Here are some audio and video trends for 2019:
The global Hi-Fi Systems market was valued at million US$ in 2018 and is expected to grow. EISA Awards has selected Hi-Fi product category winners, but I did not see anything really fancy new innovations that would excite me there. The Hi-Fi speaker market has seen considerable consolidation over the years but is expected to grow. The global Hi-Fi speaker system market is highly competitive. Various established international brands, domestic brands and as well as new entrants form a competitive landscape. The market is expected to have higher growth rate as compared to the previous years due to the booming electronic industry globally. It is due to the rising income of individuals globally and increasing affordability of technology products globally. Due to technological adoption and smart gadgets, North America region is showing steady growth in the Hi-Fi speaker system market. On technology standpoint the Hi-Fi market is mainly based on pretty much stabilized technology as class D amplifiers have been on mainstream for many years.
Smart TVs are everywhere. The vast majority of televisions available today are “smart” TVs, with internet connections, ad placement, and streaming services built in. Despite the added functionality, TV prices are lower than ever. Your new smart TV was so affordable because it is collecting and selling your data. It is clear that TV companies are in a cutthroat business, and that companies like Vizio would have to charge higher prices for hardware if they didn’t run content, advertising, and data businesses. Google wants sensors and cameras in every room of your home to watch, analyze, you, patents show.
Streaming services competition stays high. Apple’s embracing the TV industry for the first time: Vizio and LG TVs will support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit, while Samsung TVs will get an iTunes Movies & TV app, as well as AirPlay 2 support. Google and Amazon are playing are important players on smart speaker markets.
4K video resolution is still as hot as in 2019 – it us becoming mainstream and getting cheaper. Peraso showcases 4K wireless video at CES 2019. LG has produced a market-ready rollable OLED TV. The new 75-inch 4K Micro LED TV announced at CES 2019 proves Samsung is serious about scaling the technology to do battle with OLED. But it seems that even in 1029 “4K” trend remains woefully deficient from a compelling-content-availability standpoint. CES 2019 is already full of weird and wonderful monitors.
But new higher 8K resolution is being pushed to market. The “8K” (resolution) tagline was apparently everywhere at CES this year. Samsung announced a 98-inch 8K TV because why not. LG has come strong to CES 2019 with an 88-inch 8K OLED TV, a 75-inch 8K LED/LCD TV, HDMI 2.1, new auto calibration features, Alexa built in, and many more features. It seems that this ongoing evolution is occurring out of necessity: as a given-size (and -pixel-dense) display becomes a low profit margin commodity, manufacturers need to continually “up-rev” one or both key consumer-attention-grabbing parameters (along with less quantifiable attributes like image quality) in order to remain profitable … assuming they can continue to stimulate sufficient-sized consumer demand in the process. I am not sure if they can stimulate 8K to mass market in next few years.
Wall size TVs are coming. Samsung announced a modular TV at CES. Samsung first showcased this MicroLED TV technology at CES 2018, showcasing how the screens were composed of millions of individual LEDs. Individuals screens could be combined to create massive displays, which the company calls The Wall TV. The wall-sized displays shown in recent years at CES are, in my opinion, quite ridiculous, at least for the masses.
HDMI updates are coming. At present, the HDMI equipment uses the 2.0 standard (adopted in 2013) tht provides support for example for 4K video. HDMI Forum announced a new 2.1 standard already in November 2017, but it just starter showing in CES in January 2019. 8K fiber-optic HDMI cables seen at CES 2019. The 2.1 standard is a big change in technology at the bus bandwidth increases from 18 gigabit to 48 gigabits per second. This enables up to 10K video transmission and up to 120 frames per second.
Bendable displays are really coming to PCs and smart phones. LG’s “rollable” display shown this year neatly showcased the technology’s inherent flexibility while also addressing the question of how to hide a gargantuan display when it’s not in use. Several foldable smart phones have been shown. Chinese company Royole was showing off the FlexPai at CES in Las Vegas.
Micro displays for VR and AR glasses have developed. MicroLED is better looking, more efficient and more versatile than any previous display tech. Now all Samsung, Sony, LG and others have to do is figure out how to manufacture it affordably.Nanoco Technologies and Plessey Semiconductors have partnered to shrink the pixel size of monolithic microLED displays using Nanoco’s cadmium-free quantum-dot (CFQD quantum dots) semiconductor nanoparticle technology. Microchips and organic LEDs that deliver 4K-like high resolution displays a quarter of the size and half the weight of existing virtual reality (VR) headsets have been developed under a European Union project. Marc Andreessen says VR will be “1,000” times bigger than AR even though VR seems to be the popular whipping boy amongst the tech community.
