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.
895 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stephen Wilhite: Creator of the GIF dies from Covid-19 at age 74
https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Ftech%2Fstephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies-b2042692.html&h=AT2RdPyNEa1C-mB8eQ07XrWq9tDw-hOUHwOAsZuq7RePpZDXWzxEOUvVXH2Tp4pr_nygG7PTiK-UcXQYO8cJ5pZKxZ0E65fXfXa72m_j0erwyXm0J8De7v9G9LBOHnWDOs5c5tcnze0JP_P_lg
Programmer once clarified that ‘jif’ was the correct pronunciation of his famous file format
Stephen Wilhite came up with Graphics Interchange Format, which are now used for animated internet memes and jokes, when he worked for CompuServe in the 1980s.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daily Crunch: YouTube will let US users stream full seasons of nearly 4,000 TV shows (with ads)
https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/23/daily-crunch-youtube-will-let-us-users-stream-full-seasons-of-nearly-4000-tv-shows-with-ads/?tpcc=tcplusfacebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unity tech demo shows off a lifelike digital human rendered in real-time
Take a look at the future of real-time 3D graphics
https://www.techspot.com/news/93863-unity-newly-launched-tech-demo-shows-off-lifelike.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://audioxpress.com/article/vc-spotlight-arta-audio-measurement-and-analysis-software
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Do You Hate The Sound Of Your Own Voice When It’s Recorded?
https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/why-do-you-hate-the-sound-of-your-own-voice-when-its-recorded/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mikä ihmeen HDMI 2.1a?
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13350-mikae-ihmeen-hdmi-2-1a
HDMI on suosituin väylä siirtää video- ja audiosignaalia näyttölaitteelle. HDMI 2.1-standardi julkistettiin jo marraskuussa 2017. Kuukausi sitten HDMI-järjestö esitteli uuden HDMI 2.1a -standardin. Sen yksi keskeinen lisäys on tuki SBTM-tekniikalla (Source Based Tone Mapping). Tuen avulla osa HDR-mappauksesta voidaan tehdä toistavassa laitteessa sen sijaan, että se tehtäisiin näyttölaitteessa.
Mitä HDMI 2.1 sitten tarkoittaa? Perusominaisuus on 48 gigabitin kaistanleveys, jonka avulla näyttöön voidaan siirtää 60 kertaa sekunnissa päivittyvää 8K-videota tai 120 kertaa sekunnissa päivittyvää 4K-kuvaa. Eli HDMI 2.1 -televisiolla voidaan pelata teräväpiirtokonsolipeliä, noin karkeasti ajateltuna.
Käytännössä 2.1a-lisäys auttaa esimerkiksi tilanteissa, joissa ruudulla sekoitetaan HD- ja SD-videosignaalia. Tällainen voi olla esimerkiksi kuva-kuvassa -toiminto. 2.1a helpottaa myös PC-pelaajia, koska näytettävä sisältö voidaan optimoida grafiikkakortilla ilman manuaalisia muutoksia tietokoneen asetuksiin.
HDMI-versiot ovat – oikeutetustikin – aiheuttaneet hämmennystä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Coda wins three Oscars, including Best Picture, giving Apple its first Oscars and making Apple TV+ the first streamer to win the awards’ highest honor — Apple made history by nabbing Hollywood’s most coveted honor, as “CODA” won the Oscar for best picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards.
Apple Is First Streamer to Win Best Picture Oscar for ‘CODA’
Tech company wins its first-ever Academy Awards: three trophies for Siân Heder’s film
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/apple-best-picture-oscar-coda-1235213717/
Apple made history by nabbing Hollywood’s most coveted honor, as “CODA” won the Oscar for best picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards.
Apple Original Films’ “CODA,” which has a predominantly Deaf cast, marks the first time a streaming service has won the best picture Oscar — with Apple TV Plus beating rival Netflix to the punch. “CODA” took the top prize over Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog” from director Jane Campion, which was the other leading contender in the category.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is The IPhone Camera Too Smart? Or Not Smart Enough?
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/28/is-the-iphone-camera-too-smart-or-not-smart-enough/
Newer iPhone Pro cameras are attempting to do HDR, and much more, with each shot, whether the user wants it or not. It’s called computational photography — image capture and processing that uses digital computation rather than optical processes. When the user presses the shutter button, the camera creates up to nine frames, on different lenses, each with a different exposure level. Then the “Deep Fusion” feature takes the cleanest parts of each shot and stitches them together into a tapestry of lies an image with extreme high dynamic range. Specifically, the iPhone 13 Pro’s camera has three lenses and uses machine learning to automatically adjust lighting and focus. Sometimes it switches between them, sometimes it uses data from all of them. It’s arguably more software than hardware. And so what is a camera, exactly? At this point, it’s a package deal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Loud Can Sound Physically Get?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tONF9OSUOSw
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huoneakustiikkaa voidaan mitata nyt paremmin
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/03/29/huoneakustiikkaa-voidaan-mitata-nyt-paremmin/
Aalto-yliopiston tutkijat ovat keksineet uuden tavan parantaa sinipyyhkäisymenetelmää, jolla voidaan mitata huoneiden akustiikkaa. Parannettu menetelmä tehostaa mittauksia, joita tarvitaan edelleen esimerkiksi elokuvateatterien, metroasemien ja konserttisalien suunnittelussa. Mukana on uuden Arni-menetelmän esittelyvideo.
