DTS iHeartRadio Streaming – DTS has announced that their iHeartRadio streaming is now available on their DTS Play-Fi app on both iOS and Android devices. It allows streaming music over an existing home Wi-Fi network in high quality lossless audio from smartphones, tablets or computers. Sources, speakers and audio components from different manufacturers interoperate seamlessly in an open ecosystem.
New Movie Studio Efforts to Improve Ticket Sales – Hollywood has has terrible ticket sales recently – last year the industry sold the lowest number of tickets since 1995. Analysts say this is from a combination of a weak economy and the many new home entertainment options. TV viewership is dismal especially among the millennials, meaning bad news for advertisers. So studios like Warner and Fox are using experiential mobile marketing and taking their messages directly to the people on cross-country movie tours. One uses a 53-foot expandable trailer from Cinetransformer, that converts into a complete mobile cinema, providing a unique movie-going experience. Studios screen their feature films several times a day, and let audiences have a sneak peek at 3D or 4K bits ahead of a picture’s release date. Even on the highway, the trucks serve as moving billboards.
New Version of the World’s Most Popular Turntable – The original Technics direct-drive SL-1200 was the world’s best-selling turntable and was about $500. It is still available used at about that figure and more. Many tweaks are available for it. Manufacture stopped in 2010 and now Technics has two brand new versions: a really improved high-end model (40 lbs. vs. 25 of the original) which sounds fabulous, at about $4000 and an easier-to-get mass model at about $2200. The more expensive one (GAE) has much improved vibration control and a much better tone arm. Don’t know about the lower-priced one (G). Although audiophiles look askance at direct-drive turntables, when it’s done right the results can be excellent, and the GAE evidently does it right.
Hungarian Classical Music TV Show Goes Global – A Hungarian TV talent show that uncovers young classical musicians is going global as a result of Dick Clark Productions. The show’s producer said “We discover the talents…and we are very proud that this is about to happen in other countries and that we are taking this big step forward.” She said she is motivated by the fact that few young people were listening to or performing classical music. On a recent visit, Placido Domingo praised the program for allowing young classical musicians the change to compete in a type of program usually reserved for pop music.
