There’s no doubt that the audio visual industry has proven its ability to survive and thrive in trying times. Global events have facilitated the rapid evolution of audio visual technologies, and these only continue to advance. Here are some audio visual trends for 2022 collected from many sources (click the link colored to text to get to the information source):
Growing consumer demand for audio content: People are listening to all forms of audio content: news, music, podcasts and books. Nielsen reports 75 per cent of people working from home are streaming music every week, with 40 per cent tuning in daily.
Rapid smart speaker adoption: Smart speakers and voice assistants are becoming common home appliances. One-third of U.S. households are equipped with smart speakers and 44 per cent of U.S. adults use voice assistants. Smart speakers let listeners to respond to ads using voice commands. Consumers are rapidly embracing voice to access information, entertain themselves and shop. The ability to instantly answer consumers’ questions and help them solve problems is becoming a key advantage for marketers who lean into audio.
Digital Audio is becoming multi-devices: Historically, digital audio has been widely consumed via mobile devices; it can now also be launched from a variety of new technologies including tablets, connected speakers, TVs and even smart watches.
Prosumer audio: Prosumer audio gear has remained on a steady upward curve over the last few years. With podcasting, live streaming, and at-home work solutions more popular than ever, it’s been a fantastic few years for prosumer audio sales. Their need for reliable, slightly elevated gear to take their content to the next level is proving highly profitable for certain companies.
Content Still Rules: Audiophiles are fiercely loyal to their favorite DJs, hosts, podcasters, artists and stations. As a result, they’re spending more time than ever listening to audio daily. Listeners consume programming on their own terms.
TikTok has caused a seismic shift in the world of content creation, skewing it ever further into a mobile-first industry. To capitalise on the market, more and more mobile-friendly gear is being created, forgoing the need for hundreds of adaptors and plugging straight into AUX, USB-C, or iPhone ports (or working wirelessly).
Many amplifier technologies in use: While classic class AB amplifiers are more and more often replaced with class D amplifier technology, there is still special audiophile markets for class A amplifiers and tube based amplifiers. New technology just coming to the class D amplifiers are GaN-based audio amplifier powered with switch mode power supply. They promise premium audio systems with good sound quality in a small and light format.
Vinyl records: Vinyl is here to stay, it seems, despite all technological advances that would have seemed to threaten it. Vinyl records (and coincidentally, cassette tapes) are selling like hot cakes again. Vinyl sales have been steadily rising for some time, but in 2020 for the first time in 34 years, vinyl has surpassed CD sales.
Streaming has killed CD: CDs sales are continuously and quickly declining thanks to streaming and music flash drives.
The race to wireless zero latency: Companies around the world are racing to find a solution that all but eliminates latency from wireless audio, removing the need for cables in an increasingly space, waste, and aesthetically-conscious world.
Green screens: As events become more hybrid, green screens will play a significant role, enabling speakers to be placed directly in the content becoming part of the message. Green screens are a great cost-effective way to insert branding and infographics, which works perfectly for online events and we will see them become adopted further for conferences. There are also cameras with depth sense features and software that can use pretty many background for green screen type effects without building a real green screen.
Hybrid events: Events have had to embrace the constant mix of who can attend, who can possibly attend and who is not afraid to attend and as such have flipped to hybrid. Although not necessarily an AV trend, hybrid events are unsurprisingly on the increase as people work from home and corporate travel is halted. In those events content needs to be clear and targeted to get the information across efficiently. There is demand for standalone apps that can enhance hybrid events such as Slack, Slido and Survey Monkey.
Touchless Environments: COVID-19 has accelerated the desire for automation and touchless environments from a nice-to-have to a must-have. They minimize the amount that people come into contact with shared surfaces. Following the throes of COVID-19, it appears that touchless building controls are here to stay.
Remote Control And Remote Management: We’re seeing an increase in demand for remote management software that allows one person, or a small group of people, to log into a remote system and review the status of a set of classrooms or meeting spaces. Increasingly in 2022, companies can implement remote monitoring and maintenance for audio visual systems to support the advancement of technology. Whether your organization is expansive or small, remote audio visual support teams can significantly reduce operating costs for your business.
Live Streaming: As more people look to tune into events from home, we’re seeing an increased need for equipment that supports live streaming.
Video Walls: In many commercial spaces, there’s often a need for a large video display. In past years, many spaces have opted for projection screens as opposed to large LCD displays or video walls, solely because the cost was much lower. The price of video walls getting close to similar to a projection screen, and the benefits almost always outweigh the slightly higher cost.
Service And Maintenance: As more commercial spaces look for ways to save, there’s been an increasing demand for AV integrators to handle service and maintenance in order to maximize the lifespan of AV products. Businesses are focussing on reducing the overhead costs associated with maintaining and installing the equipment. Companies having expertise in sectors other than AV cannot have a dedicated team to manage and monitor their AV equipment.