Robust selection of clean swept-sine measurements in non-stationary noise
https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/10.0009915
Acoustics Arni-room – Endless amount of echo options with rotating panels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tUzm6OGuxo
Acoustics researchers of Aalto University have discovered a way to improve the most common measurement method, the sine sweep technique, which has been in use for 20 years since it replaced all previous methods. The thousands of combinations needed for the development of this method were measured at the Arni room in Otaniemi.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A New Wrinkle On Wooden Ribbon Microphones
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/30/a-new-wrinkle-on-wooden-ribbon-microphones/
Not too many people build their own microphones, and those who do usually build them out of materials like plastic and metal. [Frank Olson] not only loves to make microphones, but he’s also got a thing about making them from wood, with some pretty stunning results.
DIY Ribbon mic How to Make a microphone RCA Inspired
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOuL5glv8pA
This is how to make a Ribbon microphone. If you’ve ever wondered how to make your own DIY mic, this is how. It’s inspired by the RCA Bk-5B.
I’m back with a new Ribbon design, which is my own design, based loosely(visually) on the RCA BK-5. There are many differences between the two, the biggest perhaps being that mine has a figure-of-8 pickup pattern(picks up equally from both sides of the ribbon element), where the BK-5 has a hyper-cardioid pattern(focused bubbled directly in front of the mic). They also share ribbons of a similar length, though mine is a bit wider, I believe.
In similar fashion to my last microphone, this one is made from single ply walnut veneer cut on a Cricut cnc plotter. After weeding(not shown), the parts are tacked together with CA, and then the magnets are glued in. Gluing the magnets is a one shot deal- if you don’t get them in just right on the first attempt, you’ll be tearing apart your hard work to reclaim the magnets…ask how I know!
Next, the chassis is basically soaked in CA to allow it to penetrate to the center of the chassis. Some sanding helps the chassis it’s final shape, then a coat of CA seals it once more.
The ribbon mounting plates are pretty important to the design. They must be highly conductive and stiff enough to withstand the pressure of the top plate squeezing down tightly. They also take a lot of abuse from soldering and de-soldering.
Mounting the ribbon is finicky business, even on such a short model. I showed it in (mostly) real time, speeding up the video only to tighten screws as needed. Unlike RCA 44 clone I made, I decided not to use a signal generator to tighten the ribbon and set a cutoff frequency. Critics be damned, I wanted to show an easier method for ribbon tightening- basically eyeballing the tension, and listening back. If the ribbon looks floppy or crinkly, then it’s too loose. If it looks tightly stretched, then it probably is too tight- which leads to a metallic resonance on playback as you would expect from a piece of aluminum. Listening to the finished motor through headphones, does it sound floppy, or crinkly? Then it’s likely too loose. With practice, you get a good intuition about what’s visually out of whack, or pretty close to spec.
After wiring it up, I put a small framed cotton gauze(a throwback to the old RCA 44) which helps tame bass and “plosives.” The RCA inspired grill also serves a purpose, as it has an acoustic cloth with properties similar to the gauze(a second guard against plosives).
A big Thanks goes out to Tamas at Savaria Studios, in Brookyn, NY where we recorded a stereo pair of these mics in a Blumlein arrangement. Tamas, the studio owner performed the drum beats. Halfway through through the sample, I thought it would be interesting for viewers to hear what the addition of the Wood 44 clone sounded like in front of the kick drum. Notice the difference in low end!
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/03/29/huoneakustiikkaa-voidaan-mitata-nyt-paremmin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Terahertsikamera näkee sumun läpi
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13389-terahertsikamera-naekee-sumun-laepi
Texasin yliopiston ja Oklahoma State Universityn tutkijat ovat kehittäneet innovatiivisen terahertsialueella toimivan kameranpiirin, jonka avulla laitteet voivat havaita esineitä ja luoda kuvia esteiden, kuten sumun, savun, pölyn ja lumen, läpi. Tekniikalla on paljon hyödyllistä käyttöä esimerkiksi 5-tason robottoautoissa.
Tällä hetkellä tutkimusryhmä työstää laitetta teollisiin sovelluksiin, joiden kantama olisi 20 metriä. Tekniikka voitaisiin myös mukauttaa käytettäväksi autoissa auttamaan kuljettajia tai autonomisia ajoneuvojärjestelmiä navigoimaan vaarallisissa olosuhteissa, jotka heikentävät näkyvyyttä. Esimerkiksi autojen näytöllä tekniikka voi näyttää pikselöityjä ääriviivoja ja muotoja esineistä, kuten toisen ajoneuvon tai jalankulkijoiden.
Terahertsikamera voisi jopa auttaa näkövammaisia erilaisissa ympäristöissä. Teollisissa ympäristöissä esimerkiksi mikrosirua käyttävät laitteet voisivat auttaa pakkaustarkastuksissa valmistusprosessin hallinnassa, kosteuspitoisuuden seurannassa tai höyryn läpinäkemisessä. Palomies voi sen avulla nähdä savun ja tulen läpi, sanoi sähkö- ja tietokonetekniikan professori Kenneth K. O.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Valotutka tuo 3D-syvyyskameran älypuhelimeen
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13399-valotutka-tuo-3d-syvyyskameran-aelypuhelimeen
Yksinkertaisen ratkaisun avulla Stanfordin yliopiston tutkijat ovat kehittineet korkeataajuisen, vähän tehoa käyttävän, kompaktin optisen laitteen, jonka avulla käytännössä mikä tahansa digitaalikamera voi havaita syvyyden. Tekniikka tuo siis 3D-kuvaamisen esimerkiksi älypuhelimeen.
