MEMS mics are taking over. Almost every mobile device has ditched its old-fashioned electret microphone invented way back in 1962 at Bell Labs. Expect new piezoelectric MEMS microphones, which promise unheard of signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of up to 80 dB (versus 65 dB in the best current capacitive microphones) in 2015. MEMS microphones are growing like gangbusters.
Analysts and veterans of the International CES expect to see plenty of 4K ultra-high-definition televisions, new smartwatch uses, and a large section of the show floor dedicated to robotics. 2015 will be the first year CES gets behind 4K in a big way, as lower price points make the technology more attractive to consumers. Samsung, Sony, Sharp, and Toshiba will be big players in the 4K arena. OEMs must solve the problem of intelligence and connectivity before 4K will really take off. CES attendees may also see 4K TVs optimized for certain tasks, along with a variety of sizes. There will be 10-inch and 14-inch and 17-inch UHD displays.
4K is not enough anymore? 8K – finally come true? Korean giant LG has promised to introduce ehdan 8K TV at CES 2015 exhibition in January. 8K means a total of 33.2 million pixels, or 7680 x 4320 resolution. 4K video material fate is still uncertain, 8K video can not with certainty not available for a long time.
Sound bars will be a big issue at shows. One problem with new TVs — the thinner they are, the harder it is to get sound out.
Open file formats Matroska Video (MKV) and Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) gets more widely used as Windows 10 To Feature Native Support For MKV and FLAC.
Watching shows online is more common now. More people are watching videos on smaller screens. You can use a tablet as personal TV. Phablets and portable televisions have taken off in China, Japan, and Korea, where many people watch videos during long commutes. Tablets now have become so ubiquitous and inexpensive that you can buy them for a specific application. Much of the innovation will be in software, rather than hardware — tuning the tablets to boot up like a television instead of an Android tablet
We’re all spending more time with smartphones and tablets. So much so that the “second screen” may now be the “first screen,” depending on the data you read. It seems inevitable that smartphones and tablets will replace the television in terms of time spent. Many metrics firms, including Nielsen, report on the rapid increase of mobile device usage—especially when it comes to apps. Half of YouTube’s views now come from phones and tablets.
Qualcomm will push this year broadcast LTE. That will be picked up more and more by some vendors in tablets, so they can have broadcast TV signals, but it doesn’t have to be generic LTE.
There will be lots of talking on traditional TV vs new streaming services, especially on who gets which program material and at what price. While it’s possible to create a TV platform that doesn’t deal with live channels, smart TVs and game consoles alike generally try to integrate the content as best they can.
Netflix’s new strategy to take on cable involves becoming best friends with cable to get its app included on set-top boxes of cable, fiber and satellite TV operators. Roughly 90 million U.S. households subscribe to cable or other forms of pay TV, and more than 73 million subscribe to the biggest five operators alone. That’s why Netflix has been working hard to team up with one of these major operators.
Google intends to integrate content best it can. Google Publishes ‘Live Channels For Android TV’ App Into The Play Store. G The “Live Channels for Android TV” app is unsurprisingly incompatible with phones and tablets, maybe because for some reason those markets are intentionally artificially tried to be kept separate.
Virtual reality video is trying to get to spotlight. Samsung’s new Milk VR to round up 360-degree videos for Gear VR article tells that Milk VR will provide the videos for free as Samsung hopes to goose interest in virtual reality. Milk VR service will provide free 360-degree videos to anyone using a Gear VR virtual-reality headset (uses Galaxy Note 4). Samsung wants to jump-start the virtual-reality movement as the company is looking at virtual reality as a potential growth engine at a time when one of its key traditional revenue sources — smartphones — has slowed down. The videos will also serve as a model for future filmmakers or artists looking to take advantage of the virtual-reality medium, as well as build up an ecosystem and viewership for VR content.
Although digital video is increasing in popularity, analog video remains in use in many applications.
1,154 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spotify Opens Up Its Data Firehose
http://recode.net/2015/11/17/spotify-opens-up-its-data-firehose/
The modern-day music industry is missing all sorts of stuff it used to have in the old days. Like sales.
But the 2015 music industry has at least one thing the CD era didn’t: Lots of data. And if you use that data wisely, you can find opportunities you would have never found in the analog business.
That’s the pitch, at least, from digital music optimists. And lots of people are trying to make good on that promise, from startups to music labels that have their own data teams. One very big, obvious place to find music data is from the music services that stream billions of hours of songs a month, like Spotify.
Now Spotify is collecting lots of its listening data and assembling it for musicians, managers and other music pros at a new “Fan Insights” portal. The site is free, but access is limited to musicians and the people who work with them.
Those who can look inside can find interesting insights about their music, primarily information about the people who listen to it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jared Newman / TechHive:
LG to bring Google Play Movies and TV to its Smart TV range later this month in US, UK, Australia, and Canada
http://www.techhive.com/article/3005721/streaming-services/lg-brings-google-play-movies-and-tv-to-its-smart-tv-range.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
My quick report on current state of professional audio and video:
AudioVisual Helsinki 2015
http://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2015/11/19/audiovisual-helsinki-2015/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Klint Finley / Wired:
Comcast says Stream TV, its IP cable service, doesn’t count against data caps because it isn’t offered over the Internet, but over its cable television network — Comcast May Have Found a Major Net Neutrality Loophole — Comcast may have found a major loophole in the Federal Communication …
Comcast May Have Found a Major Net Neutrality Loophole
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/comcast-may-have-found-a-major-net-neutrality-loophole/
Comcast may have found a major loophole in the Federal Communication Commission’s network neutrality regulations.
Earlier this month the company launched a new streaming video service for Comcast broadband customers called Stream TV. The service, which is only available in the greater Boston and Chicago areas so far, allows you to watch HBO as well as live local television stations on your computer, tablet or laptop. The catch is that the service will only work from your home.
That may sound like a big limitation, but it comes with a big perk for some users: Stream TV won’t count towards the 300GB data limit imposed on some Comcast broadband users. Since users who exceed that 300GB threshold are charged an extra $10 for every extra 50GB they use, up to $30 per month1, the $15-a-month Stream TV offering could be appealing to users worried that other video services, such as Netflix or Sling TV, will eat through their data allotment.
Comcast says this isn’t a violation of network neutrality law because, although you’re viewing Stream TV on your computer via your Comcast broadband connection, the service isn’t technically offered over the Internet, but over Comcast’s cable television network, much like its Xfinity Xbox 360 service, which allowed Xbox users to view video that didn’t count against t
Earlier this year the FCC passed the Open Internet Order, which bans internet service providers from giving preferential treatment to some internet traffic over other traffic, meaning that Comcast can’t deliberately slow down, say, Netflix streaming video while giving its own services a boost.
However, the agency hasn’t outright banned so-called “zero-rating,” which allows customers to download or stream data from certain services without having it count against their data limits. Instead, the agency will review these services on a case-by-case basis.
Comcast argues that Stream TV is actually a cable television service, not an Internet service, and as such doesn’t run afoul of regulations. More specifically, it’s an “IP cable” service, which is typically delivered over infrastructure shared with Internet service providers but subject to the same requirements as traditional cable television services, such as the inclusion of local programming and emergency broadcast services.
“Stream TV is an in-home IP-cable service delivered over Comcast’s cable network, not over the public Internet,” Comcast said in a statement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Rdio, while a good product, wasn’t differentiated enough from Spotify, and ultimately failed from poor marketing, say former employees — Why Rdio died — It’s easy to forget now, but the first modern music streaming service to arrive in America was Rdio.
