Media Reports
Global Recording News: Good, Bad, & Worse
By Barry Fox
The big surprise from looking back at 50 years of the stereo LP standard was to discover the commendable role played by the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA didn’t just set the stereo standard. Fifty years ago some amplifiers needed 72 EQ settings to cope with the different, proprietary curves used on mono LPs and marked on the labels. It was the RIAA which produced a catchall curve and made it a standard.
But later on the RIAA morphed into the trade body which tried to lumber us with Copycode, the infamous anti-copy system which sucked a notch out of the audible frequency range. The RIAA then became even more infamous for suing schoolkids and grannies caught sharing MP3 files—or as our news story tells, people whom the RIAA has trapped into sharing.
How different things might have been if instead of shutting the stable door too late by shutting down unauthorized download services such as Napster, the RIAA had had the foresight to bang heads in the record companies and get them to agree to a single standard for purchasing legitimate downloads.
The video industry is now making all the same mistakes. There is no standard for download purchase, no standard for copy protection, and no standard for audio and video compression. Executives who specialize in red-carpet events are relying on engineers who live in a lab to plan for a commercial future which know-nothing PR people will promote.
Every music industry demonstration of DVD-Audio I went to before the format flopped was given by people who kept telling me about the wonders of surround—in complete ignorance of the fact that bog standard DVD had from Day One offered surround from compressed Dolby Digital and DTS.
QUICK FIX
I recently took some examples of early stereo recordings along to a meeting of the Audio Engineering Society. It was held at the palatial Royal Academy of Engineering, in Carlton House Terrace, London. The AES had picked the venue because the RAE had reputedly just spent £60,000 on a new audio/video system.
The video projector was fine, but the sound was coming from a pair of closely spaced small speakers in the ceiling; and it seemed to be in mono, too. Fortunately, one of the AES committee had two active speakers and a stereo mixer desk in the trunk of his car, and he saved the day by rigging them up during the coffee break.
How many engineers did it take to specify the Academy system?
CHOKING HAZARD
German company ODS recently promoted DVDs of half the normal thickness—0.6mm instead of 1.2mm.
Ordinary double-sided DVDs are rigid because they are made by gluing two 0.6mm single-siders back-to-back. The ODS EcoDisc is made from one single-sider, so is flexible and uses half the polycarbonate. This can save a little on production costs, and every little bit helps if the discs are made in the millions. A few newspapers are now using EcoDiscs for cover-mounts.
The risk, which ODS acknowledges, is that some slot load players, particularly in Apple Macs, may swallow the disc and refuse to spit it out. The owner may then need to pay for the drive to be dismantled. EcoDiscs now carry a warning, but the company admits people often only read warnings after it is too late.
ODS now seems to be in the throes of corporate restructuring, but doubtless others will promote the same idea. So it may help them to know that the DVD Forum, which sets the standards for DVD, does not approve. It has now issued an “important notice” that a “0.6mm thick Optical Disc does not use DVD Format in a proper manner.”
“It is only imperfectly and inappropriately using the Format,” says the Forum. “Such a Disc is not compliant with the DVD Specifications.”
WORD CHOICE
The Consumer Electronics Association of America, organizers of CES, hopes to claim legal control of the words “consumer electronics show,” much as Bose has claimed control of the word “lifestyle.”
CEA has already successfully registered a trademark for the three words when used in conjunction with a logo or with “stylized” lettering.
In March 2004 CEA filed for monopoly on the bare words. The application was accepted by the US government’s Patent and Trademark Office and laid open to opposition on April 22, 2008. Anyone who believes they “would be damaged by the registration” can oppose, but the time for opposition is normally limited to 30 days. This period has now expired, so it looks likely that CEA will now win legal monopoly to use the plain words “consumer electronics show.”
PROOF
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint about ads for mains power cables, costing up to £1805 for a meter, sold by UK dealer Russ Andrews. (www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44177.htm)
The ads claimed that making mains cables from woven materials “vastly reduces distortion levels, letting you hear a sound that is vastly clearer and purer, more detailed and far more dynamic. . . eliminating system sound fluctuation, allowing more believable dynamics; and a much more cohesive musical sound.”
When challenged, Andrews quoted “recognized facts” about effects which are “easy to hear but impossible to measure.” The ASA was not impressed and told him not to make the claims until he had “robust scientific evidence.”
