NEWS ANALYSIS
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Crossing Streams Once very separate, the worlds of audio and video have become increasingly close-knit, writes Kevin Hilton.
IN THIS new data-centric world, how people work is most likely to be based on material in the form of noughts and ones. This digitised information is held on massive computer servers and distributed down the same cables, with little or no differentiation between what the various data is or what it is being used for until it enters a specific domain, such as an audio workstation or video editing system. In broadcast and post-production facilities this has broken down some of the old barriers, with sound now routinely embedded with the vision as part of HD and SDI streams. There are still divisions between the different skill sets, however. An indication of the increasing
closeness between sound and vision is the continuing trend for manufacturers once firmly identified with one sector now producing products for the other,
and vice versa. This has been amply illustrated this year by Blackmagic Design launching its Audio Monitor at last month’s IBC and two projector companies – Barco and Christie – moving into multichannel cinema sound, while Lawo continued to exploit IP by extending its range of video processing and interconnection devices. This kind of crossover predates the
IT and data age, and reaches back to the days of analogue. EMI produced both audio and video equipment, with one of its star engineers, Alan Blumlein, being a key figure in the development of both stereo recording and reproduction and television based on electronic principles rather than Logie Baird’s mechanical approach. Similarly Ampex started out in audio with a range of recording machines, for which it also produced
tape. In the early 1950s the company moved into pictures with the development of the first commercially available professional video recorder. The VR-1000 was a two-inch Quadruplex machine and featured audio circuits that had been worked on by Ray Dolby, then a 19-year-old engineer in the early days of his career. Dolby, who died in September, and
the company that bears his name continued to concentrate on sound from 1965 onwards with noise reduction and then surround sound systems. Recently Dolby Laboratories has moved over into the pictures with which its sound is closely associated. It now produces 3D technology, the Screen Server range for storing and playing out both pictures and audio, and the PRM-4220 video reference monitor. Diversification is often easier for big
conglomerates, which have the financial backing for R&D as well as the manufacturing processes in place. Sony is well known for its consumer audio products and parallels those in the professional market with studio headphones and wireless microphones. But it never quite broke into the large- scale mixing console market, despite first buying the MCI brand and then, in the 1990s, recruiting part of the SSL design team to work on the Oxford desk. SSL itself first had a crossover with video when, from 1989 to 2000, it was part of the Carlton Group with video effects and processing manufacturer Quantel. More recently SSL made a firm move into video with the MediaWAN newsroom and video post-production range. This development was driven by co-owner David Engelke, previously of Pinnacle Systems, and has continued the creation of the Gravity software range that includes tapeless VTR and video asset management systems. Even with such precedents a
company breaking the boundaries can still come as a surprise. Australian company Blackmagic Design has its roots in vision but is now taking on sound with its Audio Monitor. The two level meters on the front panel of this resemble a traditional sound monitoring unit but Blackmagic Design’s promotional material makes clear this is a product to work with
24 October 2013
video; instead of mentioning audio formats it says it is compatible with SDI, HD and Ultra HD and any sound systems they use. Just as Dolby moved into vision to offer a complete system with its audio products, so Barco and Chiristie have now moved the other way, albeit in slightly different ways. Christie recently announced a full range of cinema sound products under the Vive Audio umbrella. This includes articulated, single enclosure line array loudspeakers, ribbon driver technology, and high-powered Class D amplification, which are able to handle any sound format, from 5.1/7.1 to the Dolby Atmos and Barco Auro 11.1 spatial systems. Before moving into video reference
monitors and then digital projection, Barco had its roots in audio. It was founded in 1934 as the Belgian American Radio Corporation (hence Barco) to build radios from imported US parts but later left the audio business behind. Its new involvement with sound is through the exclusive film licence for Auro Technologies’ 3D audio system, which is channel-based in an 11.1 configuration. Tom Bert, product marketing
manager for digital cinema at Barco, acknowledges that the company’s d-cinema activities were wholly based on projectors but says its scope widened in 2010 when it expanded into servers. “Now, after coming into contact with Auro Technologies as a partner, we can use our expertise in product design for cinema and translate the core technology to the specific requirements of exhibitors,” he comments. At IBC2013 a once staunch audio
company, console manufacturer Lawo, extended the video range it first introduced last year. The V_link4 is an IP-based contribution system and while it has audio capability in the form of Ravenna it is a clear step into the realms of vision, building on the V_pro8 video processor. None of this means that all audio and video manufacturers will be jumping on each other’s bandwagons but it does show that, when the demand is there or the feeling is right, new technologies can give the flexibility for breaking into new markets.
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