Snake oil: Many audiophiles are infected by the snake oil curse, which causes them to chase endlessly after what is supposedly better sound reproduction. Audio interconnect and speaker cables have become a profitable business built on imaginative marketing and misinformation. This market now extends into power cords, HDMI, and optical cables. Untold sums of money have been wasted on the fanciful claims of cable vendors. There is lots of ridiculous pieces of pseudo-audiophile nonsense out there. Try to avoid this bullshit in 2022. Try to to restore peace of mind, and the enjoyment of music.
Hybrid environment: Although some employees are returning to the office, it is doubtful that society will return to an entirely on-site work environment. Remote workspaces from 2020-21 on will now be ‘Hybrid’ (home and office). AV technologies are playing a crucial role in creating a modern working environment. Hybrid technologies are changing their form, we had just a Skype call before the pandemic and now we have Zoom, Microsoft Team Rooms, Google Meet, etc with more advanced features allowing space for seamless collaboration and communication. Hybrid environments are expected to go beyond that with continuous innovation and development. Remote employees, distant customers, healthcare providers, and educational institutions can utilize unified communication solutions. It is now increasingly important to adopt technologies that make collaboration easier. At one time, frequent video communications, online learning, and compact hardware design were ambitious audio visual innovations that were hard for people to imagine. Today, they’re top priorities for business, educational, and religious spaces of all types, and are critical to how people interact in those spaces.
Silent Video Gains Momentum: It’s estimated that 85% of short videos viewed on Facebook are watched without sound. Yet as much as 41% of video would be incomprehensible to viewers without sound. Video marketers are using captions, context and other “no-audio” tactics to convey information.
Social Media Goes Video-First: video content is one of the internet’s main attractions. Users are being drawn to video-first platforms. One of the most common reasons people use social media is to view video. But with video streaming set to be as much as 82% of total web traffic by 2022, the importance of video content to marketing strategy is massive and still growing.
Digital audio: Digital audio consumption accelerated in 2021 and commercial engagement followed the audiences. In 2022 we foresee three key commercial trends in the digital audio space: Data-led targeting capabilities provide a powerful way to get advertising cut through, Creativity is a constant rather than a ‘trend’ in advertising and Audience Growth is attracting new advertisers. Programmatic audio is divided into three main supply sources – music streaming (through suppliers like Spotify), podcasts (the biggest opportunity for brands), and online broadcast radio (now more attractive with the addition of data overlay opportunities). Amongst these audio heavyweights we can see emerging innovation in the form of conversational and actionable audio ads.
Virtual and Augmented Reality: Although virtual and augmented reality first entered the public consciousness via video games or social media filters, they are now infiltrating every aspect of our lives. Given the rapid evolution of technology, it is inevitable that these advancements will impact the audio visual industry. Companies specializing in the development of VR and AR technologies are noticing an increase in interest from educational institutions wishing to create an enhanced learning experience. Within the healthcare sector, VR solutions are assisting healthcare professionals with socializing medically isolated patients. Virtual reality has been in development within the audio visual industry for many years. In 2022, virtual reality is becoming mainstream. Or at least tries.
Shift from linear TV to streaming: Video streaming goes beyond traditional TV viewing for people under 45. The lion’s share of viewing by those over 45 is still grabbed by linear television.
894 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ensimmäiset täysin heijastamattomat näytöt sertifioitiin
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14199-ensimmaeiset-taeysin-heijastamattomat-naeytoet-sertifioitiin
Näyttöjen resoluutio ja värien toisto paranee koko ajan, mutta tärkeä ominaisuus on myös pinnan kyky estää heijastuksia erityisesti kirkkaassa valossa. Taiwanilaisen AUO:n kehittämä A.R.T-näyttötekniikka on nyt sertifioitu täysin heijastamattomaksi saksalaisen TÜV:n testeissä. A.R.T. tarkoittaa edistynyttä heijastamatonta tekniikkaa (advanced reflectionledd technoogy). Paneeleita käyttävät jo kaupallisissa näytöissään esimerkiksi Acer ja BenQ.
Viime vuosina etätyön ja etäopiskelun jyrkkä nousu on johtanut ruutuajan lisääntymiseen, mikä tekee näytön suorituskyvystä ja mukavuudesta entistä kriittisempää.
A.R.T.-paneelit ovat ensimmäiset näytöt, jotka TÜV Rheinland on sertifioinut heijastusvapaiksi. Validointi perustui lukuisiin tiukoihin kansainvälisiin säännöksiin, mukaan lukien näytön pintakäsittely, häikäisy- ja heijastustestit ja ACR-arvo (Ambient Contrast Ratio), joka viittaa näytön kuvanlaatuun ja värikontrastiin kirkkaassa valossa.
