Audio and video trends 2018

841 Comments

1. May 8, 2018 at 11:22 am

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Cisco selling video business unit
   http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2018/05/cisco-selling-video-business-unit.html?cmpid=enl_btr_video_technology_2018-05-07&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24

   Permira Funds has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Cisco’s (NASDAQ:CSCO) Service Provider Video Software Solutions (SPVSS) business. Following the close of the transaction, Permira Funds plans to create a new, rebranded company focused on developing and delivering video solutions for the pay TV industry.

   The new company will encompass Cisco’s Infinite Video Platform, cloud digital video recording, video processing, video security, video middleware, and services groups. Dr. Abe Peled, former chairman and CEO of NDS and adviser to Permira Funds, will serve as chairman of the new company. The sale of the Cisco SPVSS business has been approved by Cisco’s board of directors.

   Reply
2. May 9, 2018 at 8:53 am

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Cord cutting bad globally, but worst in the U.S.: IHS Markit
   http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2018/05/cord-cutting-bad-globally-but-worst-in-the-us-ihs-markit-says.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_network_technology_2018-05-08&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24

   If you’re a U.S. cable operator unhappy with the cord-cutting within your subscriber base, IHS Markit (NASDAQ: INFO) would like you to know that it’s not just you. A new report from the market research firm indicates that 14 markets around the world saw a drop in pay TV subscriptions last year. Of course, the effect was worst in the U.S. – but you may have felt a bit better for a few seconds, right?

   In addition to service providers in the United States, pay TV suppliers in Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Israel, Venezuela and Ireland saw cord cutting and other factors decrease their subscriber numbers in 2017, according to IHS Markit. “The cord-cutting woes of pay TV companies in the U.S. have been well publicized,” said Ted Hall, director of research and analysis for TV and video at IHS Markit. “Although the rest of the world has been broadly resisting the trend, other markets have also experienced pay TV subscription losses.”

   Reply
3. May 9, 2018 at 12:43 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Consumer audio: Is accurate sound overrated?
   https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/20-20khz/4395012/Consumer-audio–Is-accurate-sound-overrated–

   The author of CNET’s The Audiophiliac blog recently asked, “Who wants perfectly accurate sound?” His answer? Most headphone and speaker buyers prefer less accurate sound reproduction.

   This may be the case (although he doesn’t supply any real evidence to support this assertion). If so, so be it. However he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to suggest that “accuracy” – in this case apparently represented by frequency response – is somehow not an important design criterion for a consumer audio product, and that, in fact, “truly accurate products don’t sell.”

   This all ties in with the typical audiophile view that designing audio equipment is more of an art than a science. In fact, many audiophiles dismiss the idea of measurements altogether, and shudder at the thought of audio equipment being designed by mere engineers relying on measurements.
   Instead, according to audiophile orthodoxy, the “best” audio equipment is designed only by audio designers with “great ears,” because they “know what good sound sounds like.”

   Needless to say, most people making this claim – including “The Audiophiliac” – have little or no technical background. So it’s not surprising to see similar such comments in his latest article, including “measurements have little to do with the sound of music” and “the real goal of a hi-fi is to play music and not test tones.”

   Of course such “audiofool” notions are easily refuted.

   One of the underlying points the author uses to support his “accuracy isn’t all that important” argument is that if all high-end headphones and speakers were designed primarily for “accuracy” they would all sound very similar. But, he says, they’re “not even close.”

   And finally there is the notion that somehow audio “accuracy” implies a certain sound quality. In fact it implies the opposite – a lack of coloration. A more accurate product will be more “transparent” in reproducing the original source. If a product designed for accuracy doesn’t “sound good,” then where does the “blame” lie – with the product itself, the source material, or the listener’s biases?

   Reply
4. May 11, 2018 at 6:49 am

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   HDMI Over…The HUMAN BODY?!
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZXxr6BbACo

   This device can transit HDMI over any wire up to 2 miles away!…or through water…or nerds.

   https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/916843-hdmi-overthe-human-body/

   Seems like a useless product to me. Even if you need to send a HDMI signal 2 miles. Even using Ethernet seems like a bad idea to me. Say your Ethernet wire cost 5 cents per foot at two miles your looking at ~$528.00, another $300 for the transmitter, the receiver. and then the time and work needed to trench / run a 2 mile long cable. So total cost of over $800+ not counting the work for the 2 mile wire run.

   https://sewelldirect.com/hl24-hdmi-over-2-conductor-wire-

   Reply
5. May 11, 2018 at 10:46 am

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   CMOS Image Sensor Sales Stay on Record-Breaking Pace
   http://www.icinsights.com/news/bulletins/CMOS-Image-Sensor-Sales-Stay-On-RecordBreaking-Pace/

   Embedded imaging applications in cars, security, machine vision, medical, virtual reality, and other new uses will offset slow growth in camera phones, says new report.

   CMOS image sensors continue to take marketshare from charge-coupled devices (CCDs) as embedded digital-imaging capabilities expand into a wider range of systems and new end-use applications, says the 2018 O-S-D Report. With the smartphone market maturing, sales growth in CMOS image sensors slowed to 6% in 2016, but strong demand in other imaging applications played a major factor in boosting revenues by 19% to $12.5 billion last year. Sales of CCD and other image sensor technologies fell 2% in 2017 to about $1.6 billion after rising 5% in 2016, according to the new IC Insights report.

