

"He brought his appreciation of the artistic process to all of his work in film and audio recording.”

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His other son David, a member of the board of directors at Dolby Laboratories, added: "“My father was a thoughtful, patient and loving man, determined to always do the right thing in business, philanthropy, and as a husband and father.

"Our family is very proud of his achievements and leadership. He will be sorely missed, but his legacy of innovation will live on.”

Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon, and grew up around San Francisco.

Neil Portnow, head of the Recording Academy, which hands out Grammys, said Mr Dolby “changed the way we listen to music and movies”.

Dolby began his career developing a video recording system in the 1950s.

He came to Britain to study for a PhD at Cambridge and founded Dolby Laboratories in London in 1965 which he then moved to California in 1976.

He was given an Oscar in 1989 with Dolby boss Ioan Allen for contributions to cinema. Dolby also got a Grammy in 1995 and TV Emmys in 1989 and 2005. .

He is survived by wife Dagmar and two sons.

On Twitter, singer and actress Kate Robbins said: “RIP Ray Dolby, inventor and audio pioneer. He took the hiss out of everything.”