There seems to be no shortage of angst with the current (and unfortunately burgeoning) popularity of usage of the term artificial intelligence (AI). Intelligence has been defined in many ways which makes it hard to get good picture on what is going on. I am still waiting for sensible intelligent AI to do something useful. But the ability for a sufficiently trained deep learning system to pattern-match images, sound samples, computer viruses, network hacking attempts, and the like is both impressive and effective.
Potential problems related to the coming of self-driving car technologies and cameras are expected. A man at CES in Las Vegas says that a car-mounted lidar permanently damaged the sensor in his new $1,998 Sony a7R II mirrorless camera. Man says CES lidar’s laser was so powerful it wrecked his $1,998 camera because the LIDAR laser power rules ensure lasers are safe for human eyes—but not necessarily for cameras. Is this something that camera and car manufacturers need to figure out together?
2019 Will Be the Year of Open Source from software and even hardware. Open source video player app VLC has now reached 3 billions downloads.
When almost all AV products are pushing more and more features, it seems that almost Everything is too complicated for an average Joe.
1,491 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inputs Of Interest: Ears To Communication For Everyone
https://hackaday.com/2020/02/19/inputs-of-interest-ears-to-communication-for-everyone/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacked Prosthesis Leads To Mind-Controlled Electronic Music
https://hackaday.com/2020/02/19/hacked-prosthesis-leads-to-mind-controlled-electronic-music/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Make A Set Of Headphones From Scratch
https://hackaday.com/2020/02/16/make-a-set-of-headphones-from-scratch/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Background Substitution, No Green Screen Required
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/background-substitution-no-green-screen-required/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Classic Leica Film Camera Turns Digital
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/classic-leica-film-camera-turns-digital/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Belt The Quarantine Blues Into A Homemade Mic
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/belt-the-quarantine-blues-into-a-homemade-mic/
Tomi Engdahl says:
8mm Film Scanner Grows Into A Masterpiece
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/8mm-film-scanner-grows-into-a-masterpiece/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Speakers With Many Lessons Learned
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/18/3d-printed-speakers-with-many-lessons-learned/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/05/06/neat-open-source-pinhole-camera-design-can-be-mostly-3d-printed/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/05/29/cheap-speakers-sound-good-with-easy-open-baffle-design/
Tomi Engdahl says:
We all make mistakes. Avoid these common pitfalls to jumpstart your sound editing career.
Top 5 mistakes all beginner sound editors make
https://blog.prosoundeffects.com/top-5-mistakes-all-beginner-sound-editors-make?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Facebook_Mobile_Feed&utm_campaign=FSA+-+TOF+Engagement&utm_content=PopularBlogPost%231+-+Copy+2&hsa_acc=10151366167789056&hsa_cam=6131293232771&hsa_grp=6131296619971&hsa_ad=6131297083171&hsa_src=fb&hsa_net=facebook&hsa_ver=3
Tomi Engdahl says:
A True 4K Projector From Scrap EBay Components
https://hackaday.com/2020/06/22/a-true-4k-projector-from-scrap-ebay-components/
Cinemas all over the world have become no-go zones with COVID-19 around, but watching the latest blockbuster on the small screen at home is simply not the same. You could bring the big screen home, but buying a quality projector is going to set you back a small pile of cash. Fortunately [Matt] from [DIY Perks] has an alternative for us, demonstrating how to build your own true 4K projector with parts bought off eBay, for a fraction of the price.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfvTjQ9MCwY
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft kills Mixer, will push users to Facebook Gaming
https://tcrn.ch/2YpZDEc
Microsoft is killing its Twitch competitor Mixer next month and is partnering with Facebook to push its users toward the Facebook Gaming service.