Tavalliset kuva-anturit, joita käytetään älypuhelimissa, tallentavat valon voimakkuutta ja värejä. Nämä kamerat ovat kutistuneet ja tulleet tehokkaammiksi vuosi vuodelta ja tarjoavat nyt kymmenien, jopa yli sadan megapikseleiden tarkkuuden, ja ne perustuvat CMOS-kennoteknologiaan. Mutta he ovat silti nähneet vain kahdessa ulottuvuudessa ja ottaneet kuvia, jotka ovat litteitä.
Yksi tapa lisätä 3D-kuvausta tavallisiin antureihin saavutetaan lisäämällä valonlähde ja modulaattori, joka sytyttää ja sammuttaa valon erittäin nopeasti, miljoonia kertoja sekunnissa. Valon vaihteluita mitatessaan insinöörit voivat laskea etäisyyden. Myös nykyiset modulaattorit voivat tehdä sen, mutta ne vaativat niin paljon tehoa, että ovat epäkäytännöllisiä esimerkiksi puhelimiin.
Ratkaisu, jonka Stanfordin LINQs-laboratorio (Laboratory for Integrated Nano-Quantum Systems) ja ArbabianLab keksivät, perustuu ilmiöön, joka tunnetaan nimellä akustinen resonanssi. Tiimi rakensi yksinkertaisen akustisen modulaattorin käyttämällä ohutta litium-niobaattikiekkoa. Litium-niobaatti on läpinäkyvä kide, jonka sähköiset, akustiset ja optiset ominaisuudet sopivat tähän erinomaisesti.
Teknisesti pietsosähköinen efekti luo akustisen aallon kiteen läpi, joka pyörittää valon polarisaatiota halutulla, viritettävällä ja käyttökelpoisella tavalla.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Did Dolby Digital Sound Work On Film?
https://hackaday.com/2022/04/05/how-did-dolby-digital-sound-work-on-film/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickup_(music_technology)
A typical magnetic pickup is a transducer (specifically a variable reluctance sensor) that consists of one or more permanent magnets (usually alnico or ferrite) wrapped with a coil of several thousand turns of fine enameled copper wire. The magnet creates a magnetic field which is focused by the pickup’s pole piece or pieces.[1] The permanent magnet in the pickup magnetizes the guitar string above it. This causes the string to generate a magnetic field which is in alignment with that of the permanent magnet. When the string is plucked, the magnetic field around it moves up and down with the string. This moving magnetic field induces a current in the coil of the pickup as described by Faraday’s law of induction.[2] Typical output might be 100–300 millivolts.
The pickup is connected with a patch cable to an amplifier, which amplifies the signal to a sufficient magnitude of power to drive a loudspeaker (which might require tens of volts). A pickup can also be connected to recording equipment via a patch cable.
The pickup is most often mounted on the body of the instrument, but can be attached to the bridge, neck or pickguard.
Pickups have magnetic polepieces (one or two for each string, with the notable exceptions of rail and lipstick tube pickups), approximately centered on each string.
Some high-output pickups employ very strong magnets, thus creating more flux and thereby more output. This can be detrimental to the final sound because the magnet’s pull on the strings (called string capture[3]) can cause problems with intonation as well as damp the strings and reduce sustain.
Other high-output pickups have more turns of wire to increase the voltage generated by the string’s movement. However, this also increases the pickup’s output resistance/impedance, which can affect high frequencies if the pickup is not isolated by a buffer amplifier or a DI unit.
The turns of wire in proximity to each other have an equivalent self-capacitance that, when added to any cable capacitance present, resonates with the inductance of the winding. This resonance can accentuate certain frequencies, giving the pickup a characteristic tonal quality. The more turns of wire in the winding, the higher the output voltage but the lower this resonance frequency.
The arrangement of parasitic resistances and capacitances in the guitar, cable, and amplifier input, combined with the inductive source impedance inherent in this type of transducer forms a resistively-damped second-order low-pass filter, producing a non-linearity effect not found in piezoelectric or optical transducers. Pickups are usually designed to feed a high input impedance, typically a megohm or more, and a low-impedance load increases attenuation of higher frequencies. Typical maximum frequency of a single-coil pickup is around 5 kHz, with the highest note on a typical guitar fretboard having a fundamental frequency of 1.17 kHz.
Single-coil pickups act like a directional antenna and are prone to pick up mains hum—nuisance alternating current electromagnetic interference from electrical power cables, power transformers, fluorescent light ballasts, video monitors or televisions—along with the musical signal. Mains hum consists of a fundamental signal at a nominal 50 or 60 Hz, depending on local current frequency, and usually some harmonic content.
To overcome this, the humbucking pickup was invented by Joseph Raymond “Ray” Butts (for Gretsch), while Seth Lover also worked on one for Gibson.[4] Who developed it first is a matter of some debate, but Butts was awarded the first patent (U.S. Patent 2,892,371) and Lover came next (U.S. Patent 2,896,491).
A humbucking pickup is composed of two coils, with each coil wound reverse to the other. Each set of six magnetic poles is also opposite in polarity. Since ambient hum from electrical devices reaches the coils as common-mode noise, it induces an equal voltage in each coil, but 180 degrees out of phase between the two voltages. These effectively cancel each other, while the signal from the guitar string is doubled.
When wired in series, as is most common, the overall inductance of the pickup is increased, which lowers its resonance frequency and attenuates the higher frequencies, giving a less trebly tone (i.e., “fatter”) than either of the two component single-coil pickups would give alone.
An alternative wiring places the coils in buck parallel, which has a more neutral effect on resonant frequency. This pickup wiring is rare,[5] as guitarists have come to expect that humbucking pickups ‘have a sound’, and are not so neutral.