   Overall, CMOS image sensors grabbed 89% of total image sensor sales in 2017 compared to 74% in 2012 and 54% in 2007. Unit shipments of CMOS imaging devices represented 81% of total image sensors sold in 2017 compared to 64% in 2012 and 63% in 2007. New CMOS designs keep improving for a variety of light levels (including near darkness at night), high-speed imaging, and greater resolution as well as integrating more functions for specific applications, such as security video cameras, machine vision in robots and cars, human recognition, hand-gesture interfaces, virtual/augmented reality, and medical systems.

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6. May 14, 2018 at 4:17 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Impossibly Huge Depth of Focus in Microscope Photographs
   https://hackaday.com/2018/05/11/impossibly-huge-depth-of-focus-in-microscope-photographs/

   Sometimes, less is more. Sometimes, more is more. There is a type of person who believes that if enough photos of the same subject are taken, one of them will shine above the rest as a gleaming example of what is possible with a phone camera and a steady hand. Other people know how to frame a picture before hitting the shutter button. In some cases, the best method may be snapping a handful of photos to get one good one, not by chance, but by design.

   [The Thought Emporium]’s video, also below the break, is about getting crisp pictures from a DSLR camera and a microscope using focus stacking, sometimes called image stacking. The premise is to take a series of photos that each have a different part of the subject in focus.

   Focus Stacking: The Secret to Beautiful Photos
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfI_rEGyDw

   Reply
7. May 15, 2018 at 7:24 am

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Multi Room HDMI – Wireless, HDMI over IP, Powerlines, HDMI over Ethernet
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFhx8Zy95IY

   Hi, this video shows various different way to get HDMI working in a different room or multiple rooms in your property. It is ideal if you want to watch your Virgin Media or Sky Box in other rooms without paying for extra boxes.

   Reply
8. May 16, 2018 at 1:55 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   On Nokia’s campus in Espoo, Chile, today is what is the future of the television. Demonstrating 5G-broadcast technology together with Qualcomm, Nokia, MTV, Elisa, ENENSYS Technologies, Bittium and Yle.

   It is intended in practice to show that the distribution of the TV signal is viable with the 5G technology. 3GPP has defined certain requirements for the distribution of television signal over the 5G network and this entity is standardized by the term enTV (enhanced TV). It is part of 3GPP’s Release 14 definitions.

   EnTV extensions to the Release 14 standard introduce practically to operators a number of radio interface enhancements that can improve coverage across the mobile network and increase network capacity. EnTV broadcasts can also be monitored on devices that do not have a SIM card or subscription contract for content.

   Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8003-nokian-kampuksella-demotaan-tulevaisuuden-televisiota

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9. May 16, 2018 at 8:05 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   The current state of Linux video editing 2018
   https://opensource.com/article/18/4/new-state-video-editing-linux?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY

   Linux is a big deal in modern movie-making. Whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional, you can find Linux software that meets your needs.

   Reply
10. May 16, 2018 at 8:11 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    This 7.3-gigapixel panorama ‘timelapse’ of London is made from 6,240 D850 pictures
    https://m.dpreview.com/news/5760577529/this-7-3-gigapixel-panorama-timelapse-of-london-is-made-from-6-240-d850-pictures

    Photographer Henry Stuart has created a 24-hour panoramic timelapse image of London that combines 6,240 raw photographs to form a picture that contains over 7 billion pixels.

    Captured through a Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 300mm F2.8 lens using a robotic mount by Nikon-owned robotics company Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC), the 155° view presents the city in an incredible amount of detail

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11. May 18, 2018 at 6:43 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Laurel or Yanny explained: why do some people hear a different word?
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/16/yanny-or-laurel-sound-illusion-sets-off-ear-splitting-arguments?CMP=fb_gu

    Original audio clip comes from vocabulary.com and features voice repeating one word – but which one do you hear?

    Reply
12. May 19, 2018 at 5:53 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Just What The Hell Is Going On In This Latest Viral Audio Illusion?
    http://www.iflscience.com/brain/just-what-the-hell-is-going-on-in-this-latest-viral-audio-illusion/

    Reply
13. May 19, 2018 at 8:10 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ernie Smith / Motherboard:
    A history of the music industry’s first efforts at creating music streaming services after Napster and why they failed given the importance of streaming now

    How the Music Industry Messed Up Legal Streaming the First Time Around
    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/435d9d/how-the-music-industry-messed-up-legal-streaming-the-first-time-around

    Lessons from the music industry’s initial consumer-hostile reaction to the Napster saga. Going from $16 CDs to unlimited streaming is really hard.

