The Audiosuite plug-in has a control to select film or smpte ordered inputs from the timeline. It is simplest to highlight a 5.1 track and encode using film order.  Pro Tools always uses film order for multichannel tracks.  But some customers prefer to organize the 5.1 mix as six mono tracks ordered in SMPTE from top to bottom.   In this case you can highlight all six tracks and set the control to SMPTE order.

he Center speaker in a Dolby Surround/PL1/PL2 system produces stereo imaging that is slightly different than that of a two-speaker stereo system. Most music engineers find this distracting at first, but adjust quickly. Those who mix motion picture sound feel comfortable, as do those music engineers who own a home theater system. The most noticeable difference in the stereo image is that the perceived image tends to be narrower when a Center speaker is used. Because most music mixes contain significant amounts of Center-channel information, we are used to hearing a phantom image produced by the Left and Right speakers. Since all of this information is now directed to a single point source, the Center speaker, we perceive it as being in the center. One way to correct this in the mix is to make the image slightly wider than normal for a two-channel stereo mix.

 

SouncdCode Stereo LtRt works well for both tape-based and file-based deliveries.  The TDM or RTAS type can be used to do a layback in real time to analog or digital video tape.  The Audiosuite version can encode to a stereo file at 10-20x realtime.  The file can be used as a deliverable and optionally can be laid back to tape at any time.

 

The Toolkit installer is used to install SoundCode Stereo.  On Windows, launch setup.exe located in the Complete Production Toolkit Installer.  The installer lists a set of options to install.  The last item listed is SoundCode Stereo.  Make sure it is selected.  And then click "Next" to install.  After installation it can be found in c:\Program Files\Common Files\Digidesign\DAE\Plug-Ins.

 

SoundCode Stereo, which is bundled with the Avid Complete Production Toolkit, is for down mixing and monitoring in stereo on an LE system with a two-channel interface.  It lets you open, monitor, and edit a surround session on a Mbox Micro system, for example.  SoundCode Stereo LtRt has additional features necessary for for broadcast delivery workflows:

Pro Logic I / II compatible encoding
TDM and super-fast Audiosuite processing
Brick wall limiting

Yes.  The upgrade cost is $249.  Contact your preferred reseller or go to store.neyrinck.com.