A side-by-side humbucking pickup senses a wider section of each string than a single-coil pickup.[6] By picking up a larger portion of the vibrating string, more lower harmonics are present in the signal produced by the pickup in relation to high harmonics, resulting in a “fatter” tone
Most electric guitars have two or three magnetic pickups. A combination of pickups is called a pickup configuration, usually notated by writing out the pickup types in order from bridge pickup through mid pickup(s) to neck pickup, using “S” for single-coil and “H” for humbucker.
Pickups can be either active or passive. Pickups, apart from optical types, are inherently passive transducers. “Passive” pickups are usually wire-wound around a magnet, and are the most common type used. They can generate electric potential without need for external power, though their output is relatively low, and the harmonic content of output depends greatly on the winding.
“Active” pickups incorporate electronic circuitry to modify the signal. Active circuits are able to filter, attenuate or boost the signal from the pickup. The main disadvantage of an active system is requirement of a battery power source to operate the preamp circuitry.
Gibson created the HD.6X Pro guitar that captures a separate signal for each individual string and sends them to an onboard analog/digital converter, then out of the guitar via Ethernet cable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Night Vision: Now In Color
https://hackaday.com/2022/04/09/night-vision-now-in-color/
We’ve all gotten used to seeing movies depict people using night vision gear where everything appears as a shade of green. In reality the infrared image is monochrome, but since the human eye is very sensitive to green, the false-color is used to help the wearer distinguish the faintest glow possible. Now researchers from the University of California, Irvine have adapted night vision with artificial intelligence to produce correctly colored images in the dark. However, there is a catch, as the method might not be as general-purpose as you’d like.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0265185
Tomi Engdahl says:
Retrotechtacular: A DIY Television For Very Early Adopters
https://hackaday.com/2022/04/10/retrotechtacular-a-diy-television-for-very-early-adopters/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This 3.5mm Cable Distorts Signals, Hides Audio-Filtering Circuit
https://hackaday.com/2022/04/10/this-3-5mm-cable-distorts-signals-hides-audio-filtering-circuit/
[Avian]’s dad got a new ham radio transceiver with a 3.5 mm jack, and his pile-of-cables got him a headphone cable from Bose headphones. He built a DB9 to 3.5 mm adapter with that one – and it failed to let data through, outputting distorted garbage of a waveform instead. With a function generator and an oscilloscope, [Avian] plotted the frequency response of the cable, which turned out to be quite far from a straight line. What was up?
Looks like Bose decided to tweak the audio characteristics of a specific pair of headphones, and an in-plug filter was, somehow, the most efficient solution. We probably shouldn’t expect to see this often, but it bears keeping in mind: next time your repurposed 3.5 mm cable doesn’t behave as expected, it would be prudent to do a capacitance test with your trusty meter or oscilloscope.
With how small MCUs have gotten, you can easily hide more than just a few capacitors! We don’t often see circuits built into cables, but when we do, it’s for malicious purposes.
Inside a 3.5 mm plug from old Bose headphones
https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/archives/2021/08/inside_a_3_5_mm_plug_from_old_bose_headphones/
First thing I did was to measure the frequency response of the cable in the audio frequency range. I connected the stimulus signal to the 3.5 mm connector and measured the gain and phase of the signal coming out of the other end of the cable. This is the resulting Bode plot:
Obviously there is something more going on in this cable than just normal copper connections. At these frequencies I would expect to see practically flat, 0 dB gain and next to no phase shift across the cable. Instead, there seem to be a -10 dB band stop filter with a center frequency of around 2 kHz somewhere inside.
I found it unlikely that the actual cable was doing the filtering,
Since I heard that acetone sometimes dissolves potting compounds I put the connector into a glass of acetone-base nail polish remover. I then forgot about it, so it soaked in the acetone for about 2 months. Still, this didn’t have as much effect on the plastic as I thought it would. It did make it brittle enough so that I could chip it away until I revealed a small double-sided printed circuit board with a few passive SMD components
The circuit board is marked “YODA” Ver A. Apparently someone working at Bose was a Star Wars fan.
Why did Bose go into the trouble of embedding this circuit into the connector? I’m guessing they wanted to improve the frequency response of their headphones. Maybe the speaker has a mechanical resonance at 2 kHz and the filter circuit damps that electrically? I don’t know much about hi-end audio engineering. This article mentions passive correction filters that are placed in-line with a headphone cable to equalize the speaker response. While the circuit mentioned is a bit more complicated than the one I found, the one Bode plot they show is very similar to what I measured.
In conclusion, it seems that not all connectors are merely connectors. When all other options fail it’s worth doubting the most basic assumptions, like that a cable you’re using is not actually behaving like a cable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner was a money-losing failure for AT&T but a big win for HBO, whose streaming transition has topped peers FX, Showtime, AMC Networks
The Phone Company Didn’t Destroy HBO. Will the Cable Guy?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-04-10/the-phone-company-didn-t-destroy-hbo-will-the-cable-guy
AT&T spent $85 billion on a company it didn’t need. But it worked out just fine for HBO.
AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner was a failure for the phone company, which spent $85 billion to acquire the media conglomerate and then sold it for less just four years later. But it was a big win for HBO.
HBO has weathered the transition to streaming better than other cable networks that ushered in the golden age of TV, including FX, Showtime and AMC Networks. While its peers are fighting for relevance, HBO remains a major player, one of the largest streaming services in the world in terms of subscribers and sales.
HBO has added all kinds of new programming without sacrificing quality. HBO won 19 prizes at the Emmy Awards last September, while Warner Bros. led all studios in Oscars last month.