    Reply
14. May 20, 2018 at 7:31 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Janko Roettgers / Variety:
    Analysis: Amazon Channels, which resells subscriptions to HBO, Showtime, and others, now accounts for 55% of à la carte direct-to-consumer video subscriptions — Amazon has quietly become a major player in the subscription video sales business: Amazon Channels, the company’s platform …

    New Amazon Channels Data Shows Why Apple Wants to Copy It
    http://variety.com/2018/digital/news/amazon-channels-data-1202815573/

    Reply
15. May 21, 2018 at 9:57 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    AV systems are only as good as the cables and connectivity between them. AV manufacturers will continue to launch new products requiring increasingly higher performance cable and connectivity to meet system specifications

    Reply
16. May 23, 2018 at 2:38 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    NIR sensor enhances night surveillance
    https://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4460602/NIR-sensor-enhances-night-surveillance

    OmniVision’s OS08A20 8 Mpixel near-infrared imaging sensor captures ultra-high–definition video and images under all lighting conditions, even at night. This makes the color CMOS sensor a good choice for professional surveillance systems and body cameras for law enforcement, where accurate object and facial recognition is aided by higher resolution and sensitivity.

    The OS08A20 handles a wide range of resolution formats and frame rates, including 4K2K (3840×2160) in a 16:9 aspect ratio at 60 fps, quad HD (2360×1440) at 60 fps, and full 1080p HD (1920×1080) at 120 fps. It features a 2×2 micron pixel size and a ½ in. optical format.

    http://www.ovt.com/sensors/OS08A20

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17. May 24, 2018 at 7:37 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Do You Hear “Yanny” or “Laurel”? (SOLVED with SCIENCE)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDiXQl7grPQ

    Yanny vs. Laurel audio illusion solved! PHEW FINALLY!

    Reply
18. May 25, 2018 at 9:15 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Implantable fiber-optic sensor tested as a potential hearing aid
    https://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2018/05/implantable-fiber-optic-sensor-tested-as-a-potential-hearing-aid.html?cmpid=enl_bow_newsletter_2018-05-24&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2115774

    Hearing aids should be heard, not seen. And this is precisely what fully surgically implantable hearing devices can deliver. Their Achilles heel is the microphones, which receive sounds and use a sophisticated process to transform them into impulses for the acoustic nerves. It is essential that they can function error-free inside the human body for many years. With existing technology, this is only possible to a limited extent, so new solutions are urgently needed.

    “The ability to pick up sound from the ossicles is a huge advantage because it fully preserves the natural amplification function of the outer ear and the eardrum. On the technological side, this also minimises signal distortion and feedback.”

    However, with a view to deploying the system in the human ear, Sprinzl and his colleagues needed to address a number of fundamental requirements. For example, they had to develop the operative procedure for the implantation, as well as the means of “targeting” the laser used for sensing. Sprinzl, who performs over 1,000 implants of various types of hearing aid each year, noted, “Obviously, we did not carry out this development work on people. Instead, we used artificial and animal models, which allowed us to optimise the quality of the ossicle vibration sensing system.”

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19. May 25, 2018 at 12:37 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Smart home: Opportunities and challenges
    https://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2018/05/smart-home-opportunities-and-challenges.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_network_technology_2018-05-22&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24

    According to Parks Associates, more than 50% of U.S. broadband households own a smart TV and more than 40% own a streaming media player, creating both opportunities and challenges in the smart home and “connected everything” world.

    “The rise of voice control enables consumers to control their cameras and sensors and their streaming service through the same interface,” said Jennifer Kent, director of Research Quality & Product Development at Parks Associates. “This desire for simplicity drives their choice of connected platforms.”

    “Consumers have begun to embrace a variety of devices, including smart speakers, smart TVs with voice control, and everything from smart locks to connected thermostats, and even smart refrigerators,”

    Reply
20. May 25, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    The future of radio may well be digital, but it won’t survive on DAB
    It’s neither the best technology, nor the most adaptable
    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/22/digital_future_is_not_dab/

    Radio in the UK passed a significant milestone on 17 May. For the first time, more than half of Brits now access radio digitally.

    According to Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR), the figures have risen from 49.9 per cent in the last quarter of 2017 to 50.9 in the first three months of 2018.

    Passing the 50 per cent digital marker has been the point at which government said it will look at setting a date for the digital radio switchover.

    That, though, is looking less likely than it did just a few months ago. The BBC’s distribution strategy then the March speech by director of radio and music Bob Shennan make it clear that Auntie is in no hurry to see it happen – and when it does, it may not be DAB that we’ll be switching to.

    The first BBC DAB ensemble – the digital radio equivalent of digital TV’s multiplexes – went on air in 1995, covering the London area.

    Ofcom’s data on sales shows a remarkably static number from 2010 to 2016, with 1.9 million DAB sets sold in the first three of those years, falling to 1.8, then 1.7 and finally 1.6 million in each of 2015 and 2016. Radio sales overall are down, but analogue sets are still outselling digital by two to one. Anecdotally, too, there’s a common reason why some aren’t sold on DAB.

    Sounds peculiar

    If there’s been a consistent criticism of DAB in the UK, it’s sound quality. Even in London, very often coverage can be ropy, especially indoors. Long-time DAB users will be familiar with the sort of warbling underwater sounds that arguably are far more annoying than the background hiss of a weak FM signal.