AUO-tuotteita, jotka ovat saaneet TÜV Rheinlandin heijastusvapaan sertifikaatin, ovat 27, 32 ja 65 tuuman näytöt ja TV-paneelit. Markkinoille ne ovat tulleet Acerin 32-tuumaisen Predator XB323K RV 4K -pelinäyttönä ja BenQ:n SW321C 4K -näyttönä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
2022 Golden Ear: MBL 101 X-treme MkII Omnidirectional Loudspeaker
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/2022-golden-ear-mbl-101-x-treme-mkii-omnidirectional-loudspeaker/
MBL 101 X-treme MkII Omnidirectional Loudspeaker
$325,000
These truly remarkable omnidirectional loudspeakers have been awarded Golden Ears from me for the past three years (and an Overall Product of the Year Award from TAS in 2019), but since they remain the most realistic-sounding loudspeakers I’ve ever heard, I’m awarding them another GE in 2022. Comprising two Radialstrahler columns and two outboard, powered subwoofer stacks, the 101 X-tremes are giants. Expensive giants.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/the-ten-most-significant-amplifiers-of-all-time/
Tomi Engdahl says:
“I am convinced this will be a total game-changer”: Jean-Michel Jarre comes out punching for spatial audio
By Matt Mullen( Computer Music, Future Music, emusician ) published 3 days ago
Though he endorses immersive audio, Jarre claims Dolby Atmos was “created for movies and not for music” – and stereo is going the way of the gramophone
https://www.musicradar.com/news/jean-michel-jarre-spatial-audio
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/the-chemistry-of-why-baking-degraded-reel-to-reel-tapes-can-reverse-damage/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_brand=ars&utm_social-type=owned
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yay, a Harmony universal remote control replacement is coming.
Flirc’s Skip 1s – Hopeful Harmony replacement #shorts
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/wnA15nBKyCA?feature=share
Tomi Engdahl says:
Videosignaalia häiriöttömästi jopa 30 metrin päähän
https://etn.fi/index.php/new-products/14215-videosignaalia-haeirioettoemaesti-jopa-30-metrin-paeaehaen
Digituksen aktiiviset HDMI- ja DisplayPort-standardeja tukevat valokuitukaapelit ovat parhaita ratkaisuja varmistamaan kompressoimattoman kuvan ja äänen lähettämisen pidemmille etäisyyksille suurella kapasiteetilla. Valokuitu- ja kuparikaapeleita yhdistävän hybridirakenteen ansiosta kaikki haitalliset sähkömagneettiset häiriöt voidaan sulkea pois, mikä takaa siirron jopa UHD- eli 8K60-resoluutiolla ja jopa 48 gigabitin kaistalla.
Digituksen kaapelit ovat pituutensa (alle 30m) ja häiriöttömän signaalisiirron vuoksi täydellinen ratkaisu konferenssi- ja liikesaleille ja jopa elokuvateattereille ja teattereille.
HDMI 2.1 on uusin HDMI-standardi, joka tukee 1K, 4K- ja 8K-resoluutoita ja 3D-videolähetystä. Sen ominaisuuksiin kuuluu lisäksi HDR (laajemman värivalikoiman esittäminen), CEC (ohjauskomentojen lähettäminen vastaanottimiin, mikä mahdollistaa useiden laitteiden ohjaamisen yhdellä kaukosäätimellä), EDID (näytön tyyppiä koskevien tietojen lähettäminen lähettimeen, mikä automatisoi mm. kuvan oikeaa muotoilua sekä äänikanavien valintaa).
DisplayPort 1.4 on yksi uudemmista audio-video-tietojen lähettämistä koskevista standardeista (määritelty vuonna 2016). Se on yhteensopiva UHD (8K) resoluution kanssa 30-bittisessä RGB-värisyvyydessä sekä HDR kirkkausalueella
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meta’s AI-powered audio codec promises 10x compression over MP3
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/11/metas-ai-powered-audio-codec-promises-10x-compression-over-mp3/
Technique could allow high-quality calls and music on low-quality connections.
Last week, Meta announced an AI-powered audio compression method called “EnCodec” that can reportedly compress audio 10 times smaller than the MP3 format at 64kbps with no loss in quality. Meta says this technique could dramatically improve the sound quality of speech on low-bandwidth connections, such as phone calls in areas with spotty service. The technique also works for music.
Meta debuted the technology on October 25 in a paper titled “High Fidelity Neural Audio Compression,” authored by Meta AI researchers Alexandre Défossez, Jade Copet, Gabriel Synnaeve, and Yossi Adi. Meta also summarized the research on its blog devoted to EnCodec.
https://ai.facebook.com/blog/ai-powered-audio-compression-technique/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slingbox Getting Bricked – You Have Less Than 24 Hours
https://hackaday.com/2022/11/08/slingbox-getting-bricked-you-have-less-than-24-hours/
The Slingbox devices used to let you catch up with the programming on your TV when you weren’t near it, using your Internet-connected mobile device. As cable TV became less popular, their business model faded away, and in 2020, they scheduled a service shutdown for November 9th, 2022. If you own a Slingbox, it’s getting bricked tomorrow – for those reading this in EU, that’ll be today, even. Do you have a Slingbox? You might still be able to repurpose it, let’s say, for local media streaming – but only if you waste no time.
