SRS TruSurround HD to be Installed in European TV Displays – SRS Labs, specialist in surround sound and audio technologies, has partnered with Vestel – the largest TV maker in Europe, to put their TruSurround HD technology into Vestel’s flat panel HDTVs, used the two built-in front speakers to create an immersive pseudo-surround sound experience. The SRS process processes up to 6.1 channels of audio for the two speakers, and optimizes bass response. Dialog is also made more distinct. More than 250 million TruSurround HD-equipped HDTVs have shipped globally and Vestel has 16% of the LCD TV market and 25% of the set-top-box market in Europe.
Bryston Introduces Digital Music Player and Processor – The 2010 CEDIA Expo happens in Atlanta September 22 thru 26, and Canadian high-end manufacturer Bryston LTD will demonstrate two new components. The BDP-1 is designed solely to give music aficionados the ability to enjoy their library of hi-res digital music files (up to 192K/24-bit) on a USB storage device, connected via standard USB cable or thumb drive to the BDP-1. The unit does not contain its own DAC, a hard drive, a streamer, a disc player/ripper, switching power supplies or noisy fans. It connects to any external DAC via AES or BNC digital outputs. MSRP is $2150.
The Bryston SP3 is strictly for audio thus far, although next year a modular video processing board will become available for it. The SP3 has Class A discrete analog circuits and isolated dual power supplies – separate ones for the analog and digital sections. Analog inputs include two pairs of stereo balanced XLR, a single-ended analog 7.1-channel bypass, and six pairs of single-ended analog. MSRP will be between $9000 and $10,000.
Three Pro Manufacturers Collaborate on Optimized Home Audio Solutions – ARM – a designer of technology at the heart of advanced digital products, Ittiam – an embedded media-processing systems company, have implemented the Dolby Laboratories MS10 Multistream Decoder on a series of professional processors. There is an increased requirement for highly optimized multipurpose digital media platforms for the home, including high performance audio, and the new package for next-generation digital TVs and set-top-boxes will handle Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Pulse decoder and Dolby Digital Encoder. The partnership is key to reduction of complexity in broadcasting HDTV audio services – whether it be via satellite, cable, terrestrial or IPTV networks. The goal is to maintain high quality audio with an efficient bandwidth, and also to have interoperability with already-existing home entertainment devices. For example, the MS10 implementation takes up less than 10% of the processor load while offering cost and time benefits. This decoder also includes Dolby Volume, to ensure consistent volume levels across all content and input sources in the home playback environment.
Dolby Debuts Audio Description Service – Dolby Laboratories is also demonstrating their full HDTV-compatible audio description service enabled via Dolby Digital Plus. The solution allows visually-impaired viewers to enjoy HDTV surround sound programming complete with optional audio descriptive tracks (current solutions are limited to stereo). Both audio signals are carried together as a single bandwidth-efficient bitstream. A Dolby spokesperson said “…there is no need to compromise on the main or associated audio when delivering important services like audio description.”