    Just as with Freeview, when DAB launched, it used a stable, established technology in the form of MPEG audio. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that

    bit rates have dropped to accommodate more channels in the same bandwidth

    192Kbps. Most other BBC music stations are at 128Kbps

    The DAB+ standard offers some hope as it uses the far more efficient HE-AAC encoding, but although sets marked with the “Digital Radio” tick have to support DAB+ – it’s been a requirement since 2013 – and it’s used for a handful of newer services, there are no plans to switch over completely as other countries have done.

    In a way, this is a similar situation to that on Freeview, where there will probably always be core muxes using DVB-T, rather than DVB-T2.

    Switching to DAB+, the argument against goes, would make many older receivers obsolete.

    DAB’s single-frequency network may mean no retuning as you drive around the country – a problem largely solved for FM by the RDS protocol anyway – but if there’s no coverage where you’re driving, that’s not much consolation.

    Reply
21. May 25, 2018 at 1:14 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    How to Make Your 120Hz or 144Hz Monitor Use Its Advertised Refresh Rate
    https://www.howtogeek.com/267650/how-to-make-your-120hz-or-144hz-monitor-use-its-advertised-refresh-rate/

    Reply
22. May 25, 2018 at 1:25 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    After tens of thousands of pre-orders, 3D audio headphones startup Ossic disappears
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/20/after-tens-of-thousands-of-pre-orders-high-end-3d-headphones-startup-ossic-disappears/

    Reply
23. May 26, 2018 at 6:16 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Micah Singleton / The Verge:
    YouTube Music review: easy to use with an excellent home screen and recommendation engine but confusing price structure and missing power user features

    YouTube Music finally gets it right
    https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/25/17391686/youtube-music-review

    After years of false starts, YouTube is now serious about music streaming

    Reply
24. May 27, 2018 at 10:09 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Bryn Elise Sandberg / Hollywood Reporter:
    Studios band media arms together, offering deals for TV, film, and shortform video to talent in order to compete with Netflix’s deep pockets

    TV’s Arms Race for Talent Is Blowing Up Traditional Studio Deals
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-tv-studios-are-scrambling-keep-talent-age-netflix-1113925

    With deep-pocketed Netflix poaching hitmakers Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy with nine-figure paydays, rivals are “going bats— crazy” and leveraging their broad assets to secure creators amid “insane” bidding wars.

    “The Shonda deal was a shot across the bow, and the Ryan Murphy deal was a punch in the face.”

    That’s one business affairs executive’s assessment of the way Netflix dramatically disrupted the overall deals market with back-to-back nine-figure pacts for two of TV’s top creators. Now traditional studios are left scrambling — looking at their tentpole players and asking, “How do we keep them?”

    Reply
25. May 27, 2018 at 10:11 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Reuters:
    In a final ruling, Egypt’s court orders regulators to block YouTube for one month over the 2012 “Innocence of Muslims” video that denigrates Prophet Mohammad

    Top Egypt court orders temporary YouTube ban over Prophet Mohammad video
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-youtube/top-egypt-court-orders-temporary-youtube-ban-over-prophet-mohammad-video-idUSKCN1IR0FD

    Egypt’s top administrative court ruled on Saturday that regulators must block the video file-sharing site YouTube for one month over a video that denigrates the Prophet Mohammad, a lawyer who filed the case told Reuters.

    A lower administrative court had ordered that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology block YouTube, owned by Google, in 2013 over the video, but the case was appealed and its ruling stayed during the appeal process.

    Reply
26. May 27, 2018 at 9:28 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    9 Ways Music Producers Kill Themselves (and How to Fight Back)
    https://zenchamusic.com/2012/05/12/9-common-ways-music-producers-kill-their-creativity-and-how-to-fight-back/

    As artists, we’re often our own worst enemies. Here’s a list of negative thoughts you may experience and how to deal with them.

    Reply
27. May 28, 2018 at 9:23 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Patrick Brzeski / Hollywood Reporter:
    iQiyi debuts its first on-demand physical movie theater in China, with mini-theaters seating two to 10, that users can rent by the hour to watch iQiyi’s content — The company plans to build physical cinemas in major cities across China. — Beijing-based streaming-video giant iQiyi …

    China’s iQiyi Launches On-Demand Movie Theater Business
    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chinas-iqiyi-launches-demand-movie-theater-business-1113855

    The company plans to build physical cinemas in major cities across China.

    The Yuke model represents iQiyi’s first major push into the offline space. The company, which went public on the Nasdaq earlier this year, is believed to be a narrow leader in the Chinese streaming-video market, with an estimated 61.3 million paid subscribers as of March. iQiyi has sizable content licensing deals with partners such as Netflix, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Fox and NBCUniversal.

