Cinema 5.1 surround sound originated in 1976 and reached homes in the late 1990s.

Evidence

A sound reproduction system was developed for cinema whereby the front image stability of the standard stereophonic set-up was enhanced by an extra centre channel and two surround channels were added to create atmospheric effects and room perception. This surround sound system for cinemas was first used in 1976 (Davis, 2003), and the ITU made a recommendation for the layout in 1992 (BS.775-2, 2006). The late 1990s saw households also acquiring this 5.1 surround system, where the figure before the dot stands for the number of loudspeakers and the figure after the dot is the number of low-frequency channels. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1807