https://zatznotfunny.com/2022-11/save-slingbox/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Disney hit 235.7M global streaming subscribers in Q4, above Netflix’s 223.1M in Q3; Disney+ had 164.2M subscribers, Hulu had 47.2M, and ESPN+ had 24.3M — Disney reported results for the final quarter of its 2022 fiscal year today, revealing a total of 164.2 million Disney+ global subscribers …
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/08/disney-reports-fourth-quarter-results-2022/
Tomi Engdahl says:
What? Huh? Why your favorite shows and films sound worse than ever
https://www.avclub.com/television-film-sound-audio-quality-subtitles-why-1849664873?utm_campaign=The+A.V.+Club&utm_content=1667921520&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=facebook
Dialogue has never been more unintelligible. Is there anything we can do, other than turn on the subtitles? In short: not really
Television today is better read than watched—and frankly, we don’t have much of a choice in the matter. Over the last decade, the rise in streaming technology has led to a boon in subtitle usage. And before we start blaming aging millennials with wax in their ears, a study conducted earlier this year revealed that 50 percent of TV viewers use subtitles, and 55 percent of those surveyed find dialogue on TV hard to hear. The demographic most likely to use them: Gen Z.
Mounting audio issues on Hollywood productions have been exacerbated in the streaming era and made worse by the endless variety of consumer audio products. Huge scores and explosive sound effects overpower dialogue, with mixers having their hands tied by streamer specs and artist demands. There is very little viewers can do to solve the problem except turn on the subtitles. And who can blame them?
“It’s awful,” Jackie Jones, Senior Vice President at the Formosa Group, an industry leader in post-production audio. “There’s been so much time and client money spent on making it sound right. It’s not great to hear.”
“Every network has different audio levels and specs,” Jones told The A.V. Club over Zoom. “Whether it’s Hulu or HBO or CBS. You have to hit those certain levels for it to be in spec. But it really is how it airs and how it airs is out of our control.”
After it leaves a place like Formosa, the mix might go through an additional mix at the streamer and another mix, so to speak, by the viewer’s device.
“Dialogue is king,”
“Everybody’s very unhappy about it,”
“We work very hard in the industry to make every piece of dialogue intelligible. If the audience doesn’t understand the dialogue, they’re not going to follow anything else.”
With all this technology at our fingertips, dialogue has never been more incoherent
As far as streamers go, editors say Netflix is the best for good sound and even published their audio specs publicly, but the service is an outlier.
Today, sound designers typically create two mixes for a film. The first is for theatrical, assuming that the film is getting a theatrical release. The other is called a “near-field mix,” which has less dynamic range (the difference between loud and quiet parts of a mix), making it more suitable for home speakers.
Vessa wrote the white paper on near-field mixes, creating the industry standard. He believes a big part of the problem is “psycho-acoustic,” meaning we simply don’t perceive sound the same way at home and at the theater
“In TV we anchor the dialogue so it is always even and clear and build everything else around that,”
With so many productions being dumped on streaming after a movie’s complete, audio engineers might not even know what format they’re mixing for.
And there is the home to deal with. Consumer electronics give users a number of proprietary options that “reduce loud sounds” or “boost dialogue.” Sometimes they simply have stupid marketing names
It’s not just the speakers that are the problem. Rooms, device placement, and white noise created by fans and air conditioners can all make dialogue harder to hear. A near-field mix is supposed to account for that, too.
The sound issues we’re experiencing today are the result of decades of devaluing the importance of clear audio in productions.
Volume is an ongoing war not just among sound editors but inside the government. In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act to lower the volume of commercials. Instead, networks simply raised the volume of the television shows and compressed the dynamic range, making dialogue harder to hear. “They’re trying to compress things so much that they can keep getting louder,”
“If you’re using a soundbar,” Bondelevitch said, “Get the best soundbar you can afford. And if you’re listening on your earbuds or headphones, get good headphones. If it’s a noisy environment, get over-the-ear headphones. They do really isolate sound much better and do not use noise canceling headphones because those really screw up the audio quality.”
If you want good sound, there’s a place that has “sound you can feel.”
“It’s a bummer because you want the theater experience,” said Vanchure.
“People aren’t going out to theaters as much nowadays because everything’s just streaming. And that’s how you want people to hear these things. You’re doing this work so you can hear this loud and big.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jem Aswad / Variety:
YouTube says Music and Premium have 80M+ paying subscribers combined, up from 50M in September 2021, and payments to creators and others since 2019 passed $50B
YouTube Music and Premium Soar to 80 Million-Plus Paid Subscribers (EXCLUSIVE)
Platform adds a whopping 30 million paying subscribers in just over a year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Four Tet requests cracked plugin on Twitter and slams iLok licensing system: “I can’t work like that”
https://www.musicradar.com/news/four-tet-cracked-plugin?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=emusician
Though the producer paid for Strymon’s BigSky plugin, he’s frustrated by the inability to use it without an internet connection or dongle
Kieran Hebden, AKA producer/DJ Four Tet, has taken to Twitter to source a cracked version of Skymon’s new BigSky reverb plugin, after claiming that the iLok license management system has made his paid version unusable.
Announced earlier this month, BigSky is Strymon’s first plugin, and recreates the sound of their BigSky reverb pedal in software.