The app is winding down on July 22. The sudden move comes after Microsoft has dumped considerable efforts into its gaming-centric streaming service, acquiring streaming rights to some of the biggest esports personalities like Ninja and Shroud. Microsoft couldn’t spend its way into meaningfully competition with Amazon’s Twitch and Alphabet’s YouTube Gaming.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It happened: Olympus wants to sell the Imaging Business to JIP. 84 years of history gone
https://www.43rumors.com/it-happened-olympus-sold-the-imaging-business-to-jip/
This is a news that changes everything. Olympus plans to sell the camera business to JIP. Olympus might retain a very small stake in the new company that will be created by JIP. But I doubt JIP will continue the Micro Four Thirds business as usual.
https://www.olympus-global.com/ir/data/announcement/2020.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s 46-camera ‘light field videos’ let you change perspective and peek around corners
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/23/googles-46-camera-light-field-videos-let-you-change-perspective-and-peek-around-corners/?tpcc=ECFB2020
Google is showing off one of the most impressive efforts yet turning traditional photography and video into something more immersive: 3D video that lets the viewer change their perspective and even look around objects in frame. Unfortunately, unless you have 46 spare cameras to sync together, you probably won’t be making these “light field videos” any time soon.
The new technique, due to be presented at SIGGRAPH, uses footage from dozens of cameras shooting simultaneously, forming a sort of giant compound eye. These many perspectives are merged into a single one in which the viewer can move their viewpoint and the scene will react correspondingly in real time.
In Google’s videos, you can move your head a foot to the side to peek around a corner or see the other side of a given object — the image is photorealistic and full motion but in fact rendered in 3D, so even slight changes to the viewpoint are accurately reflected.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kosaku Narioka / Wall Street Journal:
Olympus exits the camera business after 84 years to focus on medical devices, selling its camera unit to private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners
Olympus to Exit Camera Business After 84 Years
https://www.wsj.com/articles/olympus-to-exit-camera-business-after-84-years-11592996861?mod=djemalertNEWS
Under pressure from U.S. shareholder ValueAct Capital, Tokyo company to sell unit to private-equity firm Japan Industrial Partners
Olympus Corp. OCPNY 5.96% is getting out of the camera business after 84 years to focus on medical devices.
The Tokyo company, which has been under pressure from U.S. shareholder ValueAct Capital to improve shareholder returns, said Wednesday that it planned to sell its camera unit to private-equity firm Japan Industrial Partners Inc. It didn’t disclose financial details. The companies aim to complete their deal by the end of the year.
Olympus was a global consumer brand for decades thanks to its cameras
As recently as 2007, the dawn of the smartphone era, digital cameras were a $3-billion-a-year business for Olympus. Within a few years, however, most of the market evaporated because people were using their phones to take pictures. Camera revenue shrank to just over $400 million in the year ended March 31, and the business has lost money for the past three fiscal years.
The company’s main product line is now medical-imaging devices such as endoscopes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53169094
Ted Humble-Smith is a conceptual still-life photographer. He’s well known for his fashion work. Ted can take a lipstick or a watch and with his extraordinary vision and skill turn the beautiful into something even more gorgeous.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Perceptions of Musical Octaves Are Learned, Not Wired in the Brain
By
ELENA RENKEN
October 30, 2019
https://www.quantamagazine.org/perceptions-of-musical-octaves-are-learned-not-wired-in-the-brain-20191030/?fbclid=IwAR32CiXST3x0SYHSqBaqq0uVjESXZl_3BUGyJara3Ijx1g_quOWhQ2MIX6s
Singing experiments with residents of the Bolivian rainforest demonstrate how biology and experience shape the way we hear music.
Most studies about music perception examine people accustomed to Western music
“We need to understand that interplay between our genes and our experience,”
Musical systems around the world and across historical eras have been diverse, but octaves are commonly a feature of them. The acoustic structure of octaves is always the same: The frequency of a note in one octave is half the frequency of the same note in the octave above. For example, middle C, or C4, is 261.63 hertz, while C5, one octave up, is 523.25 hertz. These physical qualities of sound in the ear have routinely led to assumptions that octave equivalence — the perception of pitches in different octaves as variations on the same note — is universal
Computer analyses that compared the Tsimané participants with those in the United States found that both groups generally preserved the pitch intervals between the notes played to them — for example, maintaining the difference between a middle C and middle A. Both groups could also discriminate well between pitches only up to about 4,000 hertz, near the highest key on a piano, C8.
A curious difference emerged, however, in how they sang the notes back. When the notes played were very high or low, U.S. participants accurately shifted the notes into an octave within their vocal range. The Tsimané didn’t. To them, it seemingly wasn’t clear what notes in their range best corresponded to the ones they heard. Their responses didn’t seem to reflect a perception of octave structure at all.