    Yuan Yang / Financial Times:
    Baidu says its video streaming service iQiyi saw video uploads increase 20x from 2014 to 2017, but with machine learning, censorship staff only doubled to 500
    http://t.co/8JDuh1O5oy

    Reply
28. May 29, 2018 at 7:59 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Jeff Baumgartner / Multichannel News:
    Verizon seems to abandon plans to build its own OTT service as CEO says it wants to partner with an existing OTT service to deliver Oath digital content

    Verizon Drops Plan to Build its Own OTT TV Service
    CEO says company will partner with an existing player that can integrate digital content from Oath
    https://www.multichannel.com/blog/verizon-drops-plan-build-own-ott-tv-service

    Realizing that creating something that is truly differentiated and given the general decline of “linear” TV, Verizon has shifted gears and decided it would rather partner up with an existing OTT TV player and try to create something a bit different by integrating digital content from Oath, the unit that runs Yahoo and AOL.

    “Our view is that we should partner with those that are in the linear game,”

    McAdam stressed that Verizon likewise won’t be investing more deeply into the linear TV arena, and saying he doesn’t believe that traditional TV has a bright future would be an understatement.

    “I think the linear model is dead; it’s just going to take a long time to die,” he said.

    “We’re much more into the digital area,”

    Reply
29. May 30, 2018 at 1:06 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    CMOS image sensors have been replacing traditional CCD based imagers for most consumer applications due to the integration possibilities of on-chip readout electronics. Still, CCD technology is superior in terms of noise when it comes to transfer of charge whereas CMOS is suffering from noise in the voltage domain. On the other hand, CCD technology does not allow integrated complex readout on-chip, resulting in a complex system.

    Source: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1190866&tp_key=22a501244f&sti=ws

    Reply
30. May 30, 2018 at 1:11 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    10 ways non-visible imaging technology is being deployed today
    https://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2017/10/10-ways-non-visible-imaging-technology-is-being-deployed-today.html?cmpid=enl_vsd_vsd_newsletter_2018-05-30&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2121218

    Reply
31. May 30, 2018 at 8:47 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
    Oculus rolls out Oculus Venues, its platform for watching live sporting events, concerts, and other media in VR — Oculus wants VR to bring its users into magical worlds dreamed up by game developers, but the company also needs people to see the headset as a way to access the far corners of the real world alongside others.

    Oculus launches Venues app with a robust lineup of summer events
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/oculus-launches-venues-app-with-a-robust-lineup-of-summer-events/?guccounter=1

    Reply
32. May 30, 2018 at 8:48 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ryan Smith / AnandTech:
    Qualcomm announces Snapdragon XR1, company’s first dedicated platform/SoC for VR, AR, and mixed reality headsets, coming late 2018 — For the better part of the past few years now, Qualcomm has been making a serious and concentrated effort to establish themselves as the dominant player in the mobile VR space.

    Qualcomm Announces XR1 Platform: Dedicated SoC for VR/XR Headsets, Coming Late 2018
    by Ryan Smith on May 29, 2018 10:30 PM EST
    https://www.anandtech.com/show/12793/qualcomm-xr1

    Reply
33. May 31, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Canon has sold its last film camera
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/31/canon-has-sold-its-last-film-camera/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook

    Mark this date on your calendar. It’s the end of yet another tech era. Though, granted, this one’s been been death rattling for nearly a decade now. Canon this week announced with no fanfare that it’s sold its last film camera.

    it’s the end of an era, nonetheless, marking the first time Canon hasn’t offered a film camera since the 30s

    some other brands are still supporting film in one form or other, including, notably, Nikon

    Reply
34. June 4, 2018 at 8:57 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Max Willens / Digiday:
    Delivering exclusive or early-access podcasts is expensive, labor-intensive, or leaky as dominant platforms by Apple and Google don’t support paywalling content — In theory, premium podcasts should be a great tool for publishers that want to retain and grow their subscriber bases.

    ‘A pain in the ass for users’: Subscription publishers wrestle with delivering exclusive audio
    https://digiday.com/media/pain-ass-users-subscription-publishers-wrestle-delivering-exclusive-audio/

    In theory, premium podcasts should be a great tool for publishers that want to retain and grow their subscriber bases. In practice, they’re mostly a headache.

    The New York Times and Slate (and, yes, Digiday) offer either early or exclusive podcast access to their subscribers, but there is no easy way to deliver that kind of content through Apple and Google, the two dominant podcast platforms.

    Workarounds are labor-intensive, expensive or leaky. And while only a handful of publishers have this problem — less than 5 percent of the 44,000 podcasts hosted by Liberated Syndication, better known as Libsyn, offer a premium tier, said Rob Walch, the company’s vp of podcaster relations — the lack of a simple solution also means some publishers have dropped exclusive podcasts out of their subscription offerings or may hesitate to include them in the future.

    “It is a pain in the ass for us, and more importantly, it’s a pain in the ass for users,”

    Over the past five years, podcasting has grown from a desktop-dominant medium to a mobile-dominated one. More than three-quarters of podcast listeners say they typically listen to podcasts on a mobile device rather than a desktop, up from 42 percent in 2013, according to Edison Research.

    Moving to a standalone app comes with its own problems.

    Just setting up and hosting a separate feed adds extra costs as well. While there are a number of hosting solutions, the costs for a paywalled or private feed are “just ridiculous,”

    Publishers simply looking for a way to extract consumer revenue from their podcasts have more options at their disposal, like setting up a Patreon or adding themselves to a bundle such as Stitcher Premium. But for publishers that haven’t made podcasts a centerpiece of their content, the hurdles may discourage some from including premium shows in their subscription packages.