Variety:
A look at AT&T’s disastrous merger with WarnerMedia, an attempt to compete with big tech companies that cost tens of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs — The company had finally closed its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, after a protracted fight with the Department of Justice …
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Era Ends: How Culture Clashes, Massive Debt and Donald Trump Doomed the Merger
https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/att-warnermedia-debt-donald-trump-discovery-john-stankey-jason-kilar-merger-1235226663/
In September 2018, AT&T summoned the big players from the worlds of media and advertising to a beachside resort in Santa Barbara. The company had finally closed its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, after a protracted fight with the Department of Justice, and wanted to celebrate — and to mark its place at the center of the media ecosystem.
The three-day AT&T Relevance Conference, at the lavish Ritz-Carlton Bacara, featured appearances by Derek Jeter and Issa Rae, as well as AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. The centerpiece of the event was the unveiling of Xandr — the company’s new platform that was designed to revolutionize the ad business by bringing Facebook-style personalization to TV.
In many ways, Xandr was the fulcrum of the AT&T/Time Warner merger. The idea was that AT&T could combine its scale and customer data with Time Warner’s content to supercharge the value of its TV ads.
The only problem was, there wasn’t much explanation of how Xandr was supposed to work.
“They could have put out the blueprint for the marketplace. That’s why they brought everyone (to the conference),” says Lorne Brown, CEO of the ad management firm Operative. But the blueprint wasn’t ready. “So instead they put up a bunch of pictures and did meditation.”
This week, the AT&T/Time Warner era will officially come to a close. As Discovery combines with Warner Bros., it will mark an end to one of the most disastrous mergers in media history, perhaps second only to the AOL/Time Warner union in 2000.
The Xandr story is only one piece of the broader misadventure, which one observer called “a nesting doll of ridiculousness.” The story will go down in the annals of mid-’10s hubris, when a telecom looked in the mirror and saw — not the nation’s second-largest phone provider — but a genuine rival to Facebook, Apple and Google. Its foray into media would destroy tens of billions of dollars in market capitalization, force the company to slash its dividend, and cost thousands of people their jobs. And it’s still not entirely clear why it happened.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to make a Music Video in a Game Engine | Unreal Engine Cinematic Tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMRGyk1Kjs8
Even though this tutorial uses UE4 the details will still apply to ue5 and the high level steps can still be applied to other game engines
00:00 – Intro
01:55 – Why use a Game Engine?
03:17 – Contents
03:32 – Music Video Narrative
04:33 – Know Your Limitations
06:16 – Plan
07:41 – Documentation
09:01 – 3D Modelling
10:28 – Animation
12:51 – Textures
14:19 – UE4 Marketplace
16:08 – Game Dev (UE4)
18:04 – Lighting
23:50 – Widgets
26:00 – Video Image Sequence
29:34 – Sequencer Events
31:10 – Render
32:15 – Final Touches
33:10 – Celebrate
33:30 – Outro
Tomi Engdahl says:
How An Aussie From The Housing Projects Became A Billionaire Making Gear For Next Gen Spielbergs
https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2022/04/11/how-an-aussie-from-the-housing-projects-became-a-billionaire-making-gear-for-next-gen-spielbergs/?utm_source=ForbesMainFacebook&utm_campaign=socialflowForbesMainFB&utm_medium=social&sh=63823e4c718c
Blackmagic Design’s Grant Petty turned the chip on his shoulder about Hollywood’s tech elite into a one of the most innovative manufacturers of inexpensive filmmaking equipment. Thanks to the pandemic, a contempt for outsourcing and an army of YouTubers, his business is booming.
All of 2020 and half of 2021, I was working until 2 a.m. every day because I was writing the code that runs the company,” says Grant Petty, CEO and founder of Blackmagic Design.
The 53-year-old billionaire isn’t kidding. He despises outsourcing, so he literally writes all the SQL programs that run internal processes at his 1,500-employee, $576 million (revenue) Melbourne, Australia–based company. He’s also known for starring in hourlong instructional videos for Blackmagic products like the Ursa Mini Pro 12K digital cinema camera. When the pandemic struck, Blackmagic (which manufactures all 209 of its products itself, unheard of in the hardware business unless your name is Samsung or Sony) needed to share parts among its three factories in Australia, Singapore and Indonesia. Rather than hire someone, or even delegate the task internally, Petty rewrote the workflow software connecting inventory databases.
“People see it as a weakness that I write the code myself,” he says, arguing that, to the contrary, Blackmagic averted the logjam many companies encountered trying to reconfigure their supply chains during Covid because they were dependent on outside consultants and software vendors. “I think we’ve got a huge problem with outsourcing in the Western world.”
His 21-year-old business is best known for making low-cost professional cinema cameras, electronic switchers and other specialized gear used in television and film production. It also makes free software known as DaVinci Resolve, used for color grading, special effects and to edit video and audio.
Blackmagic’s products are behind some big-budget, Oscar-nominated flicks such as Don’t Look Up and Spider-Man: No Way Home, but its primary customers are YouTubers and budget-conscious independent filmmakers. Over the past couple years, that market exploded as lockdowns caused a surge in demand for professional-quality home equipment.
“I must have recommended their systems to hundreds of drum teachers during the pandemic,” says Jim Toscano, a New York City drumming instructor who uses Blackmagic’s $1,300 ATEM Mini Extreme switcher, connected to seven video cameras trained on his drum kit, to teach students in real time. “Musicians were floundering and looking to do online teaching.”