Why Rdio died
The service had a year’s head start on Spotify in America, but it didn’t matter
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/17/9750890/rdio-shutdown-pandora
It’s easy to forget now, but the first modern music streaming service to arrive in America was Rdio. Like its founders, Skype billionaires Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, Rdio was awkwardly spelled and a little hard to pronounce. When it arrived in August 2010, the smartphone era was young enough that the company offered a $5 web-only streaming plan (on the assumption you might not have a mobile device) and a BlackBerry app (in case you had a bad one). The company’s catalog was limited to 7 million songs, well short of the 30 million tracks that it and its rivals now provide.
“”The best music recommendations come from the people you know. That was the whole idea.””
In the end, it wasn’t enough. Rdio is seeking bankruptcy protection and plans to wind down its service. Pandora is acquiring its intellectual property and some of its employees.
In interviews with current and former employees, a picture emerges of a company that developed an excellent product but faltered when it came to marketing and distributing it. Early as it was to the United States, Rdio was born in the shadow of Spotify, a cunning and well-financed competitor that excelled at generating buzz — and using that buzz to acquire paid subscribers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacklet 85: Alternative Audio Amplifiers
http://hackaday.com/2015/11/21/hacklet-85-alternative-audio-amplifiers/
When you think of amplifiers, you’re probably thinking of audio or some big ‘ol power amps for radios. While interesting, there are some very interesting ‘alternative’ amplifiers floating around hackaday.io that are more than just power amps, and exceedingly useful, to boot.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WIRED Magazine To Debut Show On Netflix Next Year
http://www.buzzfeed.com/brendanklinkenberg/wired-magazine-to-debut-show-on-netflix-next-year#.fk3kQvvym
“Think ‘Chef’s Table’ — for designers.”
BuzzFeed News has obtained an internal email from WIRED Publisher Kim Kelleher announcing that the publication’s Editor-in-Chief Scott Dadich is slated to produce a new show for Netflix positioned as a “‘Chef’s Table’ — for designers.” Netflix did not respond to a request for comment. WIRED declined comment.
The series is to be based on Wired By Design, a conference held by WIRED last year at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California.
This series marks new territory for Netflix; it’s the company’s first partnership with a magazine. The effort is not, however, completely new territory for WIRED, which collaborated with PBS on a 10-episode television series called Wired Science in 2007.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:NEW
Amazon Studios Launches Amazon Storywriter, Free Cloud Software For Screenwriters — In an effort to expand its original video content, including movies and TV series, Amazon announced this morning the launch of a free, cloud-based screenwriting software program called Amazon Storywriter.
Amazon Studios Launches Amazon Storywriter, Free Cloud Software For Screenwriters
http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/19/amazon-studios-launches-amazon-storywriter-free-cloud-software-for-screenwriters/
In an effort to expand its original video content, including movies and TV series, Amazon announced this morning the launch of a free, cloud-based screenwriting software program called Amazon Storywriter. In addition, the company says it’s expanding to include drama submissions, and will no longer take a free option on scripts submitted to the Amazon Studios website, allowing WGA members to upload directly to the site.
Previously, Amazon accepted script submissions for feature films, primetime comedy series for adults, and series for children aged 2 to 14, but this is the first time that Amazon will now consider drama series submissions as well.
Amazon Studios launched in 2010 to serve as a way to crowdsource the process of finding new scripts for films and series. It offers a way for writers to upload their content online and make their projects public in order to gain feedback from the larger community. However, its launch and a related “script contest” were immediately fraught with confusion and controversy as a number of writers warned of Amazon’s then-free 18-month option on scripts from the moment they were uploaded, as well as other issues with copyright and authorship.
That submission program has evolved over the years, however. Amazon Studios’ prior policy, until today, stated it had the exclusive right to buy a movie script for $200,000 or TV script for $55,000 from the day it’s uploaded up to 45 days out.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The pitfalls of HD camera drones
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/voice-of-the-engineer/4432851/The-pitfalls-of-HD-camera-drones
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cisco slurps Acano for $700m
Brit video conferencing and collaboration biz to be assimilated by the borg
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/23/cisco_acano/
Cisco is to hoover up London-based video conferencing and collaboration tech outfit Acano for $700m.
The Uxbridge-based organisation, whose software bridges the gap between the physical and the cloud-based worlds, was founded in 2012 by former Cisco and Tandberg staffers. It has offices in the UK, US and Australia.
The conferencing and collaboration wares bring together services from Cisco, Lifesize, Tandberg and Microsoft, with the latter indulging users in full integration with Skype got Business and Lync.
Cisco said less than 10 per cent of conference rooms are connected via video and just one per cent of users have video system on their desktop.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MatrixCam™ Video Development Kit
http://www.eeweb.com/project/design_library/matrixcam-video-development-kit
MatrixCam Video Development Kit is a low power, smart 1080P video camera that streams video over Wi-Fi® and Ethernet, and is targeted towards the Internet of Things (IoT) market. MatrixCam™ VDK revolutionizes IoT by providing vision and connectivity based on an open source platform solution, and enables fast time-to-market for IoT developers
To make it an intelligent streaming device, a PIR sensor is integrated to detect movement and to wake up the system to start video streaming. The system has the additional option for wake up through Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE). On wake up, a push notification is sent to a mobile device alerting the user. The product will have different resolution selection options for video streaming.
Design Library > MatrixCam™ Video Development Kit
http://www.eeweb.com/design-library/matrixcam-video-development-kit/
Tomi Engdahl says:
1.1 billion-pixel giant screen
If you arrive in Seoul, Korea Inchenonin International Airport, can see the screen, which can not be found anywhere else in the world. LG Electronics has taken the field in duplicate consisting of 140 LED panels curved screens which in total have more than 1.1 billion pixels.
Screens are also the world’s largest led display: 140 pieces of LG’s curved 55-inch screens with 3480 x 2160 pixels in each. Total display area is more than 1161 mega pixels, ie 1.1 billion pixels. The result is 13 meters high and eight meters wide in a curve display.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3638:1-1-miljardin-pikselin-jattinaytto&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
In Depth Biometrics
Catching a thief by their face
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20151120-catching-a-thief-by-their-face
Retail stores are turning to facial recognition technology and customer tracking tools to fight against shoplifters. BBC Future investigates.
A man walks up to the front door of a jeweller in the centre of Rotterdam and buzzes to enter but it doesn’t budge. He waits. While he lingers by the door, a facial recognition camera quickly scans his face and cross references the image with a watch list of known shoplifters from the local police department. It turns out he has a criminal record for shoplifting and the jeweller doesn’t want him on the premises.
That was one example of a pilot called FotoSwitch in 2011, a program run by the Rotterdam Rihnmond police department, the Netherlands’ Ministry of Security and Justice, and the Dutch Federation of Gold and Silver, aided by Spanish biometrics firm Herta Security.
The pilot gave jewellers an opportunity to quickly screen customers before they entered. The door would also stay locked if a person was wearing sunglasses or something obscuring their face.
It’s the latest way retailers have tried to combat theft. But is it enough to tip the battle in their favour?
Steve Rowen of US-based Retail Systems Research (RSR) says that among the retailers it usually surveys, the challenge of preventing stock being pilfered by shoplifters is a constant. This has created a need for more intensive tools not only for surveillance but for managing a store in general, from staffing to presenting products. “CCTV, let’s be honest, you couldn’t use it for more than a basic general description of a person,” says Rowen.
CCTV is a classic method for getting a glimpse of your suspect but it can hit a dead end if it doesn’t have anyone to compare it to – a list of known or suspected shoplifters, for example.