In a subsequent statement Andrews says, “We are insensed (sic) at what we feel is a serious injustice. We have commissioned a Research Scientist to investigate our claims and provide such evidence.”
SOUNDS GOOD
Sennheiser is using new digital radio link technology for cordless headphones and wireless speakers. Kleer is claimed to use far less power than Bluetooth, and add less processing delay or “latency.” So headphone batteries last longer, and lip sync between sound and vision is maintained.
Bluetooth uses the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) for stereo; compression is with SBC (Sub Band Coding), which adds noise and reduces the dynamic range. If Bluetooth is used to transmit audio that has previously been compressed with a system such as MP3, the daisy-chain of compression and de-compression can add cumulative distortion.
Kleer works in the same ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band as Bluetooth—2.4GHz—and this band is also used for Wi-Fi and microwave ovens. So there is a lot of interference which corrupts digital data, and the link continually must re-send lost data and stitch together re-sent data. This can add significant delays and put sound and vision out of step. More delays are added by compression and decompression.
Kleer carries an overall datastream of 2Mbps to cope with the 1.4Mbps needed for uncompressed CD quality stereo, and the data that must be re-sent.
To do this, Kleer puts a 2.37Mbps datastream in a 3MHz channel, continually scanning the ISM band for clear spaces and hopping in. The scanning is so fast (less than 40ms, with 20ms claimed to be soon achievable) that latency is at most 45ms. This represents a delay of around one video frame, which does not cause a noticeable effect.
Power consumption is claimed to be around one-tenth that of Bluetooth, so earbuds can run for 4 hours on a tiny rechargeable lithium-ion coin cell. The matchbox transmitter works for 10 hours.
VERITAS FROM VINO
The most recent issue of NYJO, the “house magazine” for the UK’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra, tells the story of the band’s recent season at Ronnie Scott’s club in Frith Street in Soho, London.
I gave up going to Ronnie’s years ago because the prices were too high, the sound over-amplified, and the club full of jazz haters who were only there to look trendy and talk through the music.
NYJO reports that during a recent re-fit, the sound mixing desk was put next to a counter on which people put drinks. Sure enough, someone knocked a glass of wine off the counter and into the desk, killing the house amplification and the live recording that was in progress. Sound engineer Miles Ashton hurriedly rigged a simple mixer to get single channel amplification for vocals, and the show went on with the band playing an acoustic set.
“Oddly enough, nobody in the club seemed to mind the PA going down” reports the band magazine.
No, not odd.
Most big-band instruments naturally produce such high sound levels that only the very best amplifier can make them sound louder without also adding distortion. In a small room—like Ronnie’s—there isn’t any need to add overall level. I still have headache nightmares about the time I heard Buddy Rich’s Big Band through the Frith Street sound system.
If a band has good internal balance, which NYJO does, it’s very likely to sound better with amplification used only for vocals and instruments that really need help, such as bass, guitar, and piano.
In the days when cinemas had Saturday morning children’s shows, projectionists had a simple trick when the kids started to scream and climb up the walls; they turned down the sound, instead of turning it up. A similar trick sometimes works when trying to buy from a shop or restaurant that is playing loud piped music; just speak quietly and make the staff say “what?”
Who knows, less sound at Ronnie’s might even make those noisy jazz-hating trendies shut up.
ORIGINAL IDEA
A clutch of budget music DVDs from Sony BMG, with loving closeups of Herbert Von Karajan conducting, promises “New Stereo and Surround Sound re-recorded at the original venues.”
The original recordings have been played through loudspeakers on stage at the Philharmonic Hall in Berlin and Musikverein in Vienna, and the reproduced sound re-recorded in surround. In many respects Sony is doing what EMI did in 2001 with a batch of DVD-Audio releases, including The Planets.
The original EMI recordings had been made in stereo at Abbey Road Studio 1 in the 1970s, and some bright spark in EMI thought it would be a good idea to play them through loudspeakers in Abbey Road 1 and re-record what EMI’s engineers called “faux surround,” but EMI’s marketing people preferred to promote as a “4.0 Surround Sound mix (that) provides an enhanced listening experience over the Stereo version, recreating the acoustic in which the recording was made.”
In a similar vein, Sony BMG is now promising “authentic new recordings” and offering a “5.0” audio setup option on the screen menu.
The result in each case—from EMI in 2001 and now Sony BMG—is a digital recording of hall playback ambience being added to the hall ambience that was recorded during the original live session. Predictably the double dose of ambience produces a diffuse and echoey audio image, much like mono with added reverb played through several speakers.
