Audio News for June 13, 2008

SRS Labs Penetration of Global Flat Screen Market – Various SRS Labs audio technologies are now featured in nine of the ten top-selling flat panel TVs. With built-in speakers getting smaller and often down-firing to accommodate thinner panels, SRS processing can assist  in the challenge to provide surround sound effects and more bass end for the majority of customers who don’t want to or cannot bother with discrete 5.1 speaker setups. In a recent Consumer Reports test, 60% of the LCD and plasma displays they evaluated contained an SRS technology. One of the top five makers of LCD displays in the world, Sharp, has chosen SRS Labs’ TruSurround XT for their Aquos line of LCD TVs, and a licensing agreement for SRS technologies has been signed with Vizio, the fastest-growing HDTV brand in North America.

Vizio MPEG-2 Suit – Speaking of Vizio, a suit has been filed against them in U.S. District Court by Mitsubishi, Sony, Philips, Thomson, JVC and Columbia University, claiming that Vizio does not have a license to use the compression technology covered by the MPEG-2 patents. (New York’s Columbia University holds some of the patents.)  Vizio says its suppliers have the proper licenses and that the suit will not have a material impact on their business.

Live Classical Music has New Home on the Net – Medici.tv, launching June 20, will be where viewers worldwide can watch and hear performances by the world’s leading artists from the most important concert halls and music festivals, 24 hours a day.  From recitals to chamber music concerts, symphony series to operas, medici.tv will offer programs for every classical taste, free, the year around.  Each live event will be archived for 60 days for viewing on demand, using either streaming video or video downloads.

Some of the live webcasts to come: Concerts from the Aspen Music Festival and School, including Joshua Bell with the Aspen Chamber Symphony, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 and Prokofiev’s  Classical Symphony. The world premiere of John Harbison’s Great Gatsby Suite, Richard Goode in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, and the Emerson String Quartet in Brahms’ three string quartets. Also Patti Austin and the Count Basie Band. The webcasts from Aspen, amid the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, will give music lovers everywhere the opportunity of a virtual musical vacation to Colorado. There will also be broadcasts rom the Aix-en-Provence Festival in the south of France, featuring a new production of Mozart’s Zaide and the Berlin Philharmonic in Brahms’ Symphony No. 3.  There will be over 30 webcasts from the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.  Medici.tv’s library of music on film (which does require subscription) is currently 100 titles, with 100 to be added soon. Downloads are free of DRM, so you can burn a DVD-R to watch on your TV.  There will also be an on-line magazine, specialized blogs and illuminating playlists. Medici.tv is produced by Medici Arts in conjunction with EuroArts of Leipzig and Idéale Audiences of Paris. The two companies have already issued over 250 music DVDs and hundreds of audio recordings, including the BBC Legends CD series and the Royal Opera House Heritage series.