More companies are now looking at using facial recognition to keep their stock safe
Herta’s technology needs just the “slightest glimpse” to match against a database and can recognise up to 20 or 30 faces in a crowd, says Gary Lee, Herta Security’s international business development manager. The company remains tight-lipped about who its clients are but it is currently testing its facial recognition system with a large electronics chain.
Rosenkrantz from FaceFirst says its technology is mostly used by grocery stores, DIY stores, and big box retailers. Stolen tools and electronics, for example, are easier to resell, making them an attractive target.
Stores using facial recognition have to get their own access to a database of known shoplifters, which is often done in collaboration with local police.
More stores are opting for biometric security, with more than a quarter of respondents in a recent survey admitting they have recently used facial recognition
Facial recognition technology and high-definition digital cameras can be a huge investment for stores, says Rowen, and often they are looking for further ways to use the technology, making it more cost-effective.
In the survey mentioned, almost half of the stores said they were in favour of some kind of facial recognition technology and only 7% believed the technology was intrusive.
Lee believes that this is just an extension of the CCTV surveillance that we’re used to already amidst our daily lives.
Too intrusive?
Privacy will remain a major concern. In September of this year the UK’s Home Office published a report encouraging greater oversight on the handling of biometric data, which includes the kind of material the facial recognition system will be studying.
“We are extracting very abstract appearance characteristics so the privacy of the person is never compromised,” says CTO Shashi Kant. Netra’s software detects things like the colour of a person’s clothes, their hair length, or if they have a backpack or handbag.
Prism has created a similar tool, which turns “cameras into intelligent data centres” and mines existing CCTV footage for events that occur in the store like the movement of customers or products from shelves.
“All systems require some kind of visual verification,” he adds. Stores need a means to prove that a person that set off an alarm is the one that actually lifted the product and not a decoy.
Whether it’s biometric scanners or more abstract tracking tools, stores still depend on the use of cameras, which are only as good as what they can see. “There’s an art form to camera placement,” says Cutting.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Don’t Do It, Adele!
http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/19/dont-do-it-adele/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1462_88544579790246274#.ojwuxm:HDEu
It seems that Adele, an artist that I love nearly as much as Metallica — and that is my highest possible praise — will not stream her new album on Spotify. This has made me quite sad.
The album has already leaked. We are not going to link to that, of course, but here is a decent run-through of the tracks that it contains.
Adele’s New Album “25″ Was Just Released. Here Are Our Instant Reactions to Every Track.
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/11/adele-new-album-25-review
Tomi Engdahl says:
The WorldStar of War Porn
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-worldstar-of-war-porn?trk_source=popular
The GoPro is the most popular camcorder in the United States. Through its videos you can inhabit the eyes and ears of anyone: a skydiver, a cat, or, if you really want to, one person killing another.
Just as the earliest cameras of the mid-19th century were dragged onto the battlefields of the Crimean War, so the GoPro ended up in Iraq and Afghanistan, mounted on the helmets and rifle barrels of soldiers. The GoPro has made the combatant, not the correspondent, the main chronicler of war, giving the average viewer a closer look at the realities of combat than ever before merely by browsing YouTube.
When I tried a line like that on T.M. Gibbons-Neff, a two-time Marine combat veteran and Washington Post staff writer, he said I was dressing up something much simpler. “‘War porn’ would be the word,” he said.
And if you’re looking for war porn, the place to find it is Funker530.
The so-called “veterans’ community” Funker530 is comprised of a website and a YouTube channel loaded with first-person recordings of airstrikes, special operations firefights, and near-miss IED explosions.
A typical Funker530 video is watermarked and features a cheesy digital intro like in the infamous street fight compilations of the video site WorldStarHipHop. Weapons stick out from the bottom of the frame, carried by the unseen cameraman. The GoPro’s 170-degree lens creates a mild fisheye effect, also known as “barrel distortion,” echoing a family of language merging the camera with the gun: you load a camera with film, it takes shots, and so on.
These videos are wildly popular.
“From the outside looking in, it probably looks pretty weird,” Gibbons-Neff said of the phenomenon. “But from every guy in that kind of business who looks at these videos because they’ve had similar experiences, like, they could care less.”
He added: “I don’t know what these things do for mental health.”
However, the popularity of the videos suggests they may have a therapeutic effect for war fighters
The easy availability of these videos recalls a leading method for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Some clinicians now use virtual reality simulations as an aid in PE-based treatments, digitally remodeling combat scenarios for traumatized veterans.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is an Affair in Virtual Reality Still Cheating?
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/is-an-affair-in-virtual-reality-still-cheating?trk_source=popular
When I told my wife about it, she laughed, saying, “It’s a just a software program. It’s just a sexy lady made of 1s and 0s appearing real to your visual cortex.”
Perhaps my wife is right. However, I couldn’t help thinking: What happens when the software seems even more real than the actual thing?
My brush with virtual infidelity came about after giving a speech at WEST, the Wearable, Entertainment & Sports Toronto conference. Companies developing software and programs for the gadgets lined the hallways outside the conference with tables for their products, and they had an excellent array of gadgets on display to play with. I sat down at one run by the company Cinehackers that promised a movie-like experience with the Oculus Rift.
Cinehackers had created a way to let virtual reality users feel like they were in a first-person perspective movie, kind of like Being John Malcovich.
While VR sex has been explored at length, even by people using full-body haptic suits to experience full sexual immersion, the idea of digital infidelity and the confusing moral implications is largely uncharted.
“It makes no difference if the cheating occurred in person or online through the use of porn, webcams, social media, or some other digital technology,” said Robert Weiss LCSW, CSAT-S, a therapist and expert on the relationship between digital technology and human sexuality. “A ‘virtual world’ affair is every bit as painful to a betrayed spouse as an in-the-flesh affair.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
George Lucas on new Star Wars film: ‘They weren’t keen to have me involved’
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/20/george-lucas-star-wars-force-awakens-breakup
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Posted November 20 2015 — 12:08 PM EST
George Lucas has compared his retirement from Star Wars to a break-up – a mutual one, maybe, but it nonetheless comes with hard feelings.
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’: The complete collection of EW stories
Before handing over Lucasfilm and the future of his galactic saga to The Walt Disney Co. for $4 billion in 2012, Lucas came up with story treatments for a new trilogy. Those materials, to put it bluntly, were discarded.
“They decided they didn’t want to use those stories, they decided they were gonna go do their own thing,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jackie Dove / Macworld:
Adobe to close Revel, its cloud-based photo and video sharing service, in February, and will let users transfer files into Creative Cloud Photography plan
http://www.macworld.com/article/3006522/photography/adobe-kills-off-its-photo-sharing-service-revel.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
MEMS Market: Ups and Upstarts
Novel & HD vs. mature commodity
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328333&
“The accelerometer and gyroscope markets are leveling out, but there is still strong growth in microphones–which can charge a premium price for the most-wanted high signal-to-noise ratio varieties,” Bouchaud told EE Times. “And there is also strong growth in new types of MEMS devices such as BAWs [bulk acoustic wave filters].”
The fastest growing market segments remain the consumer electronics and mobile spaces, where growth has been spurred to a 13.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) out to 2019, compared with an overall CAGR rate of 7.6 percent for the entire MEMS market over the same period.
The fastest growing device type are BAW filters, of which 22 are used in the new iPhone-6s and -6s+, followed by microphones, bolstered by smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs adding more and more of the most expensive, high definition with high signal-to-ratios to their products.)