    Reply
35. June 4, 2018 at 12:59 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    CoaXPress 2.0: Twice the speed, lower Costs, greater flexibility
    https://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2018/05/coaxpress-2-0-twice-the-speed-lower-costs-greater-flexibility.html?cmpid=enl_vsd_vsd_newsletter_2018-06-04&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2123684

    As price pressures increase due to global competitiveness, productivity remains the key focus for successful manufacturers with 100% quality assurance its Holy Grail. Machine vision, with its ability to pinpoint the most minute defect or flaw, has long been considered a means for achieving higher quality and therefore, greater productivity. The CoaXPress standard has made this promise a reality for larger manufacturers across a spectrum of industries in high-end inspection applications.

    Launched less than a decade ago, CoaXPress has carved out a market niche on the quality-sensitive, high-speed end of the machine vision spectrum. With prices dropping for single-link CXP cameras and frame grabbers, CoaXPress has positioned itself to move into mainstream applications that were once the province of Camera Link and GigE Vision.

    CoaXPress or “CXP” has become a leading standard for high-end machine vision, and in such diverse fields as life sciences, security, and defense where use of coaxial cable is prevalent. CXP delivers high-speed asymmetric serial data over a maximum 100-meters of standard 75-ohm coaxial cable. It supports speeds up to 6.25Gbps, although the use of multiple cables allows scaling of bandwidth to meet the needs of a specific application. Additionally, CXP supplies power to the camera via PoCXP, plus controls the camera — all over the same coaxial cable.

    Even by machine vision standards, CoaXPress has evolved rapidly. In 2015 the successor of CoaXPress 1.1.1 was launched: CoaXPress 1.2. Along with technical clarifications and minor corrections of the specification, CoaXPress 1.2 introduced screw-on coupling DIN connectors for needed robustness against shocks and vibration, especially for in-vehicle systems.

    The next generation of CXP, CoaXPress 2.0, promises much more. The final draft of CoaXPress 2.0 will be ready by the fourth quarter of 2017 with the first certified products expected at the end of this year or early 2018. Central to this updated standard is the unprecedented speed to achieve blazingly fast frame rates and larger camera resolutions. CoaXPress 2.0 extends data transfer rates to an unheard of 10 Gbit/s (CXP-10) and 12.5 Gbit/s (CXP-12) per connection from the existing standard’s 6.25 Gbit/s maximum data transfer rate support.

    Consider this: With only two cables and CXP-12 connections, maximum data transfer rate is 25 Gbps, or 2.5 GByte/s. That will operate a 10-bit 12-megapixel area-scan sensor at more than 150 images per second, or an 8-bit 16k line-scan sensor at 150 thousand lines/s. Because the amount of data may exceed the host PC’s processing power, CoaXPress 2.0 supports the distributing of camera data to several PCs in parallel, permitting them to delegate the workload. Uplink speed is doubled for both CXP-10 and CXP-12, making it possible for trigger rates exceeding 500kHz without a dedicated high-speed uplink cable.

    Reply
36. June 4, 2018 at 1:00 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    International vision standards meeting spring 2018: New standards in machine vision
    https://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2018/05/international-vision-standards-meeting-spring-2018-new-standards-in-machine-vision.html?cmpid=enl_vsd_vsd_newsletter_2018-06-04&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2123684

    Hosted by Silicon Software in cooperation with VDMA Machine Vision—and held at the VDMA building—the event resulted in all working groups making significant progress in their respective areas. This included the G3-accepted standards of GenICam, GigE Vision, CoaXPress, Camera Link, Camera Link HS, USB3 Vision and VDI/VDE/VDMA 2632, as well as the VDMA OPC Vision Initiative – the latest G3 standardization project.

    Reply
37. June 4, 2018 at 1:48 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Taking Photographs Does Something Extremely Weird To Your Memory, And No One Knows Why
    http://www.iflscience.com/brain/taking-photographs-does-something-extremely-weird-to-your-memory-and-no-one-knows-why/

    Specifically, if you take a photograph of something, it impairs your ability to remember it or the event associated with it, even if you don’t end up keeping the photograph. Although curious, this isn’t the first to describe the phenomenon, which dates back to around 2013.

    This earlier paper, by psychologist Linda Henkel of Fairfield University, found that people had a poorer recall for objects, and for the objects’ specific details, when they took photographs of them.

    Reply
38. June 5, 2018 at 10:40 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Impossible Active Audio Noise Cancelling by Muzo
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCW5HUkrr-o

    Reply
39. June 6, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
    Facebook tests Lip Sync Live feature to compete with musical.ly and says users can now upload videos with copyrighted music

    Facebook allows videos with copyrighted music, tests Lip Sync Live
    No more takedowns. Look out, musical.ly
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/05/facebook-lip-sync-live/

    Facebook users will no longer have their uploaded videos with copyrighted background music taken down thanks to a slew of deals with all the major record labels plus many indies.