The researchers went so far as to coach the Tsimané to switch octaves.
The villagers did not get closer, however. It appeared that the same notes in different octaves, like high C and middle C, didn’t sound alike to the Tsimané as they did to people in the U.S.
The Tsimané have unusual musical habits, usually performing songs solo and without instruments. In cultures that sing and play music with multiple parts, the musicians often shift melodies and notes across octaves to include different vocal ranges and instruments. In the view of some experts, the absence of those practices among the Tsimané might provide a foundation for the development of octave equivalence.
Neuroscience has offered few concrete ideas about how octave equivalence might operate in the brain, but the physical basis for octaves made it seem credible to many researchers that our perception of them might be hard-wired into the auditory cortex. Results from the Tsimané, however, indicate that this system may develop differently based on cultural experience, suggesting that the brain’s auditory processing system is more malleable than expected.
Music cognition is by definition some kind of a product of culture, and at the same time it relies on our auditory system.
“It’s a very important building block in our understanding of how cultures develop. Not just musical culture — how cultures develop, and then how individuals within that culture develop their abilities,” Kim said.
Research with more cultures is needed, Savage said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vangelis Solo Performance @ Live 720p
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOWB7KWS9CA
Vangelis , the greatest Symphonic Orchestra real time performer !!!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Get the full-featured Luminar 3 photo editor for free. Luminar 3 boasts advanced controls in an easy-to-use interface.
https://skylum.com/fi/luminar-3-for-free
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ääniaalloilla – elokuvien äänisuunnittelun taide
https://areena.yle.fi/1-50294255
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music?nv=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
PIFuHD: Multi-Level Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution 3D Human Digitization
https://shunsukesaito.github.io/PIFuHD/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rumbler Is an Analog Red Noise Machine Built for Sound Sleep
https://www.hackster.io/news/rumbler-is-an-analog-red-noise-machine-built-for-sound-sleep-8c0b42376d81
Tim Alex Jacobs’ red noise machine sounds like a large waterfall or maybe a strong wind on top of a mountain peak.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.thomann.de/blog/fi/10-loistavaa-rock-coveria/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://deadline.com/2020/05/doug-liman-tom-cruise-outer-space-movie-elon-musk-nasa-1202943591/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.inpixio.com/responsive/en/Mobile/index.php
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://bgr.com/2020/05/24/bionic-eye-human-prosthetics/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/7546-diy-directional-microphone-for-dslr
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://soundgirls.org/alexandria-perryman-audio-engineer-for-the-astronauts/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Simple Setup Facilitates Webcam Eye Contact Over the Internet
Matt of DIY Perks shows off a modification that will help you make eye contact during video calls.
https://www.hackster.io/news/this-simple-setup-facilitates-webcam-eye-contact-over-the-internet-be0c3229526f
Tomi Engdahl says:
I’m sure that ten years from now, SDI will seem as quaint as composite does today. But for now, very few manufacturers are natively supporting 2110 for master control sort of operations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPTE_2110
https://www.smpte.org/smpte-st-2110-faq
What is the SMPTE ST 2110 Suite of Standards?
The SMPTE ST 2110 Professional Media Over Managed IP Networks suite of standards is a major contributing factor in the movement toward one common internet protocol (IP)-based mechanism for the professional media industries.* The foundation for SMPTE ST 2110 standards is Video Services Forum (VSF) Technical Recommendation for Transport of Uncompressed Elementary Stream Media Over IP (TR-03), which VFS agreed to make available to SMPTE as a contribution toward the new suite of standards. The SMPTE ST 2110 standards suite specifies the carriage, synchronization, and description of separate elementary essence streams over IP for real-time production, playout, and other professional media applications.
What is the status of ST 2110?
The SMPTE ST 2110 standards suite is multipart. The following is the current status of documents included in the suite, as of 10 September 2018**:
Tomi Engdahl says:
SMPTE ST 2110 –The Basics
https://www.smpte.org/sites/default/files/users/user29811/SMPTE%20UK%20&%20SAM%20-%20ST%202110%20The%20Basics%20FINAL.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Hulu, Samsung have pulled apps focused on 360-degree videos, as Oculus sunsets its 360-video optimized Go headset; Facebook: the future is more immersive 6DOF
Samsung and Hulu are giving up on 360-degree video, but VR producers have other plans
https://www.protocol.com/samsung-hulu-giving-up-360-degree-video
360-degree video drove early VR headset adoption. Now some companies are shutting down their VR video apps.