In 2020, film school dropout Julian Terry, 31, used his Blackmagic camera to shoot Don’t Peek, a six-minute horror film set in his L.A. bedroom. Some 4.5 million YouTube views later, he has been hired to direct a $10 million feature based on his short. “The Blackmagic Pocket 4k that I shot Don’t Peek with was cheaper than my iPhone,” he says.
Other big buyers during the pandemic, according to Petty, were television networks looking to equip their work-from-home staffers.
For the year ending June 30, 2021, Blackmagic’s revenue nearly doubled from 2019, to $576 million, and its profits grew tenfold, to $113 million. Given its rapid growth and today’s heady tech valuations, debt-free Blackmagic could fetch $3 billion as a public company, making Petty and cofounder Doug Clarke, who each own 36%, billionaires on paper.
“Valuations are crazy. We haven’t done any acquisitions for a couple years because everyone’s gone nuts,”
After earning a certificate in electronics from a technical college in 1991, he wound up working in Singapore at a TV postproduction house where he maintained pricey A/V equipment that his employer needed to rent for $1,000 an hour.
“I realized the class system I saw in my country town also happened in the TV industry. It wasn’t really a creative industry,’’ says Petty, noting how prohibitively expensive and exclusive the business was. Determined to build affordable equipment, he initially focused on capture cards that would allow TV creatives and filmmakers to transfer video onto personal computers for editing, rather than using bespoke machines costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In 2001, Petty and software engineer Clarke founded Blackmagic. Less than two years later they introduced DeckLink, a $995 Mac-compatible card that could process uncompressed high-definition video. Their closest competitor was charging around $10,000.
Petty didn’t stop at video capture cards. In 2009 Blackmagic purchased the assets of da Vinci Systems, an ailing developer of color-grading hardware and software that it sold to Hollywood postproduction houses at prices ranging from $350,000 to $850,000 per unit. “We felt we could potentially make it a software product and bring it to the Mac platform where the creative people could use it,” Petty says. “When you go after people who are hungry and make those people more powerful, you realize the fundamental thing you are offering is freedom.”
He brought out a software-only product (now called DaVinci Resolve) priced at just $995. After another year, he made it a free download.
“Cloud licensors are like slumlords,”
Despite the fact that Blackmagic’s software is now free, converting professional video editors accustomed to other legacy programs is a slow process. While DaVinci Resolve dominates in color correction, it is far behind Adobe’s Premiere Pro and Avid in video editing. Its digital cinema cameras, whose prices start as low as $1,000 and go to $6,000, may have a better chance of gaining share against industry leaders such as Arri, Sony and Red, whose gear can cost upward of $95,000.
“Arri’s Alexa is kind of the gold standard, and there is a general snobbiness about them,”
Brawley is shooting on an Arri Alexa Mini LF, which costs $60,000, along with Blackmagic’s most expensive 12K camera, which retails for $6,000. “I would bring [Blackmagic cameras] out, and often there would be grumbling and eyerolling from the crew. But by the end of the show half of them are buying their own cameras. Blackmagic gives me 90% of an Alexa for 10% of the price.”
Cost savings are a big advantage as filmmakers increasingly use visual effects in their movies.
“If you’re going to put nine cameras on a rig, you must have at least 10 cameras on location. If those cameras are Alexas, you’re talking about $500,000. The studio is not gonna pay,”
“How do you effectively virtualize reality?” he asks. “It takes a lot of cameras and a lot of data. Blackmagic and its entire ecosystem solve a lot of those problems.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huippuluokan audio autoon
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13425-huippuluokan-audio-autoon
STMicroelectronics on esitellyt uuden audiovahvistimen ajoneuvojen järjestelmiin. TDA7901-vahvistimeen on integroitu buck-ohjain tehokasta G-luokan muunnosta varten. Piiri tukee teräväpiirtoääntä, joka on tekemässä tulossaan myös autojen audio- ja musiikkijärjestelmiin.
G-luokan toimintatilassa TDA7901-muunnin optimoi automaattisesti päätevahvistimelle syötetyn jännitteen. Tuloksena oleva pehmeä, analoginen ääni tuottaa lähes D-luokan tehokkuuden normaaleilla kuuntelutasoilla, ST kehuu.
Koska tehonkulutus on paljon pienempi verrattuna perinteiseen A/B-luokan vahvistimeen, jäähdytyselementin tarve on optimoitu. Buck-ohjaimen integrointi suoraan audiopiirille vähentää osaltaan järjestelmän kokoa ja painoa. Se myös vähentää materiaalikuluja, yksinkertaistaa piirien suunnittelua ja eikä laiteohjelmistossa tarvitse keskittyä jätteiden ohjaamiseen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
High efficiency digital input automotive quad power amplifier with built-in diagnostics features, Class-G integrated, “start stop” compatible
https://www.st.com/en/automotive-infotainment-and-telematics/tda7901.html
The TDA7901 is a single-chip quad-bridge amplifier in advanced BCD technology integrating: a full D/A converter, digital input for direct connection to I2S (or TDM) and powerful MOSFET output stages. The integrated D/A converter allows the performance to reach an outstanding 117 dB S/N ratio with more than 117 dB of dynamic range. Moreover the TDA7901 integrates an innovative high efficiency concept, optimized also for uncorrelated music signals. The device implements class G operation mode.
Thanks to this concept, the dissipated “output power” under average listening conditions can be reduced more than the standard class AB devices. The TDA7901 also integrates a programmable PLL that is able to lock at the input frequencies of 64*Fs for all the input configurations.
The device is equipped with a full and advanced diagnostics array that communicates the status of each speaker through the I2C bus. DIM (Digital-Impedance-Meter) function allows to measure the value of the load. The same I2C bus allows to control several configurations of the device.