    Facebook is also starting to test a feature designed to steal users from teen sensation app Musically. Facebook’s new Lip Sync Live lets users pick a popular song to pretend to sing on a Facebook Live broadcast. Hundreds of songs will be available to start

    Reply
40. June 7, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    At last: Magic Leap reveals its revolutionary techno-goggles – but wait, there’s a catch
    Look – there it is. Sorry no time for trick questions
    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/06/06/magic_leap_revealed/

    After years of promises, augmented-reality hype-machine Magic Leap finally revealed its hardware… in the most bizarre way imaginable.

    The American upstart promised a “closer look” at its Magic Leap One headset earlier this week, raising hopes that it would actually demonstrate a technology that it has been talking about in revolutionary terms since 2016.

    The one question that was asked, again and again and again, was about the field of view (FOV) of the device. This is a critical component of any virtual or augmented reality gizmo. In order to be immersive, the broader the field of the view, the better.

    In everyday life, walking around, human beings have a horizontal field range of 155 degrees and vertical field range of 135 degrees. That is how we experience the world. But that it very difficult to achieve with a headset, and with every degree that that field of view diminishes so does the sense of immersion.

    In terms of headsets on the market, the most high-end products, the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, offer 110 degrees. The lower-end Samsung Gear VR and PlayStation VR offer 100. And the lowest end Google Cardboard offers 90.

    Critically, MagicLeap’s main competitor – Microsoft’s HoloLens – offers 90 to 100 degrees. Some argue this doesn’t matter because it is an AR headset where you see the real world through the visor, and so there is less of a sense of disorientation. But in reality, anything less than 90 is going to be a problem.

    speculation that the Magic Leap FOV may be as low as 45 degrees – which is the equivalent to a driver’s side mirror

    Reply
41. June 7, 2018 at 2:21 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Pocket Projector Uses Raspberry Pi
    https://hackaday.com/2018/06/06/pocket-projector-uses-raspberry-pi/

    Who doesn’t want a pocket protector projector? Nothing will impress a date more than being able to whip out a PowerPoint presentation of your latest trip to the comic book convention. The key to [MickMake] build is the $100 DLP2000EVM evaluation module from Texas Instruments. This is an inexpensive light engine, and perfect for rolling your own projector. You can see the result in the video below.

    If you don’t need compactness, you could drive the module with any Rasberry Pi or even a regular computer. But to get that pocket form factor, a Pi Zero W fits the bill. A custom PCB from [MickMake] lets the board fit in with the DLP module in a very small form factor.

    Make Your Own Portable Pocket Sized Pi Zero-Powered Projector
    https://www.electromaker.io/blog/article/make-your-own-portable-pocket-sized-pi-zero-powered-projector

    Reply
42. June 7, 2018 at 2:22 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Stars Looking A Bit Dim? Throw Some Math At Them.
    https://hackaday.com/2018/06/06/stars-looking-a-bit-dim-throw-some-math-at-them/

    As the cost of high-resolution images sensors gets lower, and the availability of small and cheap single board computers skyrockets, we are starting to see more astrophotography projects than ever before. When you can put a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero and a decent webcam outside in a box to take autonomous pictures of the sky all night, why not give it a shot? But in doing so, many hackers are recognizing a fact well-known to traditional telescope jockeys: seeing a few stars is easy, seeing a lot of stars is another story entirely.

    The problem is that stars are fairly dim; a problem compounded by the light pollution you get unless you’re out in a rural area.

    A programmer always in search of a challenge, [Benedikt Bitterli] decided to take a shot at using software to improve astrophotography images. He documented the entire process, failures and all

    Star Stacker: Astrophotography with C++11
    https://benedikt-bitterli.me/astro/

    Reply
43. June 7, 2018 at 6:19 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Videogamers And Researchers Join Forces And Make Brand-New Discovery About The Retina
    http://www.iflscience.com/brain/videogamers-and-researchers-join-forces-and-make-brandnew-discovery-about-the-retina/

    Apart from discovering more about the neuronal nuances of the eye, Eyewire’s success suggests it’s suitable for mapping other parts of the nervous system too.

    Reply
44. June 8, 2018 at 12:29 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Vesper Technologies Aims to Amplify MEMS Microphone Production
    http://www.electronicdesign.com/analog/vesper-technologies-aims-amplify-mems-microphone-production?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20180607_ED-003_206&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=17775&utm_medium=email&elq2=7063732c536541d8a6d2a14c6163d24d

    When Vesper Technologies raised $23 million in funding last month, the MEMS microphone maker’s investors included many of the major players in voice-controlled devices. Amazon’s Alexa Fund, Bose Ventures, Synaptics and Baidu poured money into the funding round, which was led by American Family Ventures, the venture capital division of insurance giant AmFam.

    Vesper is trying to capitalize on the push to control everything from televisions and wearables to refrigerators and headphones with a few simple spoken commands.

    The company expects the first products using its new microphones to reach the market before the end of the year.

    Crowley claims that current capacitive MEMS microphones consume too much power, lack durability, and have low dynamic range. These problems are connected to the fact that they are manufactured with two parts: a diaphragm and a back plate.