Samsung is done with VR video: The company will remove its Samsung XR app, which aggregated 360-degree videos from publishers like CNN and The New York Times, from VR app stores Tuesday. The removal comes a week after Facebook stopped selling its 360-degree-video optimized Oculus Go headset, and a few weeks after Hulu announced that it would shutter its own VR video app on most platforms.
This retreat may suggest that 360-degree video is dead, but Colum Slevin, Facebook’s director of AR/VR media, isn’t quite ready to say goodbye just yet. “We’re still very much in the business of helping 360 creators,” he told Protocol last week.
Slevin admitted that there is a clear pull toward more immersive content that goes beyond 360-degree video. “The future of VR is about delivering on the actual promise of VR,” he said, referencing immersion and interactivity, as well as the ability to actually lean or step into an experience, something that is known in the industry as 6DOF, short for six degrees of freedom. “The future is 6DOF,” Slevin said.
More recently, Samsung has been retreating from VR. The company officially stopped selling Gear VR last year. Its HMD Odyssey headsets are sold out, and the decision to sunset the Samsung XR app signaled that the company is taking a break from the medium altogether. “After years of industry innovation in the immersive content space, Samsung XR is ending service across the web, mobile app and VR headset platforms,” a spokesperson told Protocol via email. “We continue to explore the potential of other exciting applications of mobile AR and volumetrics technologies.”
Ultimately, high-end immersion and interactivity are just different ways to tell stories, argued Slevin, who compared this moment of transition from early VR headsets like the Oculus Go to the Quest to the emergence of digital filmmaking technologies: “It all comes down to how compelling the content is.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
CIS: The Muscle behind the Proliferation of Cameras
https://www.eetimes.com/cis-the-muscle-behind-the-proliferation-of-cameras/
Many of those technologies affect how we interact with our electronics. Examples include:
Sensors, including CMOS image sensors (CIS) and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)
Radio-frequency (RF) circuits for sending and receiving wireless signals
Power electronics, built with devices like MOSFETs, insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), and those fashioned using bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) technology
Optical devices, including displays and photonic components
These technologies affect a wide range of systems in the commercial, industrial, and automotive markets. Of significant recent interest have been Internet of things (IoT) devices and cellular technology (5G in particular) both of which make extensive use of specialty technologies. Together, these markets may account for as much as 30% of global IC demand by 2023.
Cameras in the the spotlight
Of the sensors, CIS devices have become particularly important lately. Within the consumer market, smartphones are making use of an increasing number of cameras. Once a “nice to have” in a phone, their prominence has risen as a primary benefit featured in marketing messages. In 2017, Apple promoted the camera in roughly 10% of its iPhone X messaging time; two years later, it spent as much as 49% of its time touting the iPhone 11 cameras over other phone features. (Source: CNBC)
Future automotive designs are also making use of multiple cameras of different types (in addition to radar and/or lidar) to help with advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) and autonomy. Those cameras will effectively surround the car, eliminating blind spots and providing better situational awareness for the driver and for the autonomy systems.
The CIS market is expected to see significant growth over the coming years, with a unit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6% through 2024. The highest-growth segments of the CIS market will see growth significantly higher than this, with a consumer CAGR of 24.6%, a security CAGR of 17.1%, and an automotive CAGR of 14.1%. (Source: Yole)
Tomi Engdahl says:
You can use a DSLR camera and this simple 3D-printed frame to scan your old film negatives.
This Simple 3D-Printed Frame Makes It Easier to Digitize Your Old Film Negatives
https://www.hackster.io/news/this-simple-3d-printed-frame-makes-it-easier-to-digitize-your-old-film-negatives-fb39cf8fdc92
You can use a DSLR camera and this 3D-printed frame to scan your old film negatives.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/173213-scan-analog-film-for-the-very-last-time/details
Tomi Engdahl says:
A 0.7-µm, 64-Mpixel Image Sensor Keeps Smartphones Slim
Tiny 64-Mpixel, 1/2” optical-format sensor imbues high-end smartphone cameras with broad capabilities.