For instance, the iPhone-4s used just two 59 dB signal-to-noise ration mics, the iPhone-5, -5s and 6 bumped that up to three 62-to-63 dB mic models and the latest iPhone-6s and -6s+ now use four 64-to-66 dB signal-to-noise ratio mics, according to IHS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Pandora, iHeartRadio can stream songs from Adele’s top-selling album 25, unlike Spotify, Apple Music, others, thanks to law for “non-interactive” services — Pandora is streaming Adele’s 25 and her label can’t stop it — Adele’s 25 is the biggest album in the world right now …
Pandora is streaming Adele’s 25 and her label can’t stop it
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/25/9800508/25-streaming-pandora-radio-service-licensing
Adele’s 25 is the biggest album in the world right now, and it’s made it there all without a single stream on Spotify. In fact, it might have made it there because there hasn’t been a single stream on Spotify: Adele and her label made the decision not to stream 25 anywhere online, encouraging people to actually buy the album or its songs outright. But despite the ban, some services have songs from 25 up streaming.
Pandora confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that every track from Adele’e new album is available through its radio service. That’s not going to be a particularly great way of listening to 25 — because Pandora is a radio service, it means you can’t choose what to listen to and will have to wait for a station to play the new songs — but it does mean that Adele’s album is streaming in some form. You just have to be really, really patient to hear it all.
25 isn’t on Pandora because Adele specifically wanted it there. It’s on Pandora because Adele and her label don’t have a say. Spotify, Apple Music, and other music streaming services that let you choose exactly which songs you want to hear all operate through direct deals with record labels. Those deals give artists and labels the ability to withhold specific songs and albums when they choose to, which is why you see major names like Adele and Taylor Swift withholding albums to boost physical sales or for use as a bargaining chip. Pandora, on the other hand, doesn’t have a deal with labels. It relies on a law governing “non-interactive” streaming services — basically, anything akin to a traditional radio broadcast — which allows it to stream any song with a US copyright so long as it pays a federally established fee. Labels don’t have a say in this type of licensing; so Adele’s new album, like Taylor Swift’s 1989 last year, still ends up streaming on Pandora.
“This is a unique situation to the US market,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mathew Ingram / Fortune:
Analyst: ESPN’s loss of 7M subscribers since 2013 means about $650M less in affiliate revenue and an estimated $250M less in ad revenue
When Will ESPN’s Subscriber Numbers Finally Hit Bottom?
http://fortune.com/2015/11/24/espn-subscriber-numbers/
The sports broadcasting giant is losing ground, and that has a big impact on its parent company.
One of the strongest parts of Walt Disney Corp.—in addition to its powerful hold on Hollywood through Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Marvel—is the sports network, ESPN. It makes up a huge proportion of Disney’s $200 billion market value, and when it reports what investors see as weak results, it doesn’t just hurt Disney’s share price, it takes the rest of the TV-related market down with it. But there are those who think the weakness has only just begun for ESPN.
Hedge fund manager and analyst Eric Jackson is one of those who thinks ESPN has further to fall when it comes to subscriber and revenue numbers. In a recent installment of his email newsletter, Jackson looked at the steady decline in users who pay for ESPN and the impact on Disney’s bottom line.
Analysts like SNL Kagan believe that ESPN gets about $6.60 for every core ESPN subscriber, and anywhere from 22 to 83 cents for each subscriber to its other networks, such as ESPN 2 and the SEC Network. The loss of 7 million or so subscribers since 2013 means that ESPN is now getting $650 million less in affiliate revenues
In other words, ESPN is generating close to $1 billion less than it did two years ago.
Did ESPN or Disney see the cord-cutting decline coming? It doesn’t look that way, despite predictions from a number of market watchers that it was a sizable risk. The sports network reportedly spent $125 million or so on a revamp of the Sports Center set, which seems like an odd investment if you think your viewership is going to fall.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adele Single ‘Hello’ Hits 500 Million Video Streams, CD Sales Pop
http://fortune.com/2015/11/26/adele-single-hello-streams/
Adele is crushing it like no one before when it comes to sales. What does this mean for streaming and the music industry?
Adele’s new album, 25, debuted a week ago, and the numbers so far are staggering. The album has reportedly sold nearly 3 million copies, including 1.45 million digital ones, which breaks a weekly record set in 1991 by boy-band ‘NSYNC. Meanwhile, the first single from the album, Hello, had already been viewed nearly 500 million times as of Thanksgiving afternoon.
To put this in context, Hello, has been out for only a few days and is already on Vevo’s “most viewed of all time” list, where it could soon eclipse the list’s #1 (Taylor Swift’s Blank Space) and #2 (Justin Bieber’s Baby).
Meanwhile, Adele seems to have single-handedly brought about a return to relevance of CDs. Based on Billboard’s report, Adele has sold over a million of the things—even if many millennials don’t know how to play them. Ironically, it appears some people bought the CD only as a cheaper way to get hold of an online version through Amazon (which gives shoppers a free digital copy of any CD they buy through an “AutoRip” program)
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube Pays Users’ Legal Bills to Defend Fair Use
By Andy on November 20, 2015
C: 44
News
https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-pays-users-legal-bills-to-defend-fair-use-151120/
Google has strengthened its stance towards wrongful DMCA notices that serve to intimidate YouTube users. Drawing a symbolic line in the sand, Google says it will cover legal costs associated with defending four videos which all use copyrighted content but are protected under ‘fair use’ legislation, should they be targeted by rightsholders.
According to Google more than half a million hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every day. Although with ContentID the company tries, determining the copyright status of every single minute is an almost impossible task.
While identifying copyrighted movies, TV shows and music are all within the company’s abilities, when used in certain ways all of those things can be legally shown on YouTube, even without copyright holders’ permission.
Under U.S. law the concept is known as ‘fair use’ and it enables copyrighted material to be used for purposes including criticism, news reporting, teaching and research. However, some copyright holders like to contest the use of their content on YouTube no matter what the context, issuing DMCA takedown notices and landing YouTube users with a ‘strike’ against their account.
YouTube has been criticized in the past for not doing enough to protect its users against wrongful claims but now the company appears to be drawing a line in the sand, albeit a limited one, in defense of those legally using copyrighted content in transformative ways.
In a blog post Google’s Copyright Legal Director says that YouTube will showcase several user-created videos in its Copyright Center and cover all legal costs should rightsholders challenge how each uses copyrighted content.
A Step Toward Protecting Fair Use on YouTube
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.nl/2015/11/a-step-toward-protecting-fair-use-on.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mathew Ingram / Fortune:
Mp3.com founder Michael Robertson launches OnRadio, which lets you search for and play songs from 100K+ online radio streams — Mp3.com Founder Launches Radio Search Service, Talks Copyright — Michael Robertson clearly enjoys going up against corporations much larger than his …
Mp3.com Founder Launches Radio Search Service, Talks Copyright
http://fortune.com/2015/11/24/mp3-com-founder/
Robertson says his Mp3.com service should have been seen as a social benefit, just as Google’s book-search service was.
Michael Robertson clearly enjoys going up against corporations much larger than his, since his career consists of doing that across a wide range of different technology areas, from online music to operating systems. One of the most infamous was his digital music company Mp3.com, which triggered one of the highest-profile copyright infringement lawsuits of the 1990s and ended with a $53-million penalty against the company.
Robertson also started a Linux-based competitor to Windows that was originally called Lindows.
The serial entrepreneur is now working on several new ventures, one of which is called OnRadio. The service, introduced this week, indexes all the music playing on more than 100,000 online radio stations and allows users to search across that database and listen to any song. It also lets them share those songs through a variety of chat applications such as Snapchat and Twitter, using a unique URL.
“Because Google doesn’t index online radio streams, radio is invisible to searchers and radio companies are missing out on more than 100 million users per day,” Robertson said in a statement. “Our goal at OnRad.io is to make it one-click easy to find any song playing on the radio and to easily share those songs with friends.”