“I bought it but you need to be online to use it and I can’t work like that,” Hebden continued. Here, he’s referring to the plugin’s iLok licensing system, which requires users to be connected to the internet every time the plugin is opened, in order to verify their license. Hebden’s followers were quick to point out that it’s possible to activate an iLok license using a physical USB dongle, but the producer dismissed the solution, stating that he’s “not really a dongle person.” (Who is, really?)
iLok is a license management system used by an extensive range of software manufacturers, including Eventide, Softube, Slate Digital and Zynaptiq. The system is intended to make license management more convenient, as it allows one iLok device to activate a number of different licenses at once, and avoids the process of typing in lengthy serial numbers when licenses are activated. However, when using iLok-enabled software, users must validate their licenses through an internet connection or through an iLok-enabled USB key(opens in new tab).
Tomi Engdahl says:
How artificial intelligence could turn thoughts into actions
An AI that is capable of translating brain signals into speech and actions could one day transform the lives of people with disabilities.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-022-00129-7?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=MPSR_NINDX_ENGM_GL_CEAP_KRUNV_CF-AI22&fbclid=IwAR24Tlo6huzc1KiMjSEk8G10o0q8Hl8vpEfy_0s54cB0tHCksb7vF5aHk3I
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meta’s AI-powered audio codec promises 10x compression over MP3
Technique could allow high-quality calls and music on low-quality connections.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/11/metas-ai-powered-audio-codec-promises-10x-compression-over-mp3/
Last week, Meta announced an AI-powered audio compression method called “EnCodec” that can reportedly compress audio 10 times smaller than the MP3 format at 64kbps with no loss in quality. Meta says this technique could dramatically improve the sound quality of speech on low-bandwidth connections, such as phone calls in areas with spotty service. The technique also works for music.
Meta debuted the technology on October 25 in a paper titled “High Fidelity Neural Audio Compression,” authored by Meta AI researchers Alexandre Défossez, Jade Copet, Gabriel Synnaeve, and Yossi Adi. Meta also summarized the research on its blog devoted to EnCodec.
https://ai.facebook.com/blog/ai-powered-audio-compression-technique/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 4 Best Open Source DAWs To Record & Create Music With
https://www.whippedcreamsounds.com/best-open-source-daws/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/10/redditor-acquires-decommissioned-netflix-cache-server-with-262tb-of-storage/
Tomi Engdahl says:
You’re Going To Have To Pay To Use Some Fancy Colors In Photoshop Now
Due to a change in how Adobe licenses Pantone colors, old PSD files could start being filled in black
https://kotaku.com/photoshop-pantone-color-plugin-adobe-creative-cloud-1849714742
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/video-analyzer-generator-tests-displayport-2-1-devices/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Farewell to the Paper Cone
https://www.stereophile.com/content/farewell-paper-cone
Ever since the first electrical loudspeaker—a glorified headphone with a horn on it—was outmoded by the balanced-armature cone speaker, paper has been the standard diaphragm material for speakers reproducing low frequencies. The Rice-Kellogg moving-coil transducer replaced the balanced-armature driving system in 1925, but the paper cone remained. And although many improvements have since been made, were no more major changes in loudspeaker design for over 30 years!
Paper was cheap and readily available, and when properly baffled in a large horn or bass-reflex enclosure, to minimize its excursions (by maintaining efficient coupling to the air) and damp out its bass resonance, the paper cone seemed to be the ideal woofer diaphragm. But this was only because it had never been compared with anything better.
When Britain’s Peter Walker demonstrated the first full-range electrostatic speaker system in 1955, the paper-cone systems sounded so muddy by comparison that dynamic-speaker designers scurried back to their labs to try to build dynamics that sounded like electrostatics.
They might have had some success, too, had not stereo created a demand for compactness in speakers. The small enclosure aggravated every problem that had existed in large enclosures, so instead of being able to improve the dynamic-speaker sound of the big systems, designers were hard put to equal it from a small box.
The effectiveness of the moving-coil loudspeaker depends on its diaphragm’s ability to follow the motions of its voice-coil. The ideal diaphragm behaves like a piston, whose surface moves as a unified plane in accordance with the voice-coil’s movements. Any cone motions that do not coincide with voice-coil motions represent distortion, and this is paper’s major weakness.
A paper cone is inherently flexible, so the only part of it that follows precisely the motions of the voice-coil is that immediately surrounding the voice-coil. Beyond this small area, flexure of the cone absorbs increasing amounts of vibrations until, at the rim, much of the original vibratory motion has been lost.
Stroboscopic studies of cones in motion have shown that this breakup occurs at various frequencies throughout the speaker’s entire range, and becomes worse as vibration amplitudes increase. It is particularly severe at low frequencies, where the cone must travel appreciable distances.
In attempting to ameliorate the cone breakup problem, designers tried stiffer cones, made of heavier paper, but these reduced the system’s efficiency as well as the woofer’s upper frequency response. The choice then was between ignoring the resulting midrange hole, or trying to design a crossover system to work in the region where their design problems are greatest (the 400–2000Hz range).
Polymerized paper, light in weight but stiffened with a plastic impregnation, was a step in the right direction, but it tended to ring at certain frequencies, coloring the sound.
Impregnated linen cones with corrugations or spiral compliance rings, cambric cones with “dimples” on them, and thin metal-foil cones all showed some promise, particularly the metal-foil design, but the best of them were prohibitively expensive.