Perish the thought that someone will now take old jazz recordings previously made at Ronnie Scott’s and play them through the house PA while re-recording the sound with a live audience. That way the result would be a double dose of noisy
jazz-hating diners.
COLOR CODING
IFA—which began life in 1924 as the Funkausstellung or Berlin Radio Show—is upping the ante in the escalating battle with CES to become the biggest consumer electronics show in the world. IFA is opening the doors to “white goods,” electrical domestic appliances such as freezers, fridges, and washing machines.
“The consumer is pushing us into integration of White and Brown goods,” says Dr. Christian Göke, Chief Operating Officer of Messe Berlin, the show organizers. “Manufacturers are already combining both types of goods, like Philips with its new Consumer Lifestyle branding. Now is the time to move on.”
“We are creating a new format that has not been tried at any other trade show,” says Göke. “Research done last month showed that when consumers are asked to list their top ten areas of interest, five out of ten are white goods.”
Audio and video came top though.
White Goods will be shown in six halls, clustered together, with 30,000m2 of space of which 80% has now been reserved. Show areas will be color-coded, red for AV and blue for domestic appliances.
Göke admits that it will be impossible to differentiate between visitors coming for white and brown goods.
“Even if we ask people whether they are coming to see white or brown goods, many will be visiting for both.”
To tie in with the new “integration,” IFA has coined a new slogan, “Consumer Electronics Unlimited.” Göke acknowledges that the IFA logo, showing a head with eyes and ears gathering input, may now be outdated, but he will not change it yet.
“It’s a very old logo but we feel it is still good. But who knows? Maybe next year?”
Jürgen Boyny, Global Director of consumer electronics market analysts GfK, argues that trade figures support IFA’s decision to show Major Domestic Appliances and CE at the same event.
“CE dealers are already selling MDAs. White goods and Brown goods can learn a lot from each other. Better energy efficiency has been a Megatrend in White Goods over the last 10 years, with 30 or 40% improvements. This will influence trends in CE.”
At this year’s IFA the Blu-ray Association held a press conference which inadvertently highlighted one of the consumer turn-offs that afflict Blu-ray; hack-proof regional coding, with wholly inadequate consumer guidance on the A, B, C zoning system which is quite different from DVD’s 1, 2, 3, and so on.
International journalists who attended the BDA’s press conference were given a few Blu-ray discs to take away. A John Mayer music disc was marked ABC in very small print, with no explanation that this means it will play anywhere. I saw one journalist trying to read the label with a magnifying glass.
“Big Buck Bunny” has no marking so will perhaps play anywhere. “10,000 BC” has no mark, so who knows where it will play. “Vantage Point” is clearly marked ABC All Regions, but confusingly also marked “U.K.” A collection of Pixar shorts is marked ABC, again with no explanation.
“The Bank Job” is marked B, so either the marking is wrong or US journalists who try and play it back home will fail. It’s the same at CES; Europeans are given A discs they cannot play.
This is a pity because Blu-ray needs all the help it can get.
Toshiba still refuses to join the Blu-ray camp and at IFA was showing the new XDE DVD player, which is due late September for £120 and plays ordinary DVDs through an HD screen with damn-near Blu-ray quality. A new Tosh TV uses similar, but not identical, technology to upscale any SD input to HD.
Toshiba’s demonstrators were clearly under political orders not to call these “Blu-ray killers,” and the public demonstrations were poor. But in a trade-only room they were playing “The Last Samurai” at 1080p on two 42″ screens side by side, one fed from a BD disc playing on a Sony BD S300 player and the other from DVD on the XDE DVD player. Nearby a 46″ TV set (46ZF575D) was up-converting to HD from an ordinary DVD player. In each case the up-conversion was so good that even from up close it was hard to tell the difference from Blu-ray.
Monica Juniel, VP International Marketing for Warner Home Video, told the Blu-ray Association’s annual love-in:
“Our research shows that public awareness of Blu-ray is high but familiarity is low,” she warned. “There’s indifference. People are completely happy with Standard Definition and don’t see any reason to upgrade. We have to find ways to encourage them.”
One easy way would be to scrap regional coding—which Toshiba’s HD DVD never used. M3
Barry Fox reports on the audio industry as columnist for the British publication Hi-Fi News. His commentary appears in every issue of Multi Media Manufacturer.