The TDA7901 is able to play music down to 4.5 V supply voltage thus it is compatible with the so-called ‘start stop’ battery profile. Several car makers adopt ‘Start stop’ feature to reduce the fuel consumption and the impact over the environment.
Moreover, TDA7901 guarantees EMI outstanding performance, in line with the CISPR25-restrictive standard requirement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“What’s That Sound?” segment, where a short clip of some tech-relevant sound is played, and if you can identify it, riches and fame await. Well, if you can’t get enough of that stuff, head over to the Museum of Endangered Sounds, which seeks to preserve our auditory heritage before it slips away. The site has a mere smattering of sounds so far, including the AIM message alert, the old Nokia ringtone, Windows 95 startup, a floppy drive seeking tracks, and the sound of a cartridge being inserted into a Nintendo NES, complete with the obligatory blowing on the connector. We can think of literally thousands of more sounds worth preserving, and while we don’t see a way to contribute sounds, it might be worth pinging the proprietor if you can think of anything.
http://savethesounds.info/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vintage Tektronix video! Really cool video on calibrating TV signals on a vintage TV! Enjoy!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CBFlhj2UMEk&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
How filming full-frame influences cinematography
https://www.canon-europe.com/pro/stories/full-frame-influence-on-cinematography/
Filmmaker Juan Luis Cabellos shares how the Canon EOS C500 Mark II’s full-frame sensor enables him to create beautiful cinematic imagery, direct the viewer’s attention and tell his stories.
The full-frame look is a favourite of many cinematographers – but it can impact the creative vision itself. “One of the coolest things about using a full-frame sensor is that it subtly modifies the way we visually tell stories,” says Spanish DoP Juan Luis Cabellos AEC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.techradar.com/news/i-swapped-my-wedding-photographer-for-a-360-camera-and-the-risk-paid-off
Tomi Engdahl says:
The First Digital Camera Was the Size of a Toaster Kodak’s camera displayed photos on a TV screen
https://spectrum.ieee.org/first-digital-camera-history
Tomi Engdahl says:
Color Night Vision Brought to You by AI New method detects visible colors in pitch darkness
https://spectrum.ieee.org/night-vision-infrared?share_id=6994188
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spectroscopy CCD cameras target OEMs
https://www.edn.com/spectroscopy-ccd-cameras-target-oems/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearing speakers around your neck may be the new PC gaming sound solution
By Hope Corrigan published 3 days ago
These walk the line between speaker and headset.
https://www.pcgamer.com/wearing-speakers-around-your-neck-may-be-the-new-pc-gaming-sound-solution/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ukraine Opens Russian Drone, Finds Canon DSLR Inside
https://petapixel.com/2022/04/11/ukraine-opens-russian-drone-finds-canon-dslr-inside/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Imaging breakthrough could aid development of quantum microscopes
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-imaging-breakthrough-aid-quantum-microscopes.html
A breakthrough in quantum imaging could lead to the development of advanced forms of microscopy for use in medical research and diagnostics.
A team of physicists from the University of Glasgow and Heriot-Watt University have found a new way to create detailed microscopic images under conditions which would cause conventional optical microscopes to fail.
Named after the three researchers who first demonstrated it in 1987, HOM interference occurs when quantum-entangled photons are passed through a beam splitter—a glass prism which can turn a single beam of light into two separate beams as it passes through. Inside the prism, the photons can either be reflected internally or transmitted outwards.
When the photons are identical, they will always exit the splitter in the same direction, a process known as ‘bunching’. When the entangled photons are measured using photodetectors at the end of the path of the split beam of light, a characteristic ‘dip’ in the output probability graph of the light shows that the bunched photons are reaching only one detector and not the other.
That dip is the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, which demonstrates the perfect entanglement of two photons. It has been put to use in applications like logic gates in quantum computers, which require perfect entanglement in order to work.
It has also been used in quantum sensing by putting a transparent surface between one output of the beam splitter and the photodetector, introducing a very slight delay into the time it takes for photons to be detected. Sophisticated analysis of the delay can help reconstruct details like the thickness of surfaces.
Now, the Glasgow-led team has applied it to microscopy, using single-photon sensitive cameras to measure the bunched and anti-bunched photons and resolve microscopic images of surfaces.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dyson headphones come with air vacuum for mouth
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60927032
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dyson forced to deny new headphones are April Fool’s joke
https://supercarblondie.com/dyson-forced-deny-new-headphones-april-fools-joke/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/balancing-power-sharing-of-paralleled-boost-converters-in-speakers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Make Your Own Hitler Video Meme Parody With Subtitles
BY BEN STEGNER
UPDATED SEP 30, 2020
Want to make your own parody of the Hitler Downfall meme? Here’s a site that lets you do it in minutes — no video editing required.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/downfall-make-your-own-hitler-video-meme-with-subtitles/#aoh=16481997626878&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=Julkaisija%3A%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makeuseof.com%2Ftag%2Fdownfall-make-your-own-hitler-video-meme-with-subtitles%2F
Tomi Engdahl says:
Acoustic Fiber Can Turn Fabrics Into Mics and Speakers Enables two-way communications and monitoring for wearables and other applications
https://spectrum.ieee.org/e-textiles-acoustic-fiber?share_id=6970251
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.rigaut.com/benoit/CERN/badday/
The badday video is now famous everywhere on earth. It has been displayed on US TV in a CNBC show, CBS This Morning, Talk Soup on E!, in The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, and in the Los Angeles ‘LAWEEKLY’ newspaper column by Judith Lewis
Now the case is closed. The fantastic actor has been identified
http://www.rigaut.com/benoit/CERN/badday/txt/TWSJ.txt
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://ivankyo.com/blogs/tech/projector-power-supply-voltage
Tomi Engdahl says:
INTRO: FOOLING THE PROJECTOR
https://www.instructables.com/Fooling-the-projector/#aoh=16486638279452&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=Julkaisija%3A%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instructables.com%2FFooling-the-projector%2F
I will try to give you a general idea how to fool the projector that was designed to squeeze some extra $$ out of your pocket. I will illustrate it with the pictures taken while I was fixing a certain projector but this model is rare and the idea I want to share with you is general. Sorry, it’s not a real ‘instructable’. I can’t name the exact steps for your particular projector but the ideology will remain the same for any case.