By late 1961, Electro-Voice was ready to announce a 30″ woofer incorporating a radically new cone material: polystyrene foam. Almost simultaneously, Jensen unveiled their “Polytec” speakers, also with expanded (foam) polystyrene cones.
All polystyrene speakers do not sound alike, but they do share a certain clarity and freedom from the turgid, mushy coloration of the small-box wide-range paper-cone systems. Indeed, they sound much more like electrostatics than do conventional dynamics, and have a quality of crispness that we used to associate only with the large horn or reflex-loaded systems.
Are polystyrenes here? Definitely. However, as is true of electrostatics, the good ones are expensive.
we can safely predict that all high-quality loudspeakers will eventually abandon the venerable, obsolete paper cone.—Irving Fried
Tomi Engdahl says:
Televisiot siirtyvät uuteen HDMI-aikaan
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14245-televisiot-siirtyvaet-uuteen-hdmi-aikaan
HDMI-väylä on ehtinyt versioon 2.1, mutta toistaiseksi sitä on saatu integroitua näyttöihin aika vähän. Tämä muuttuu jo nyt syksyn aikana, mutta erityisesti ensi vuonna. Kehitystä vauhdittaa osaltaan MediaTekin uusi televisiopiiri Pentonic 1000.
HDMI 2.1 paransi linkin nopeutta, sillä kellosignaali siirtyy datasignaalin sisällä. Näin kaikki neljä linjaa siirtävät dataa. Maksiminopeus on 42 gigabittiä sekunnissa ja todellinen datanopeus 42,6 gigabittiä sekunnissa. Se riittää päivittämään 4K-ruutua 144 kertaa sekunnissa.
Lisääntyneen kaistanleveyden lisäksi HDMI 2.1 tuo muitakin uudistuksia. Esimerkiksi signaalissa voidaan siirtyä eri resoluutioiden välillä lennossa, ilman viiveitä. VRR-tuki (variable refresh rate) tekee kuvasta sujuvamman erityisesti pelikäytössä.
MediaTekin siruilla on ollut aiemminkin tuki HDMI 2.1:lle. Niillä on kuitenkin tuettu vain kahta porttia, mikä on käytännössä jättänyt vain yhden huippunopean väylän esimerkiksi pelikonsolille. Toinen HDMI 2.1 -portti on varattu eARC-datalle eli esimerkiksi soundbar-kaiuttimen käyttöön.
Pentonic 1000 -piirisarjalla jokainen neljästä postista tukee HDMI 2.1 -tekniikkaa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Neural Acoustic Fields Let You Map How the World Sounds — and Simulate Listening From Anywhere
Based on techniques used in visual processing, NAFs can simulate how sound is perceived from any location — or build maps of areas.
https://www.hackster.io/news/neural-acoustic-fields-let-you-map-how-the-world-sounds-and-simulate-listening-from-anywhere-f26f429218a7
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Image Sensor Aims to Secure Security Cameras
https://spectrum.ieee.org/digital-watermarking
OmniVision’s new imaging sensor is the first to embed an invisible watermark on its images, but it may not be enough to prevent spoofing
digital imaging outfit OmniVision announced the release of a new sensor chip, the first to imprint a secret watermark onto its images. The sensor, which features high resolution and wide field of view, is designed for use in security cameras. Just like watermarks on currency, a digital watermark is meant to certify the authenticity of an image or a video. However, it remains to be seen whether the new chip will be enough to reliably certify the authenticity of digital media in an era of misinformation and deepfakes.
Unlike previous digital watermarking attempts from the early 2000s, which put a visible time stamp or other metadata on a banner at the corner of the image, OmniVision’s watermark does not alter the image or video in any human-perceptible way. Instead, a secret message is embedded in randomly selected bits of the raw camera data. The bits are selected anew for each image or video frame, and the responsible circuitry is embedded on-chip. The watermark remains hidden, but preserved, even after compression to jpeg, mp4, or other formats.
To verify the watermark, either OmniVision, a camera manufacturer, or the owner of the camera would have to run a proprietary extraction algorithm. The algorithm extracts the embedded 32 bytes of secret information, which could contain the date and time, user or manufacturer information, or any other message. Ideally, this could be used to certify the authenticity of the media and even make it admissible as evidence in a court of law. We reached out to OmniVision’s largest competitors, Sony and Samsung, for comment and did not receive a reply.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-turntables/?mbid=social_facebook&utm_brand=wired&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
VideoLAN confirms India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT has removed its ban on downloading the VLC media player, in effect for over nine months
India lifts download ban on VLC
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/14/india-lifts-download-ban-on-vlc/
India has lifted the download ban on VLC, more than nine months after it mysteriously blocked the official website of the popular media playback software in the South Asian market. VideoLAN, the popular software’s developer, filed a legal notice last month seeking an explanation from the nation’s IT and Telecom ministries for the block order.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT has removed its ban on the website of VLC media player, New Delhi-based advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation, which provided legal support to VideoLAN, said on Monday. VideoLAN confirmed the order.