    Conversely, Vesper’s microphones do not have a back plate. Instead, they use a single diaphragm based on piezoelectric materials that generate a small voltage when pummeled with sound waves, cutting power consumption and even enabling the microphone to wake up the system. The simple structure improves durability as well as signal-to-noise performance, which allows the sensor to isolate voices from farther away and sense a wider dynamic range of voices clearly, said Crowley.

    “Vesper has the technology to disrupt established MEMS microphone players and some sweet spots to run after,”

    The company, which was founded in 2009, is trying to close the massive gap with market leader Knowles, which ships more than a billion capacitive MEMS mics every year. While Vesper has pushed into new materials to boost the performance of voice assistants, Knowles is working to pair its microphones with audio processing software that can amplify faint sounds and suppress loud chatter in noisy spaces.

    Paris, France-based Yole Développement projects shipments of MEMS microphones to reach 5.6 billion units by the end of the year, generating revenues of $1.1 billion.

    “As the number of microphones increases, the need for the reliability of the individual components increases,”

    Reply
45. June 8, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Who Said Thermal Cameras Weren’t Accessible To The Masses?
    https://hackaday.com/2018/06/08/who-said-thermal-cameras-werent-accessible-to-the-masses/

    Thermal cameras hold an enduring fascination as well as being a useful tool for the engineer. After all, who wouldn’t want to point one at random things around the bench, laughing with glee at finding things warmer or colder than expected? But they’ve always been so expensive, and a lot of the efforts that have sought to provide one for little outlay have been rather disappointing.

    This has not deterred [Offer] though, who has made an extremely professional-looking thermal camera using an M5Stack ESP32-based computer module and an AMG8833 thermal sensor array module in a 3D-printed case that copies those you’d find on a commercial unit.

    https://twitter.com/Offer68328171/status/990110652671799297

    Reply
46. June 8, 2018 at 2:21 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    ‘Pirates’ Tend To Be the Biggest Buyers of Legal Content, Study Shows
    https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/06/07/2059205/pirates-tend-to-be-the-biggest-buyers-of-legal-content-study-shows?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29

    According to a paywalled survey of 1,000 UK residents by anti-piracy outfit MUSO first spotted by Torrent Freak, 60 percent of those surveyed admitted that they had illegally streamed or downloaded music, film, or TV shows sometime in the past. But the study also showed that 83 percent of those questioned try to find the content they are looking for through above board services before trying anything else. And while the study found that 86 percent of survey takers subscribe to a streaming subscription service like Netflix, that total jumped to 91 percent among those that admit to piracy.

    Pirates Are Valuable Customers, Not The Enemy
    By Ernesto on June 6, 2018
    https://torrentfreak.com/pirates-are-valuable-customers-not-the-enemy-180606/

    New research has revealed that 60 percent of all UK citizens have used pirate services to stream or download TV, films or music. However, the vast majority of these self-proclaimed pirates say they tend to find legal options first. These and other findings suggest that piracy remains an availability problem and that ‘pirates’ are among the most engaged consumers.

    Reply
47. June 8, 2018 at 2:28 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    YOUTUBE’S SLOW-MO GUYS BREAK DOWN THEIR QUICK THINKING
    https://www.wired.com/story/tech-support-youtube-slow-mo-guys/

    HIGH-SPEED CAMERAS, COMMONLY known as slow motion cameras, imbue milliseconds with the weight they’re so rarely granted. A balloon pops, with the water inside it still holding its shape; a bullet shot underwater leaves an attenuated cone of air in its wake. Daniel Gruchy and Gavin Free, known on YouTube as The Slow Mo Guys, have captured these moments and more than 150 others in painstakingly slow detail.

    https://www.youtube.com/user/theslowmoguys

    Reply
48. June 9, 2018 at 5:29 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Mike Farrell / Multichannel News:
    PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts over-the-top video revenue, which grew 15.2% in 2017 to $20.1B, will rise 12.2% this year and reach $30.6B by 2022
    https://www.multichannel.com/news/pwc-ott-video-revenue-to-climb-to-30-6b-in-2022

    Reply
49. June 10, 2018 at 11:12 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    SMPTE ST 2110: Structuring the Future of Broadcasting
    https://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/smpte-st-2110-structuring-the-future-of-broadcasting

    Internet Protocol (IP) technology is the wave of the future for the broadcasting industry, providing more flexibility, scalability, and cost savings, plus increased mobility – IP networks have been deployed just about everywhere, including in the International Space Station and Antarctica. You may even be holding an IP device – your smart phone – in your hand right now.

    However, until recently, vendors have been battling to control IP while end users simply wanted the industry to settle on one method of working. Agreeing to one set of standards is critical for the industry to move forward, and finally, those standards have been defined.

    The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE®) has created the SMPTE ST 2110 Professional Media Over Managed IP Networks standards suite, a major contributing factor in the movement toward one common IP-based mechanism for the professional media industries. With this suite, manufacturers will be able to create products that work seamlessly together in an IP-based studio.

    Reply
50. June 10, 2018 at 11:14 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Next year, people will spend more time online than they will watching TV. That’s a first.
    It’s happening faster than expected.
    https://www.recode.net/2018/6/8/17441288/internet-time-spent-tv-zenith-data-media

    Reply