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Day One of IMA Expo Brings Major Audio Software Announcements

September 17, 1996 by

New York, NY. As expected, IMA Expo’96 in New York is turning out to be the venue of choice for a number of major audio software introductions.

Leading the parade today was Apple Computer Inc., which announced its Interactive Music Toolkit. Music Toolkit is a set of software tools for creating “Blue Book” enhanced audio CD’s (ECD’s). It is designed to allow audio producers, developers and artists to create multi-session ECD’s that can be played on both Mac and Windows platforms.

“Apple has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to working with developers and artists,” said Leo Rossi, technical advisor for the EMI Record Group and principal of Highway One Media Entertainment. “The Music Toolkit allows the professional recording artist and developer to take the creative process to a new dimension.”

Music Toolkit ECDs are 16-bit audio CDs with added multimedia content. The multimedia materials can include graphics, pictures, lyrics, and QuickTime movies. The key component of Music Toolkit is a music engine for the Apple Media Tool. Media Tool is a high-end multimedia authoring environment which is used to assemble the interactive portion of the ECD. Also included is the Lyric Synchronizer utility, which synchronizes lyrics to the music.

In keeping with the corporate mandate to tout Internet applications before all else, Apple has focused attention on the Music Toolkit’s capability of creating “Virtual CD’s” (VCD). A VCD contains multimedia content without the audio. Users download a VCD from the Internet, put the appropriate audio CD in their computer’s CD-ROM drive, and the sound and multimedia content will play back simultaneously. Record companies can now add interactivity to audio CDs without having to produce a new version by posting the VCD file on their website.

The VCD feature is reminiscent of (but not identical to) a technology called CD-Link™ that multimedia publisher Voyager has been promoting for more than a year. CD-Link allows a downloadable file from the Internet to control playback of an audio CD, so that artists and end users may create edited versions of existing audio and synchronize the edits with web page text and graphics.

The Apple Interactive Music Toolkit is available for free download immediately at Apple’s web site. Also available there is the beta version of the AppleCD Player, which is required for playback of ECDs created with the Music Tool Kit.

The Toolkit requires a Mac, Power Mac or PowerBook computer with a 68030 processor or higher, running Mac OS 7.1 or later. 5MB RAM required, 12MB RAM recommended, and 10MB available disk space.

Filed Under: Pro Audio

Hong Kong Cracking Down on CD Piracy

September 16, 1996 by

Hong Kong. The Xinhua news agency is reporting that Hong Kong Customs seized pirated CD’s with an estimated street value of $90,000 (US) in weekend raids. Customs officers raided 12 shops and confiscated a total of 14,000 pirated discs, including CD-ROM’s and Video CD’s.

Sixteen men aged between 16 and 41 were arrested in the latest anti-piracy action, which was the sixth in a series of raids this year aimed at curbing vigorour Asian trade in pirated software.

Government sources in Hong Kong said that these operations demonstrate the governments full commitment to eradicating piracy activities in Hong Kong and protecting the rights of copyright owners.

Filed Under: Biz

Sky Radio Chooses Satellite Audio from International Datacasting

September 16, 1996 by

Ottawa, Canada. International Datacasting announced today that they have been selected to supply a satellite digital audio system to Sky Radio Network of Sydney, Australia. Sky Radio Network is Australia’s largest affiliated commercial radio network.

The contract is valued in excess of $300,000 (US). It includes addressable QPSK satellite receivers, uplink equipment and customized head-end control software. The customized software allows Sky Radio Network to interface its existing program scheduling system with International Datacasting’s head-end Network Control Processor.

Sky Radio Network will use International Datacasting’s FlexRoute satellite digital audio system to distribute network programming to 140 radio stations throughout Australia and New Zealand. The new digital audio system replaces the sub-carrier above video system the company had been using. Sky Radio’s digital services are uplinked from Sydney by four SCPC QPSK carriers on the Optus satellite.

“This contract affirms International Datacasting’s position as the preferred provider of satellite digital audio systems for Australia’s broadcasters,” commented Hugh Mullington, President and CEO of International Datacasting. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. and other regional networks in Australia have previously acquired International Datacasting systems.

International Datacasting has over 15,000 satellite digital audio and data broadcasting earth stations installed worldwide.

Filed Under: Pro Audio

Rane Introduces New Level Matching & Balancing Box

September 16, 1996 by

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.

Filed Under: Biz

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

September 16, 1996 by

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).

Filed Under: Events
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