“We had to build a guide of stations and play schedules for DAR.fm,”
OnRadio doesn’t have to worry about breaching any copyright rules because when a user clicks on a song, they are taken directly to the radio station that is playing the song—the service doesn’t make a copy or stream the music itself. Robertson said radio stations are likely to be happy with the search feature because it will increase traffic to their sites, where users can also see and listen to ads.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Israel meets with Google and YouTube to discuss censoring Palestinian videos
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/22471-israel-meets-with-google-and-youtube-to-discuss-censoring-palestinian-videos
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely has met with representatives of YouTube and Google to discuss ways to cooperate in what she calls the fight against “inciting violence and terrorism”.
Israel’s Maariv newspaper reported yesterday that Hotovely agreed to work with Google and YouTube in order to establish a joint working mechanism to monitor and prevent the publication of “inflammatory material” originating in the Palestinian territories.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia’s Ozo VR Camera Marks a Rebirth for the Phone Giant
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/nokia-ozo-vr-camera/
He’s looking into the lens array on the Ozo, Nokia’s spherical virtual reality camera. Microphones on the Ozo are picking up his speech, and the whispers of those around him. Through my VR headset and headphones, I can see and hear whatever the Ozo is seeing an hearing nearly as effectively as if it were my own eyes and ears.
It’s not the first time I’ve tried a VR a headset, but it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced something like this. Instead of diving into 3D computer-generated simulation of a pre-prepared world, Nokia’s next-gen spherical camera is actually teleporting me across the room in real time. But that distance of just a few feet could easily be hundreds of miles. That possibility in particular speaks to Nokia’s plan.
Designed and built in Finland, Nokia’s VR camera is made of aluminum, is big about the size of a human head, and weighs less than 10 pounds. The device, which sort of resembles a puffer fish, hosts eight 2K by 2K resolution cameras, each spaced out so the distance between lenses is the same as the distance between two human eyes. This helps the Ozo recreate a realistic view of all perspectives as you move your head around. Images are processed in pairs to create the best possible stereoscopic effect. There are microphones all over it too, Rantanen says. “Since audio is at least half of the virtual reality experience, we’ve built eight microphones into OZO for 3D audio capture,” he tells me.
The Ozo is set to be unveiled on November 30 in Los Angeles, and expected to cost around $50,000. That’s about three times the price tag of the GoPro Odyssey. However, while the GoPro’s footage must still be assembled in laborious post-production processes, the Ozo can generate a full 360-degree stereoscopic video in real time. Thanks to HD-SDI connections on the body, the camera can stream 1.5 Gbps of compressed RAW footage to store data from the streams from the eight lens, broadcast full 360-degree panoramic video, and also stream a low-res feed for monitoring.
The camera is Wi-Fi enabled, too, allowing filmmakers to control the system remotely in real time while shooting.
Nokia’s bold move into virtual reality is a clear statement that the Finns are still alive, and that they’re more interested in the projected $150 billion dollar VR industry than they are in the mobile handset industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Truly Awesome TVs for Every Budget
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/gift-guide-televisions-tvs/
No matter what your budget is, there’s been no better time to buy a TV. 4K is getting cheap, OLED prices are coming down to earth, and they’re practically giving away high-definition sets. Whether your budget is $130,000 or $220, here are the top TV gift picks for that lucky person on your list
Tomi Engdahl says:
The iPhone 7 may not have a 3.5mm headphone jack and that’s okay
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/11/30/iphone-7-may-not-3-5mm-headphone-jack-thats-okay/
There are rumors afloat that Apple’s next iPhone might ditch the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of a Lightning connector. While that might sound like the end of the world to audiophiles, don’t worry, it actually seems more like Apple being Apple.
The company is known for leading the charge in killing off aging norms in hardware. It ditched the floppy drive from its iMac desktop in 1998 and killed off its own proprietary 30-pin iPhone connector to make way for the smaller, reversible Lightning connector in 2012. With the latest MacBook, the company included only a single USB-C slot in lieu of traditional USB ports.
Apple isn’t crazy for adopting a rip-off-the-band-aid approach to introducing new hardware standards.
With the rumored Lightning audio connector, headphones will be able to draw power from an Apple device, which means that they won’t require an internal battery of their own.
Philips already has a pair of Fidelio headphones available that use a Lightning connector, and says this ensures zero crosstalk for a cleaner signal and improved stereo separation.
older headphones and speakers will be able to connect to it using an adaptor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MST3K Kickstarter Poised To Break Kickstarter Record
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/15/11/30/0614229/mst3k-kickstarter-poised-to-break-kickstarter-record
Recently Joel Hodgson, the creator of Mystery Science 3000 — which had a successful run of over 197 shows — has after 15 years launched a kickstarter to relaunch the series. In just over two weeks Joel has been wildly successful
he has just under two weeks to shoot past the Number 1 kickstarter, Veronica Mars.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k
Tomi Engdahl says:
SoundCloud Flags ‘Silence’ As Copyright Infringement
http://www.digital-digest.com/news-64282-SoundCloud-Flags-Silence-As-Copyright-Infringement.html
SoundCloud’s automated copyright take-down system tested, and fails test, as completely silent track taken down
SoundCloud’s controversial automated copyright system has flagged a completely silent track as having “copyrighted content”.
Facing ever serious threats from rights-holders, SoundCloud has implemented an automated copyright take-down system designed to detect potential copyrighted works and to remove them automatically. But unlike the more sophisticated system employed by the likes of YouTube to police similar copyright offences, SoundCloud’s system is far more controversial as it appears to be much less accurate, and much more stringent than YouTube’s ContentID.
And with SoundCloud’s content library being remix heavy, and the very definition of a remix suggesting some part of an original, copyright work is present, SoundCloud’s new copyright policy has not been popularly received.
In an attempt to protest and troll SoundCloud’s automated copyright take-down system, DJ Detweiler uploaded a “remix” of John Cage’s 4’33. A completely silent, blank remix (which technically is still a remix), and one that should not fall foul of SoundCloud’s system. But it did.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Designer’s notebook: Video circuitry
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/benchtalk/4440869/Designer-s-notebook–Video-circuitry?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20151130&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20151130&elq=89e127d101ae443d83b293b8defda113&elqCampaignId=25918&elqaid=29534&elqat=1&elqTrackId=ea011fc16e394e41886446c23776c8ca
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Nokia’s OZO 360 degree virtual reality camera for professionals is available for pre-order today for $60K, to start shipping in Q1 2016
Nokia OZO is a $60,000 360-degree camera for VR pros
http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-ozo-is-a-60000-360-degree-camera-for-vr-pros-30416438/
Nokia may not be the first name you’d associate with virtual reality, but the Finns are aiming to make a splash with OZO, their $60k VR camera. Teased back in July, and up for preorder from today, the oddly-shaped camera signifies one of Nokia Technology’s new businesses after it and its smartphone division parted ways in 2014.
Of everything we thought Nokia could do next, a 360-degree camera that looks halfway between a 2001: A Space Odyssey prop and a cyberpunk sperm probably wasn’t it. Nonetheless, even with the eye-watering price confirmed today, it’s likely to have videographers drooling.
Studding the sphere are eight cameras in total, each recording at 2K x 2K resolution. Their placement means full 360 x 180 degree recording, with a global shutter that means none of the artifacts you might expect from a rolling shutter.
Meanwhile, eight microphones record full spherical, 360 x 360 degree audio. That means not only what’s going on around the camera, but sound from different elevations above and below.