“This ban was put into place without any prior notice and without giving VideoLAN the opportunity of a hearing, which went against the 2009 Blocking Rules and the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India. This was strange because VLC Media Player is an open-source software which is used by nearly 80 million Indians,” IFF said in a statement.
The vast majority of people rely on VLC’s official website to download the popular application.
“Most major ISPs [internet service providers] are banning the site, with diverse techniques,” Kempf said of the blocking in India. In light of the blocking, the site immediately observed a drop of 80% in traffic from the South Asian market, he told TechCrunch.
Security firm Symantec reported in April this year that the hacker group Cicada, which has ties with the Chinese government, was exploiting VLC Media Player as well as several other popular applications to gain remote access to the victim’s computers. Kempf said he was never contacted by any government agency.
VLC, downloaded over 3.5 billion times worldwide, is a local media player that doesn’t require internet access or connection to any particular service online for the vast majority of its features. A block on its website didn’t considerably impact the existing install base of VLC.
But by blocking the website, India was pushing its citizens to “shady websites that are running hacked version of VLC. So they are endangering their own citizens with this ban,” Kempf warned.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digitize Your Slide Deck With This Arduino-Powered Slide Carousel
https://hackaday.com/2022/11/15/digitize-your-slide-deck-with-this-arduino-powered-slide-carousel/
[Scott] made a setup to directly connect a DLSR, in this case a Nikon D70, to a Kodak 760 slide carousel. The attachment is made through a 3D-printed adapter that fits onto the Nikon’s macro lens on one side and slides snugly into the carousel’s lens slot on the other. The adapter also holds an IR transmitter which is aimed at the camera’s receiver, in order to trigger its remote shutter release function.
Slide capture system demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3WkqTZ-UXk
Tomi Engdahl says:
Claire Woodcock / VICE:
Some public libraries in the US and Canada are using open-source software MUSICat to offer their own music streaming services and boost their local music scenes — It’s not Spotify, but some cities now host music platforms with their own local flavor. — Claire Woodcock
Libraries Are Launching Their Own Local Music Streaming Platforms
It’s not Spotify, but some cities now host music platforms with their own local flavor.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d34px/libraries-are-launching-their-own-local-music-streaming-platforms
Tomi Engdahl says:
Weird But Practical – Leper Amps!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj0v67iyTH4
No matter how you spell it or pronounce it, they can be quite useful – with some modifications and routine maintenance. Just a note that the model 2020A that you find is not the same as the 2020A+…. Enjoy!
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog 1513 – Dumpster Tossers Have No Shame!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT-18dt7A4w
A surprising dumptser diving find that might prove we live in a simulation.
A Sony GTK-X1BT bluetooth enabled party jukebox Hi-Fi speaker system.
00:00 – Dumpster Diving find, a Sony GTK-X1BT
03:44 – Does it work?
06:04 – Sound quality
07:02 – Teardown
09:58 – Power Amp
14:00 – The ethics of dumpster tossing
17:46 – Could this be turned into a Jukebox?
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-1513-dumpster-tossers-have-no-shame/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg Is No Longer YouTube’s Most Popular Creator
The king is dead, long live the king.
https://www.iflscience.com/felix-arvid-ulf-kjellberg-is-no-longer-youtube-s-most-popular-creator-66248
Swedish YouTuber Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, better known to his fans as PewDiePie, is no longer the video platform’s most-popular creator.
PewDiePie, largely famous for his videos where he plays through and comments on video games, became the first individual on YouTube to surpass 100 million subscribers in 2019, a year when his videos secured more than 4 billion views. Just a few short years later, PewDiePie has been usurped as the most-subscribed individual YouTuber, by Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast.
MrBeast is a YouTube personality famous for expensive stunts
On Wednesday, Mr Beast reached 112 million subscribers, surpassing PewDiePie’s respectable 111 million. The YouTuber is not the site’s most popular channel, however, but the top individual creator. The title of most popular channel overall goes to T-Series, an Indian music label. Second is Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes, and third is Sony Entertainment India.
Mr Beast and PewDiePie come in at fourth and fifth as most popular YouTube channels overall.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tuning Standards Explained: Differences between 432 Hz vs 440 Hz
https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/tuning-standards-explained.html
The main difference between 440 Hz and 432 Hz tuning is that 440 Hz is the standard pitch preference for tuning musical instruments that has been accepted as the industry standard. 432 Hz, a slightly flatter pitch compared to 440 Hz, is an alternative pitch that many have argued should be the industry standard as contains universal and spiritual healing properties compared to 440 Hz
Here, we’ll dive deep into the history of how 440 Hz was chosen as the standard for tuning in the modern music world, and the increasing prominence of 432 Hz.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardour
Tomi Engdahl says:
Neil Young says that “nothing is real” when you take the “dark step” into digital music production, as Rick Rubin praises its convenience
https://www.musicradar.com/news/rick-rubin-neil-young-analogue-vs-digital-recording
Tomi Engdahl says:
At A Loss For Words? Try A Teleprompter
https://hackaday.com/2022/11/19/at-a-loss-for-words-try-a-teleprompter/
With everyone doing videos these days, you might want to up your narration game with a teleprompter. [Modern Hobbyist] can help. Since he does videos — like the one about the teleprompter below — we assume he built it out of his own need for the device. Actually, this is his second teleprompter. The first one was larger and not battery-powered, so this new version offers more portability. The camera shoots through the teleprompter screen so you can look right at the camera and still stay on script.
