Archives for September 1996

Rane Introduces New Level Matching & Balancing Box

Mukilteo, WA. Rane Corporation has announced a new professional-grade outboard unit to convert consumer level -10 dBV RCA outputs to balanced +4 dBu operation and vice-versa.

The Rane BB 44X Balance Buddy is a handy tool that provides two channels of conversion each way. It converts one pair from -10 dBV to +4 dBu and another pair from +4 dBu to -10 dBV simultaneously, and it has two female and two male XLR-type connectors, as well as four RCA jacks on board. This makes it easy to run balanced lines to and from a consumer device such as a stereo tape deck.

The the BB 44X preserves good signal-to-noise performance through the use of high-quality nickel core (“80” Ni) passive transformers to convert signal levels. Rane says that these transformers guarantee low distortion, wide bandwidth and high signal level handling capability.

Interactive Audio, DVD in the Spotlight at IMA Expo’96

New York, NY. The hot place to be this week for audio professionals involved with interactive media, including the world-wide web, CD-ROM, and DVD, is IMA Expo’96 in New York City.

IMA Expo’96 is the annual industry event sponsored by the Interactive Multimedia Association. This year’s event is held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center (655 West 34th Street). IMA is touting New York and its “Silicon Alley” as the emerging centre of the multimedia universe.

Expo’96 begins today with a series of pre-conference workshop sessions. The regular show begins tomorrow (Sept.17) and runs through Thursday (Sept.19), with three parallel tracks concentrating on Business, Design, and Technology.

The overwhelming emphasis of the show is the web, and everything related to making content for the web. The secondary focus is the new DVD format (including DVD-Video, DVD-ROM and DVD-Audio), including the “DVD World Summit” session on Thursday (Sept.19).

There is an increased interest in audio technology at this year’s IMA Expo, probably because audio has taken a leading role in enabling true multimedia on the web. Audio also owns a large stake in DVD technology.

Audio manufacturers and organizations exhibiting at IMA Expo’96 include Dolby Labs, Imation, Kurzweil Technology Group, NAB, SMPTE, Sonic Foundry, Inc., and Sonic Solutions.

The audio highlight today is an extended workshop looking at the major platforms for interactive audio, including Intel-standard PC’s, Macintosh, Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, and the Internet. The session is moderated by Tom White, President and CEO of the MIDI Manufacturers’ Association, and features panelist Martin Wilde of Viacom New Media. The workshop runs from 1:00pm – 5:00pm (Monday September 16).

Tomorrow, the main audio event looks like the “New Technologies For Interactive Audio” session, moderated by Mark Miller of Crystal Dynamics. Panelists include Tom White of the MIDI Manufacturers Association, Dale Gulick from Advanced Micro Devices, Josh Rosen, Director for Audio Development at Macromedia, Inc., Toder Fay of Microsoft, and Michael D’Amore from Yamaha. They will present an overview of the state of the art and industry in 3D audio, downloadable samples, MIDI and audio in the year 2001. 1:00pm – 2:30pm (Tuesday Sept.17).

On Wednesday, aesthetic and creative issues surrounding the use of audio and soundtrack in interactive media will be the subject in a session called “Audio For Interactive Media: What’s The Difference?” Starting with a broad overview of interactive vs. linear audio, the panel will look at current technology limitations, the role of music in interactive applications, and how to make music work in interactive settings. Moderator is Dominic Milano, Editor of InterActivity and Keyboard Magazines, with panelists James Grunke, Director of Audio for On-Live Technology, Ken Ritvo of Pixound Technology Partners, and independent sound designer Dave Javelosa. 1:00pm – 2:30pm (Wednesday Sept.18).

In addition to the DVD World Summit, which is sure to be of broad interest to the audio community, Thursday brings a session dealing with streaming audio and video on the Internet and the web. Panel experts will separate the hype from reality and explain what is viable today, technically, creatively and from a global market perspective. The panel includes Sandra Morris from Intel, Marcos Sanchez, Shockwave Product Manager at Macromedia, Byron Wagner, CEO of Metawire, Giovanni Mezgec of Microsoft and Mark Dunsmuir of Progressive Networks. 10:30am – 12:00pm (Thursday Sept.19).

JVC to Open Audio Manufacturing Plant in Brazil

Manaus, Brazil. JVC do Brasil, the recently established joint venture of JVC and Brazilian manufacturer Gradiente, will establish an audio manufacturing plant in Manaus, Amazonas state. The company used to import its audio product lines from Japan. But with local production, JVC expects to gain an 8% share of the domestic audio market. In the first year of operation, sales are projected to reach $50M (US).

Autodesk 3D Graphics Package Adds Audio Controls for Animation

Guildford, U.K. Kinetix, the new multimedia business unit of Autodesk, today announced the immediate availability of an updated release of its 3D Studio MAX. Autodesk claims that Release 1.1 of Studio MAX is the most fully featured 3D modelling and animation package available for PCs.

Lending some weight to that claim from an audio developer’s point of view is the inclusion of a novel feature: four new animation controllers for using WAV audio files to drive animation parameters directly. Other new features of the version upgrade include Windows ’95 compatibility, and a number of new renderers and modelling modifiers.

The new version will be shipped free to all registered 3D Studio MAX customers.

Recoton Settles Labor Dispute

Lake Mary, FL. Recoton Corp., the parent company of numerous North American audio accessory and consumer audio product brands, has settled its labor dispute with Local 184 (Orlando, FL) of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics & Allied Workers Union. The company and the union jointly announced that they reached agreement yesterday for a new three year contract. Details of the new agreement have not been disclosed.

Recoton Corp. brands include Advent®(R), AR®/Acoustic Research®, Calibron®, Discwasher®, Jensen®, Parsec®, Phase Linear®, Recoton®, Rembrandt®, SoundQuest® and STD®.