As well as opening pre-orders, Nokia has also confirmed the specifications for the camera. Each lens has a 195-degree angle of view and an f/2.4 aperture, with a base sensitivity of ISO 400 and 10 stop dynamic range.
Video is captured at 30 fps, and stored on a 500GB solid-state drive “media module”; each is good for 45 minutes of footage. Control is via a suite of remote apps for OS X and Windows, with the camera controlled over WiFi, though there are also HDMI and stereoscopic VR render outputs.
Final footage is rendered at 8K x 10K with 10-bit sRGB color.
What we shouldn’t expect is a VR viewer with the Nokia logo, nor indeed a movie download store from the firm. “We have no plans to enter the head-mounted display business,” Paul Melin, vice president of digital media at Nokia told me. “We went to partner with the entire ecosystem and be compatible with all platforms.”
That means anything from Samsung’s Gear VR accessory for its Galaxy smartphones, through to dedicated VR hardware like Oculus’ Rift and HTC’s Vive.
“We clearly see this as a new category and OZO is our first product,” Melin says. “We are entering a business and a category and not doing a one-off test product.”
More: https://ozo.nokia.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Adobe brings Premiere Clip to Android, its first video editor for Android — Adobe releases its first video editor for Android — Adobe has been starting to pay more attention to Android, and that continues today with the launch of Premiere Clip, the first video editor it’s brought to Google’s platform.
Adobe releases its first video editor for Android
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/30/9818802/premiere-clip-android-launched-announced-adobe-video-editing
Adobe has been starting to pay more attention to Android, and that continues today with the launch of Premiere Clip, the first video editor it’s brought to Google’s platform. Premiere Clip on Android is pretty much identical to Premiere Clip on iOS, which launched around this time last year: it’s an easy-to-use but surprisingly capable video editor that lets you assemble clips, adjust their look, and put music over them. For those who don’t want to do much editing themselves, the app can also automatically put together videos, matching your clips up to one of its built-in background tracks.
Though there’s no major feature updates in this release of Clip (it received a major update last month on iOS), its arrival on Android is a key step for Adobe. Adobe has been trying to make mobile tools that are as critical for creation as its desktop apps, and this is the first time it’s addressing video editing on Android.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why People Love Bass
http://www.theverge.com/video/2015/11/22/9776402/why-people-love-bass-explainer-video-music
The beat drops and people start nodding their heads. It’s a common behavior, so it’s easy to disregard. But the reasons why humans respond to a killer beat aren’t necessarily obvious.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Add Levels to Your Digital Film
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-add-levels-to-your-digital-film.html
Bird’s-eye view
This angle involves filming from directly above your actors. This is not easy to do unless you have access to a crane or a drone camera, or unless you film from a bridge.
Bird’s-eye angles can look strange and are not often used in films, but when they are, they are normally used to show scale and the area of a scene.
Crossing the Line in Digital Filmmaking
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/crossing-the-line-in-digital-filmmaking.html
As a filmmaker, the most important people to you are the audience — they’re one of the reasons you make films. It’s important to avoid upsetting or distracting your audience. One easy way to distract them is called crossing the line or crossing the axis. This happens when the audience’s view of a scene changes so drastically that viewers end up distracted or confused. This may not sound like a big deal, but to a viewer, it’s highly disorienting.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shalini Ramachandran / Wall Street Journal:
While networks benefit from TV show exposure on Hulu and other streaming services, producers worry widespread availability may hurt syndication value
Streaming Era Sets Off Battle Over TV Rights
Studios, networks, talent try to protect their interests in the emerging on-demand TV economy
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/streaming-era-sets-off-battle-over-tv-rights-1448793184-lMyQjAxMTA1OTI5OTEyMzk1Wj
When premium cable network Showtime in July started offering past seasons of “Homeland” through its channel on Hulu’s streaming service, the creators and producers of the hit counterterrorism drama sounded the alarm.
Executive producers Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon and studio 20th Century Fox feared the arrangement would eat into their profits, people familiar with their thinking said. They don’t get a cut of the money Showtime makes from subscriptions to its Hulu channel. But they do have a financial stake when old episodes of shows are sold to streaming providers such as Netflix Inc., which might not bid as much if the show were already so exposed.
The continuing dispute over “Homeland” is one of many scuffles breaking out in Hollywood as television’s various stakeholders—the studios that finance shows, the networks that air them and the talent that produces and stars in them—try to protect their interests in the emerging on-demand TV economy.
Networks such as USA, TNT, CBS, FX and Showtime increasingly want to let viewers catch up on their shows by offering all episodes that have aired during the current season, or even past seasons, via their streaming apps and cable on-demand services. They are often asking for full current seasons when they license shows for first-run airings, paying some two-thirds of the cost of production.
That is in contrast to the traditional approach of offering just a few recent episodes on a rolling basis.
The hope is that the new approach, known as “stacking” episodes, could help build audiences, boosting ratings and ad dollars in an increasingly fragmented and competitive TV landscape.
However, studios and talent benefit when reruns of TV shows, such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” are sold for the highest possible amount, and there are fears the networks are jeopardizing that pot of gold.
“They are negotiating against themselves and that may not always be in the best interest of some of the profit participants,”
Hulu pays no specific license fees for those current seasons, but its owners can choose to direct their share of monthly subscription and ad revenue to help pay for the cost of shows—so “profit participants” such as producers benefit.
Hulu’s media owners believe Hulu is a boon to show producers because it helps build audiences and spends aggressively to acquire library content.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TechCrunch:
Apple Has Acquired Faceshift, Maker Of Motion Capture Tech Used In Star Wars — As the market for virtual reality technology continues to grow, Apple has made an interesting acquisition that could further its role in the space. TechCrunch has confirmed that Apple has snapped up Faceshift …
Apple Has Acquired Faceshift, Maker Of Motion Capture Tech Used In Star Wars
http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/24/apple-faceshift/
As the market for virtual reality technology continues to grow, Apple has made an interesting acquisition that could further its role in the space. TechCrunch has confirmed that Apple has snapped up Faceshift, a startup based in Zurich that has developed technology to create animated avatars and other figures that capture a person’s facial expressions in real time.
“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
From what we understand, several Faceshift employees are now working for Apple now out of Europe.
Its main focus, so to speak, was on visual effects in areas like gaming and film. In a world where animation technology can be costly and time-consuming to implement, the startup’s main product was marketed a game changer: “Faceshift studio is a facial motion capture software solution which revolutionizes facial animation, making it possible at every desk,” according to the company.
Even so, the technology is also making an appearance at the highest level of wow: it’s used in the latest Star Wars film to make non-human characters more human-like in their expressions
Apple itself already has patents and assets across motion capture, facial recognition and augmented reality, partly by way of three other European acquisitions, respectively PrimeSense, Polar Rose and Metaio. Faceshift could complement and expand Apple’s capabilities in these areas going forward.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Chromecast Outsold Roku, Others to Become #1 Streaming Device in Q3: Report — Google’s Chromecast continues to be a hit, according to market research outlet Strategy Analytics, which estimates that the media streaming adapter accounted for 35 percent of all streaming devices sold worldwide in Q3.
Chromecast Outsold Roku, Others to Become #1 Streaming Device in Q3: Report
http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/chromecast-apple-tv-roku-sales-numbers-1201649970/
Google’s Chromecast continues to be a hit, according to market research outlet Strategy Analytics, which estimates that the media streaming adapter accounted for 35 percent of all streaming devices sold worldwide in Q3.
Apple TV was able to capture a 20 percent market share, according to the company’s most recent Global Connected TV Device Vendor Share report, with Roku and Amazon Fire TV sharing the third spot with 16 percent each.
