Audio News for June 4, 2012

by | Jun 4, 2012 | Audio News

Classical News – A product of Venezuela’s El Sistema program, and onetime assistant to Claudio Abbado has won Denmark’s Malko Conducting Competition. He is 32-year-old Rafael Payare, principal horn of the Simon Boliver Orchestra and assistant to its music director, Gustavo Dudamel. The 11-member jury was headed by Lorin Maazel. The grand prize is 20,000 Euros and a huge career boost consisting of 24 engagements with leading Nordic orchestras and mentorship under Maazel. Spring for Music, Carnegie Hall’s six-concert series by regional orchestras is now in its second second. Last year it got much attention for the Oregon Symphony and a recording contract with PentaTone. Carnegie Hall is legendary sought-after venue, and the concerts are all broadcast nationally and encores are played. The first two orchestras this season—from Houston and from Edmonton Alberta—suggest that the term “regional” can no longer be a euphemism for third-rate. The Edmonton musicians wore brightly-colored shirts without jackets and the trumpet soloist played a blue trumpet.
Wi-Fi Alliance Expands Miracast Deployment – Wi-Fi Certified Miracast devices use a wireless connection to deliver audio and video content from one device to another without need of a wireless Wi-Fi network, computer, or cables. More than 1 billion Wi-Fi devices were shipped last year, and an annual growth rate of over 30% is forecast over the next four years. In 2011 the Wi-Fi Alliance certified almost 1500 digital home and mobile devices. Starting in August certified Miracast products will incorporate Wi-Fi Display Specification.
AuraSound Expanding to New Applications – AuraSound has continues to expand their proprietary Neo-Radial Technology (NRT) speakers and bass shakers—originally developed over 20 years ago—into products ranging from iPod/iPhone docking stations, speaker phones, casino gaming, and acoustical test equipment. Bass Shakers are found in commercial cinemas, automotive audio, arcade gaming, home theatre, and medical therapy applications. They will launch their next generation of patented NRT products later this year.
Light Harmonic Launches Hi-End USB DAC – Light Harmonic, of Sacramento, CA, is shipping their 384K/32-bit USB 2.0 DAC, which weighs 61 pounds and comes in a two-piece aluminum chassis designed to isolate the power circuitry. The upper module houses power for all AC-to-DC conversions, control functions, the display and the clocks, while the base plate houses the digital and analog circuits and a gear-shaped heat sink. Key features include the ability to accept 384K/32-bit PCM digital audio without upsampling and buffering to offset speed fluctuations in sources. There are three clocks: one for 44.1K, 88.2K, 176.4K and 352.8K sampling frequencies; a second for 48, 96, 192 and 384K frequencies, and a third has the USB interface. The Da Vinci selects the proper clock according to the input file’s sample rate. Cost: $20,000.

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