https://www.modhobbyist.com/projects/24
Tomi Engdahl says:
LG Display announces vibrating panel that turns parts of a car interior into speakers
Coming next year
https://www.techspot.com/news/96718-lg-display-announces-vibrating-panel-turns-parts-car.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/earbud-implementation-options-taking-a-test-driver/
Tomi Engdahl says:
History: biggest sybwoofer
https://audio-database.com/MITSUBISHI-DIATONE/diatonesp/d-160-e.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/vhy1jc/this_is_the_mitsubishi_dialtone_d160_the_largest/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Field Coil Loudspeakers
https://www.phantom-audio.com/field-coil-speakers-field-coil-drivers/
https://www.treehausaudiolab.com/speakers
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://basrihayran.com/blog/f/en-speakers-pt-1—drivers-and-cabinets?blogcategory=EN+%2F%2F+Sound+Sundays
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uuden luominen vaatii rohkeutta haastaa tavanomainen
https://www.prointerior.fi/natiivi/3628/uuden-luominen-vaatii-rohkeutta-haastaa-tavanomainen
Muotoilija Harri Koskisen ja Genelecin yhteistyö sai alkunsa vuonna 1999, kun Koskinen tapasi Genelecin perustajan Ilpo Martikaisen. Ilpo oli huomannut, että ensiluokkaisesta laadusta huolimatta kaiuttimien ongelmana oli tunnistettavuus.
”Ilpo haastoi minua ajattelemaan, mitä kaikkea muotoilun keinoin voidaan saavuttaa Genelecin kaiuttimien kohdalla”, kertoo Koskinen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I’ve Got Two Turntables And A Laser Engraver
https://hackaday.com/2022/11/27/ive-got-two-turntables-and-a-laser-engraver/
Digital media provides us with a lot of advantages. For something like recording and playing back music, digital copies don’t degrade, they can have arbitrarily high quality, and they can be played in a number of different ways including through digital streaming services. That being said, a number of people don’t feel like the digital experience is as faithful to the original sound as it could be and opt for analog methods instead. Creating analog copies of music is a much tougher matter though, as [Marco] demonstrates by using a laser engraver to produce vinyl records.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nazpxrtvpoM
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kate Beioley / Financial Times:
The UK’s CMA finds intervention in the music streaming services market will not increase artist earnings as their problems are “unrelated to competition issues”
https://www.ft.com/content/299d9936-3b66-401b-99c4-2294699301cb
Tomi Engdahl says:
I Should’ve Done This Ages Ago! – Upgrading to an In-Wall Optical HDMI Cable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5xRPxBbjUk
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/11/30/making-3d-print-time-lapses-with-old-earphones-and-a-few-spare-parts/
To create the DIY remote shutter button, [NirL] used a spare limit switch, resistor, and cannibalized an old set of earbuds for the cable and 4-conductor 3.5 mm audio plug. Most phones and camera apps trigger the shutter when they receive a Vol+ signal through the audio plug, which is done by connecting MIC and GND through a 240 Ohm resistor.
https://www.codrey.com/learn/selfie-stick-little-secrets/
When the user presses the selfie stick button to take a picture, the smartphone recognizes the change in resistance between Ring 2 and the Sleeve of the 4-pole audio jack plug
Not sure but roughly 240Ω +/- 1% button resistance is called for imitating the volume up function. Note that the microphone segment of the headphone jack triggers a picture once the circuit is closed by short-circuiting the GND (G) and MIC (M) wires, provided the button resistor is in the correct resistance range (210-290Ω).
More details https://source.android.com/devices/accessories/headset/plug-headset-spec
Obviously, this trick works only for Android since Apple devices demand custom circuitry to enable such functionalities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The TRUTH about building a Digital IMAX camera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_YG4tZqJEk
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14324-musiikin-jako-langattomasti-massoille-onnistuu-pienellae-virralla
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/11/30/nerf-neural-radiance-fields/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why would anyone spend 50 hours buried alive just to make a YouTube video? Jimmy Donaldson—a.k.a. “MrBeast”—had 54 million reasons last year. The world’s top-earning creator is already worth $500 million—and thinks he can double that. https://trib.al/tBRT3LR #ForbesUnder30
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew Liszewski / Gizmodo:
Disney unveils FRAN, an AI tool that helps TV or film producers make an actor look older or younger without the need for complex and expensive visual effects
Disney Made a Movie Quality AI Tool That Automatically Makes Actors Look Younger (or Older)
With just a few clicks, actors can look younger or older without the need for expensive visual effects.
https://gizmodo.com/disney-ai-art-vfx-visual-effects-de-age-younger-older-1849835548
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.brixit.nl/taking-a-good-picture-from-a-pcb/