It’s worth noting that the data doesn’t really tell us a lot about what consumers will be buying this holiday season. Amazon, Apple, Roku and Google all introduced new devices in time for the holiday season that weren’t available for sale in Q3 yet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Audio Effects on the Intel Edison
http://hackaday.com/2015/12/02/audio-effects-on-the-intel-edison/
With the ability to run a full Linux operating system, the Intel Edison board has more than enough computing power for real-time digital audio processing. [Navin] used the Atom based module to build Effecter: a digital effects processor.
Effecter is written in C, and makes use of two libraries. The MRAA library from Intel provides an API for accessing the I/O ports on the Edison module. PortAudio is the library used for capturing and playing back audio samples.
To allow for audio input and output, a sound card is needed. A cheap USB sound card takes care of this, since the Edison does not have built-in hardware for audio. The Edison itself is mounted on the Edison Arduino Breakout Board, and combined with a Grove shield from Seeed. Using the Grove system, a button, potentiometer, and LCD were added for control.
Effects processor on Intel Edison
https://navinbhaskar.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/effects-processor-on-intel-edison/
Tomi Engdahl says:
People are selling hacked subscriptions to Netflix, Spotify, HBO, and pretty much everything else, on the dark web
http://www.techinsider.io/subscriptions-to-netflix-and-hbo-on-the-dark-web-2015-11
When you think of marketplaces on the so-called “Dark Web,” that place on the internet that you can only access with special browsers that anonymize your IP address, you probably think of sites that sell drugs, weapons, and other illicit products and services.
But it’s also full of cheap subscriptions to some of the most popular legitimate streaming video and music services, like Netflix, Spotify, and HBO.
“We found pretty much everything possible available for sale,”
Indeed, a recent visit to one of these marketplace on the Dark Web by Tech Insider found that he could easily buy lifetime subscriptions to Spotify and Netflix for a fraction of the price of a monthly subscription.
What’s remarkable about this is that buying legitimate subscriptions to these services is both easy and relatively inexpensive, yet a marketplace still exists for these.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s first intelligent microphone
English Knowles says the release of its world’s first intelligent microphone. In practice, VoiIQ microphone is a device that continuously listens to its environment and adapts dynamically respective acoustic landscape.
According to the company in the market have a great need for microphones that are “always on”. The need will be, for example, speech, by responding to the digital helpers and the new hands-free devices.
These functions, however, take up a lot of power with conventional microphones implemented, says Knowles. Hence the need for an intelligent microphone that is constantly tuned for low power consumption.
When the algorithm is embedded directly into the microphone, the device detects when the audio system needs to wake up operation and when it can remain in standby or sleep state. This adaptive process to reduce substantially the power consumption of the microphone.
VoiceIQ circuit has a size of 3.50 x 2.65 x 0.98 millimeters. The power consumption is “always on” mode to 0.4 milliwatt.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3685:maailman-ensimmainen-alykas-mikrofoni&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Socionext Starts Volume Production of New “Camera Front Engine” from Milbeaut Image Processor Series
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/socionext-starts-volume-production-of-new-camera-front-engine-from-milbeaut-image-processor-series-300152675.html
Socionext America Inc., a new leader in advanced custom SoC design technology, today announced volume production of its new MB86S29, a ‘camera front engine’ specialized for Bayer data processing that accommodates new functions of the industry’s latest image sensors.
The MB86S29 is the newest Milbeaut Image Processor product from Socionext and is targeted mainly for smartphones. By accommodating new functionalities of the latest image sensors, the MB86S29 lets module makers implement these functions without replacing their application processors.
Recently, it is common to find cameras in smartphones or other mobile devices that are configured with application processors (AP) equipped with built-in image signal processor (ISP) functionalities. These APs can directly process output from image sensors, and help reduce the footprint and cost of camera modules. The MB86S29 supports this trend as a “Camera Front Engine” that replaces conventional ISPs.
The MB86S29 has 4 lanes each of 2.1Gbps MIPI Rx / Tx. It can process 16M pixel images at 30 frame per second (fps). It is also applicable for noise reduction, shading correction, and 3A (AE / AF / AWB) detection. It is available in the smallest package of any member of the Milbeaut series, at 4mm x 4mm.
Socionext Shipping Newest Milbeaut Image Processor, the MB86S27
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/socionext-shipping-newest-milbeaut-image-processor-the-mb86s27-300166680.html
Socionext America Inc., a new leader in advanced SoC design technology, is now shipping its “M-8M” series, or MB86S27, a compact image processor which is the eighth-generation product from its Milbeaut Image Processor series.
The MB86S27 is equipped with a powerful Codec Engine originally developed at Socionext, and is designed for delivering high resolution 4K video. It comes with 360-degree distortion correction and other state-of-the-art image processing functionalities suitable for high quality video with devices such as surveillance cameras, drones, action cameras and drive recorders.
The MB86S27 is designed to serve the growing need for high-definition, high-quality video in a broad range of rapidly expanding applications.
The MB86S27 features the following specifications:
CPU: ARM Cortex A5 MP 400MHz x 2 (Realos/Linux)
Connected Sensors: subLVDS 12 lanes + 3 clocks 800 Mbps/lane
Interfaces:
PCIe Gne2, 2 lanes x 1 channel, or PCIe Gen1, 1 lane x 2 channels
RGMII v1.3, 1Gbps
Network: TCP/IP, RTP/UDP/IP Offload Assist, Protocol Stack, Offload engine
Image Processing: H.264 Video Codec
Encoding: Full HD@120fps, 4K@30fps
Multi-Encoding (up to 6 streams)
Imagine Processing IP: Noise Reduction, Optimization of high sensitivity
Power Consumption: 1.3W (typical, when operating 4K@30fps)
360-degree Distortion Correction: Panorama-image, Multi-image
Super-resolution: Maximum 4x magnification
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook begins testing live video streaming for all users
Also: collages!
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/3/9838280/facebook-live-streaming
Four months after introducing live video streaming for celebrities and other high-profile users, Facebook is now rolling the feature out to everyone inside its flagship app. Starting with a small test today, Facebook users will be able to use a redesigned status menu to select “live video.” Over time, the company plans to bring it to all users. As on earlier entrants Meerkat and Periscope, Facebook’s streams display the number of live viewers, the names of friends who are watching, and real-time comments as they’re written.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Carlos Hernandez / Official Google Blog:
Google releases Cardboard Camera app for making 3D panoramas on Android that can be viewed in Cardboard VR headsets — Step inside your photos with Cardboard Camera — With Google Cardboard, you can take amazing trips to faraway places and feel like you’re actually there.
Step inside your photos with Cardboard Camera
https://googleblog.blogspot.fi/2015/12/step-inside-your-photos-with-cardboard.html
With Google Cardboard, you can take amazing trips to faraway places and feel like you’re actually there. But what if you could also use Cardboard to go back in time—to step inside personal moments like your favorite vacation or a holiday dinner with family? Now you can with the new Cardboard Camera app for Android. Cardboard Camera turns the smartphone in your pocket into a virtual reality (VR) camera. It’s simple to take a photo: just hold out your phone and move it around you in a circle. Later, when you place your phone inside a Google Cardboard viewer, you’ll get to experience something new: a VR photo.
Cardboard Camera
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr.cyclops
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: YouTube seeks streaming rights for TV shows and movies to support its new subscription service Red
YouTube Seeks Streaming Rights to TV Shows, Movies
Efforts come as YouTube looks to bolster $9.99-a-month subscription service called Red
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/youtube-seeks-streaming-right-to-tv-shows-movies-1449104356-lMyQjAxMTA1MjAyMzMwMjMyWj
YouTube is seeking streaming rights to TV series and movies to bolster its new subscription service, intensifying its rivalry with Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Hulu in the competitive market for online video.