Disclaimer – you are going to work with the device that has several dangerous components
Tomi Engdahl says:
Marshall micro amp
https://youtu.be/jDtZzMZ9JfU
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cutting Vinyl At Abbey Road
https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2022/01/19/audio-and-video-trends-2022/
SOS visits the world’s most famous studio to discover how the ones and zeros in a digital recording get turned into grooves on a vinyl record.
Masters of mastering Miles Showell and Geoff Pesche fire up their vintage Neumann lathes and demonstrate the delicate process of cutting a lacquer disc. It’s a skilled business that requires man and machine to work together in perfect harmony — and the slightest mistake will make the resulting album unplayable.
No pressure then…
http://www.abbeyroad.com
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix Loses Subscribers For The First Time In 10 Years, Shares Plunge 20%
https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftrib.al%2FZybNTvZ&h=AT2nIuifXRLHnCfRhAqc5CSFP4If6z0Mp6gmWV2t2QnHvhnqROZ7HITRSbJko_WTczE-_EwDYieu8961fd5l9S1vXHUl3HvVqrOeU9X_Dj01QLlCkgBFOkA74Buo5rcUaA
Shares of Netflix cratered over 20% in after hours trading on Tuesday after the streaming giant reported lackluster quarterly earnings that showed its first subscriber loss in more than a decade—with the company warning that it expects to lose even more in the months ahead.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://countryman.com/microphone-wiring/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix says it will eventually charge more if you share your account
https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/19/netflix-to-charge-global-members-sharing-their-accounts-an-additional-fee-following-tests/?tpcc=tcplusfacebook
In light of Netflix’s concerning subscriber losses, the company announced today during its first-quarter earnings call that it will expand its test that charges members a higher price if they’re engaged in account sharing with people outside their household. The company first began testing the feature in March in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, but now says it plans to implement the solution in global markets, including the U.S., in around a year’s time.
The streamer clarified it will need to continue to iterate on the feature for roughly a year or so, to make sure it gets the balance right in terms of how much extra to charge subscribers who have shared their Netflix account with other users outside their own household.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Developing Your Own Digital Film
https://hackaday.com/2022/04/20/developing-your-own-digital-film/
In the olden days, you would have a roll of film that you could take to your local drug store and have them develop it. But a serious photographer would likely develop their own photos to maintain complete creative control. While photo editing software has largely replaced the darkroom of old, the images are still held on physical media, and that means there’s room for improvement and customization. In an article for photofocus, [Joseph Nuzzo] shows how you can make your own CFexpress card — the latest and greatest in the world of digital camera storage tech — for less than $100 USD.
The idea here is pretty simple, as CFexpress uses PCIe with a different connector. Essentially all you have to do is get a M.2 2230 NVMe drive and put it into an adapter. In this case [Joseph] is using a turn-key model from Sintech, but we’ve shown in the past how you can roll your own.
How to make your own CFexpress card for under $100
https://photofocus.com/photography/how-to-make-your-own-cfexpress-card-for-under-100/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emily McCormick / Yahoo Finance:
Netflix reports losing 200K net subscribers in Q1, vs. an estimated 2.5M net additions, and $7.87B revenue, vs. $7.95B est.; Netflix stock drops 25%+ — Netflix (NFLX) reported an unexpected decline in first-quarter net subscribers as the company navigated an exit from Russia and an increasingly saturated North American market.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/netflix-earnings-preview-q1-2022-subscribers-145328663.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGVjaG1lbWUuY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEeQpFdjntMcv-TQTLqGcR85ziOYwfIXAlxFJ16Yb9jnm1bd2EoWhkC4wuEDOdqE9nHm5Ej3xFhyejl70Uc3WYtb7cO8ntcnnNQzwIS4QEe0SIIcZWP4zgpIHB7a8607YwDZQTYZBSXIugh8M5Pkw9NuZtlQ2F041GML_Aw8XTJb
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix estimates that its users are sharing passwords with 100M+ non-paying households globally, including 30M+ in the US and Canada, in violation of its rules — There’s a whole lot of password-sharing going on across Netflix’s customer base — and the streaming giant is eager to pocket …
Netflix Estimates More Than 100 Million Non-Paying Households Use Shared Passwords
https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/netflix-sharing-password-100-million-1235236051/
There’s a whole lot of password-sharing going on across Netflix’s customer base — and the streaming giant is eager to pocket a big chunk of change from the freeloading masses.
In reporting a huge subscriber miss — with a net loss of 200,000 for Q1 and a projected drop of 2 million for the second quarter — Netflix said that members who are sharing their login credentials outside the home are contributing to its slowing growth in 2022. The company estimated that legitimate Netflix passwords are being shared in violation of its rules with more than 100 million non-paying households worldwide, including over 30 million in the U.S. and Canada alone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Much YouTube Paid Me For 1,000,000 Views and why…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE9zoXtLBaY