MEMS mics are taking over. Almost every mobile device has ditched its old-fashioned electret microphone invented way back in 1962 at Bell Labs. Expect new piezoelectric MEMS microphones, which promise unheard of signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of up to 80 dB (versus 65 dB in the best current capacitive microphones) in 2015. MEMS microphones are growing like gangbusters.
Analysts and veterans of the International CES expect to see plenty of 4K ultra-high-definition televisions, new smartwatch uses, and a large section of the show floor dedicated to robotics. 2015 will be the first year CES gets behind 4K in a big way, as lower price points make the technology more attractive to consumers. Samsung, Sony, Sharp, and Toshiba will be big players in the 4K arena. OEMs must solve the problem of intelligence and connectivity before 4K will really take off. CES attendees may also see 4K TVs optimized for certain tasks, along with a variety of sizes. There will be 10-inch and 14-inch and 17-inch UHD displays.
4K is not enough anymore? 8K – finally come true? Korean giant LG has promised to introduce ehdan 8K TV at CES 2015 exhibition in January. 8K means a total of 33.2 million pixels, or 7680 x 4320 resolution. 4K video material fate is still uncertain, 8K video can not with certainty not available for a long time.
Sound bars will be a big issue at shows. One problem with new TVs — the thinner they are, the harder it is to get sound out.
Open file formats Matroska Video (MKV) and Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) gets more widely used as Windows 10 To Feature Native Support For MKV and FLAC.
Watching shows online is more common now. More people are watching videos on smaller screens. You can use a tablet as personal TV. Phablets and portable televisions have taken off in China, Japan, and Korea, where many people watch videos during long commutes. Tablets now have become so ubiquitous and inexpensive that you can buy them for a specific application. Much of the innovation will be in software, rather than hardware — tuning the tablets to boot up like a television instead of an Android tablet
We’re all spending more time with smartphones and tablets. So much so that the “second screen” may now be the “first screen,” depending on the data you read. It seems inevitable that smartphones and tablets will replace the television in terms of time spent. Many metrics firms, including Nielsen, report on the rapid increase of mobile device usage—especially when it comes to apps. Half of YouTube’s views now come from phones and tablets.
Qualcomm will push this year broadcast LTE. That will be picked up more and more by some vendors in tablets, so they can have broadcast TV signals, but it doesn’t have to be generic LTE.
There will be lots of talking on traditional TV vs new streaming services, especially on who gets which program material and at what price. While it’s possible to create a TV platform that doesn’t deal with live channels, smart TVs and game consoles alike generally try to integrate the content as best they can.
Netflix’s new strategy to take on cable involves becoming best friends with cable to get its app included on set-top boxes of cable, fiber and satellite TV operators. Roughly 90 million U.S. households subscribe to cable or other forms of pay TV, and more than 73 million subscribe to the biggest five operators alone. That’s why Netflix has been working hard to team up with one of these major operators.
Google intends to integrate content best it can. Google Publishes ‘Live Channels For Android TV’ App Into The Play Store. G The “Live Channels for Android TV” app is unsurprisingly incompatible with phones and tablets, maybe because for some reason those markets are intentionally artificially tried to be kept separate.
Virtual reality video is trying to get to spotlight. Samsung’s new Milk VR to round up 360-degree videos for Gear VR article tells that Milk VR will provide the videos for free as Samsung hopes to goose interest in virtual reality. Milk VR service will provide free 360-degree videos to anyone using a Gear VR virtual-reality headset (uses Galaxy Note 4). Samsung wants to jump-start the virtual-reality movement as the company is looking at virtual reality as a potential growth engine at a time when one of its key traditional revenue sources — smartphones — has slowed down. The videos will also serve as a model for future filmmakers or artists looking to take advantage of the virtual-reality medium, as well as build up an ecosystem and viewership for VR content.
Although digital video is increasing in popularity, analog video remains in use in many applications.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
3D image was a flop
About a week and consumer electronics CES fair start in Las Vegas. At the same time when considering which technique this time to steal the headlines, may be declared that the fair favorite five years ago turned out to be virtually complete flop.
This technology is the 3D image. Five years ago, it was estimated that the technique can occupy the rapid pace of living cinemas addition. Then slowed different technologies – mainly between active and passive – for the debate.
In 2012 there appeared a new technology that increased the screen size to four times full HD market compared to. Suddenly, consumer interest in 4K screens exploded and 3D stayed in a third position.
3D looks great in some movies, if you are in a movie theater. But why the technology is virtually failed even though every new TV set has been added to display the 3D image as an option?
The reasons for this can certainly consider flopping. Analysts said some people lack the ability to stereoscopic vision. For many, the 3D image caused eyestrain or nausea.
However, the 3D does well in many cases give no more the story itself. Not all movies not work in 3D.
What’s in 3D will happen to you? Some people still believe in technology. According to them, the 3D will be properly rights only with the 8K-quality picture.
Stereo image has way to break trough in various virtual reality applications.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3791:3d-kuva-oli-floppi&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beyond iTunes: XML boffins target sheet music
How the tech and music industries come together in 2015
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/30/music_as_mark_up/
One of the world’s oldest and most successful “standards” – so standard in fact that western musical notation is simply called standard notation – does not yet have a standard way to be displayed on the web.
But a W3C group formed earlier this year, in the summer of 2015, hopes to change that.
The Music Notation Community Group consists of representatives from some of the biggest names in the music notation software business who’ve come together to create a standardised way to display western music notation in your browser.
The group is off to a strong start, having set out a list of what it believes are achievable goals in the next six to 12 months. However, don’t look for the W3C to endorse MusicXML, as the proposed standard is known.
Community groups like the Music Notation group are not officially part of the W3C, so the W3C has not yet endorsed the group’s efforts. The community groups are more of a starting point.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Nielsen: Music Streams Doubled In 2015, Digital Sales Continue To Fall — 2015 was a good year for streaming services, according to Nielsen’s year-end Music report out now. In 2015, on-demand streaming services grew to 317 billion streams – that’s a doubling from 2014, which saw 164.5 billion songs streamed, Nielsen report states.
Nielsen: Music Streams Doubled In 2015, Digital Sales Continue To Fall
http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/07/nielsen-music-streams-doubled-in-2015-digital-sales-continue-to-fall/
2015 was a good year for streaming services, according to Nielsen’s year-end Music report out now. In 2015, on-demand streaming services grew to 317 billion streams – that’s a doubling from 2014, which saw 164.5 billion songs streamed, Nielsen report states.
Also interesting is how the shift to streaming is impacting album sales. Though album sales were still down by 6 percent in 2015, the decline was not as bad as the year prior when they had dropped by 11 percent.
In addition, sales of vinyl grew in 2015. Sales were up 30 percent, and accounted for almost 9 percent of physical album sales.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adele, games, and streaming push UK entertainment revenue to record £6.1B
Video games accounted for five of the top 10 selling properties for the year.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/the-multiverse/2016/01/adele-vinyl-and-streaming-push-uk-entertainment-revenue-to-record-6-1b/
When it comes to keeping themselves entertained, UK citizens like three things: video games, vinyl, and Adele. According to a report by the Entertainment Retailers Association—the UK trade organisation for physical and digital retailers—revenue from music, TV shows, films, and video games hit an all-time high of £6.1 billion in 2015 thanks to a huge rise in digital services, as well as stand out properties like Adele’s album 25, and games like FIFA 16 and Fallout 4.