Executives of YouTube, the Alphabet Inc. unit that is the world’s largest online-video service by viewers, have met with Hollywood studios and other production companies in recent months to consider pitches and negotiate licenses for new content, according to people familiar with the situation.
subscription service called Red
YouTube is aiming to match the success of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu by gaining streaming rights to TV shows and movies for its new YouTube Red channel, featuring YouTube stars like Felix Kjellberg, known as ‘PewDiePie.’ Photo: Getty Images
By Alistair Barr and
Ben Fritz
Dec. 2, 2015 7:59 p.m. ET
9 COMMENTS
YouTube is seeking streaming rights to TV series and movies to bolster its new subscription service, intensifying its rivalry with Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Hulu in the competitive market for online video.
Executives of YouTube, the Alphabet Inc. unit that is the world’s largest online-video service by viewers, have met with Hollywood studios and other production companies in recent months to consider pitches and negotiate licenses for new content, according to people familiar with the situation.
Susanne Daniels, the former programming chief of MTV who joined YouTube in the summer, and Kelly Merryman, a former Netflix content executive who joined YouTube in late 2014, are involved, one of the people said. They report to Robert Kyncl, another Netflix veteran who is now YouTube’s chief business officer.
Advertisement
It isn’t clear what TV series or movies YouTube is pursuing. However, YouTube is eager to secure premium videos because it recently launched a $9.99-a-month subscription service called Red, which offers ad-free videos and streaming music, the people familiar with the situation said.
The efforts appear to be at early stages. Executives at one major Hollywood studio said they haven’t talked to YouTube about licensing content.
Advertisement
YouTube has been free for viewers and supported by ads since 2007, so it must offer more to persuade people to pay.
One way is to create content, as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu have done with some success. YouTube announced a similar effort in October and plans to release at least 10 of its own movies and series, starring YouTube stars like Felix Kjellberg, known as “PewDiePie,” starting in 2016. These will only be available to Red subscribers.
A second strategy is to license movies and TV shows made by others; that is what YouTube is pursuing now. Netflix, Amazon and Hulu license many older movies and TV series that have already run elsewhere, while YouTube is focusing on new material, according to one of the people.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Little-Known Recording Trick That Makes Singers Sound Perfect
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-little-known-recording-trick-that-makes-singers-sound-perfect?trk_source=popular
Put on a Taylor Swift or Mariah Carey or Michael Jackson song and listen to the vocals. You may think the track was recorded by the artist singing the song through a few times and the producer choosing the best take to use on the record. But that’s almost never the case.
The reality is far less romantic. Listen to almost any contemporary pop or rock record and there’s a very good chance the vocals were “comped.” This is when the producer or sound engineer combs through several takes of the vocal track and cherry-picks the best phrases, words, or even syllables of each recording, then stitches them together into one flawless “composite” master track.
Though it’s unknown to most listeners, comping’s been standard practice in the recording industry for decades. Everyone does it—“even the best best best best singers,”
“Comping doesn’t have to do with the quality of the vocalist,” Lewis says. “Back in the Michael Jackson days—and Michael Jackson was an incredible singer—they used to comp 48 tracks together, from what I’ve read and what I’ve heard.”
The process works like this: A singer records the song through a handful of times in the studio, either from start to finish or isolating particularly tricky spots. Starting with between 4-10 takes is typical—too many passes can drain the artist’s energy and confidence and also bog down the editing process later.
The engineer generally follows along during the studio recording with a lyric sheet and jots down notes to use as a guide for later, marking whether a phrase was very good, good, bad, sharp or flat, and so on.
When the session’s over, they listen closely to each section of each take, playing the line back on loop with the volume jacked up twice as high as it will be in the final mix.
Timing, tone, attitude, emotion, personality, and how each phrase or word fits in context with the other instruments and the rest of the vocal track can trump pitch perfection. Those little quirky gems add character and emotion to the track—they’re what the listener remembers.
The recording engineer picks out the best take for each bit of the song and edits all the pieces together, usually in a digital audio workstation (DAW) like Pro Tools.
Christina Aguilera’s song “Here to Stay” was compiled from 100 different takes.
Listen closely to Adele’s hit “Someone Like You” and you can hear that in the first couple verses the opening breath is missing
As you can imagine, the whole process is incredibly tedious and time consuming; it can take hours, even days. “That’s why these records are expensive,” said engineer Mark Bright in an interview with Bobby Owsinski, author of The Music Producer’s Handbook.
But while pop songs are often accused of being sterile, artificial, or overproduced, each producer I talked to said this is not the result of comping.
Comping gets a bad rap because it’s lumped in with other editing tools like pitch correction and auto-tune, but “it is almost unreservedly a good thing,” Senior says.
Pushing the limit and taking chances is what leads to those gems that can make a whole track, says Lewis. “That’s one of the beauties of comping—you get to search for the most magical piece of every take.”
“People have a very idealistic view of a producer or recording engineer’s job. If people really knew how records were made, they’d be much more jaded,” says Lewis. “But if you go into record making with the idea that you need to sing the song down from start to finish, come what may, you will rarely find the true magic.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ruth Reader / VentureBeat:
Vimeo to roll out 4K video streaming on its website as well as Android, iOS, Amazon TV, and Roku apps
http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/03/vimeo-announces-4k-video-streaming-for-all/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jamie Condliffe / Gizmodo:
Sony Has Bought Toshiba’s Image Sensor Division for $155 Million — Following a series of negotiations, Sony has announced that it’s buying Toshiba’s image sensor business for 19 billion yen—which is about $155 million. — The deal, rumored in October, will see Sony take over Toshiba’s …
Sony Has Bought Toshiba’s Image Sensor Division for $155 Million
http://gizmodo.com/sony-has-bought-toshibas-image-sensor-division-for-155-1746148853
Following a series of negotiations, Sony has announced that it’s buying Toshiba’s image sensor business for 19 billion yen—which is about $155 million.
The deal, rumored in October, will see Sony take over Toshiba’s fabrication plants, equipment and employee contracts in Oita, Japan. In fact, they’ll be operated by Sony’s recently announced independent image sensor business. The deal will be completed by the end of this financial year.
Image sensors are important for Sony. Last year, for example, it made around 40 percent of all new image sensors in the market, and every iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 that was shipped likely had two Sony image sensors packed inside. The new purchase will see it grow further dominance in the area.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stephen Hall / 9to5Google:
Google launches Unity plugin to help developers make Chromecast-compatible games — Google has today launched the Google Cast Remote Display plugin for Unity, in hopes that developers will now be able to more easily bring their mobile games to the TV. This is the same plugin that many games …
Google launches Unity plugin to help developers make Chromecast-compatible games
http://9to5google.com/2015/12/03/google-launches-unity-plugin-to-help-developers-make-chromecast-compatible-games/
Google has today launched the Google Cast Remote Display plugin for Unity, in hopes that developers will now be able to more easily bring their mobile games to the TV. This is the same plugin that many games on the Play Store — including Monopoly Here & Now, Risk, and more — already use…
Google says that, as of today, developers can download the new Remote Display plugin for Unity from both GitHub and the Unity Asset Store.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:
Rdio to lay off 123 by December 31, over 50% of its employees, following Pandora acquisition; Pandora says it has given job offers to around 100 Rdio employees — Rdio is laying off more than half of its employees following Pandora acquisition — Online radio company Pandora’s $75 million acquisition …
http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/03/pandora-is-laying-off-more-than-half-of-rdio-employees-following-acquisition/