https://www.mwrf.com/technologies/components/article/21135273/a-07m-64mpixel-image-sensor-keeps-smartphones-slim
OmniVision’s new OV64B image sensor is claimed as the industry’s only 64-Mpixel image sensor with a 0.7-µm pixel size, enabling 64-Mpixel resolution in a 1/2” optical format for the first time. With this device, smartphone designers can create extremely thin phones with high-resolution cameras. Built on OmniVision’s PureCel Plus stacked-die technology, the sensor provides leading-edge still image captures and exceptional 4K video recordings with electronic image stabilization (EIS), as well as 8K video at 30 frames per second (fps). These features make the OV64B well suited for the main, wide, ultra-wide, or telephoto rear-facing camera in multicamera configurations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://dialogi.diak.fi/2020/05/28/tekstitysvelvollisuuden-toteutus-kaipaa-valvontaa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analogue radio given 10-year stay of execution as the UK U-turns on DAB digital future
Great problem of our time solved: Classic FM won’t have to rebrand as Classic DAB
https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/03/analogue_commercial_radio_licences_extended_10_years/
Analogue radio station licences will be extended for another 10 years, the UK government has said – entirely reversing plans to shut off FM and AM radio stations in favour of DAB digital radio.
Commercial radio stations will be allowed to renew their existing, close-to-expiry licences for another decade, meaning your old banger’s tape deck-cum-stereo will keep working until at least 2032.
The U-turn “ensures there is no disruption for loyal listeners of treasured FM and AM radio services such as Classic FM, Absolute Radio and TalkSport over the next decade,” boasted media minister John Whittingdale
Although yesterday’s Ministry of Fun* announcement said digital now makes up 58 per cent of British radio listening, the real problem here is the slow pace of change. DAB and successor DAB+ were supposed to replace AM and FM. Problems rapidly became apparent with DAB: instead of degrading gracefully as analogue radio signals do on the fringes of coverage areas, it goes dead altogether – or pollutes the listener’s ears with a weird undertone of bubbling swamp sound effects.
Signal propagation (coverage) can be a problem as well with DAB compared to ye olde analogue’s wiggly waves, snaking their way up, down and around hills and valleys, or through short road tunnels. Some have speculated that coverage policy is based on reaching homes and not the roads where most Britons listen to radio
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:
Fraunhofer announces H.266/VVC, a new video compression standard that it says cuts file sizes by ~50% compared to its predecessor without compromising quality
Fraunhofer’s VVC promises to reduce video file sizes by 50% to improve mobile network efficiency
https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/06/fraunhofers-vvc-promises-to-reduce-video-file-sizes-by-50-to-improve-mobile-network-efficiency/
Having engineered the popular music encoding format MPEG-3 before developing the widely used video formats H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC), Germany’s Fraunhofer is one of the world’s most important digital media compression pioneers — directly responsible for shrinking popular media from discs into files that fit on smartphones. Today, Fraunhofer is announcing a new video compression standard named VVC, and it looks likely to become a critical enabler for the ultra high-resolution video era.
Also known as H.266, VVC is Fraunhofer’s direct sequel to HEVC, the “high-efficiency video coding” standard that’s been in use since 2013. While HEVC was considered to be impressively adept for its time at cutting down video file sizes, VVC is being billed as a “quantum leap in coding efficiency,” reducing data requirements by “around 50%” without compromising visual quality. As a result, Fraunhofer says, a 4K video that previously required 10GB of data for 90 minutes of video can now be encoded in 5GB of data, ideal for streaming ultra high-resolution videos to TVs or 360-degree panoramic videos to VR headsets.
“Versatile Video Coding” promises to enable efficient transmission and storage across “all video resolutions” ranging from the classic 480p SD through 8K, as well as supporting high dynamic range (HDR) color palettes
As was the case with each prior protocol, H.266/VVC will require new encoding and decoding chips, which Fraunhofer says “are currently being designed.” Major chip and technology companies including Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Huawei, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Sony are all industry partners, virtually guaranteeing widespread adoption from an early date.
Fraunhofer says VVC will be licensed under FRAND principles by by the Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF)
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15894/xmems-announces-worlds-first-monolithic-mems-speaker?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hey Alexa. Is This My Voice Or a Recording?
https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/hey-alexa-this-my-voice-or-recording-a-14562
A group of researchers with Samsung Research and Data61, a unit within
Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organization, or CSIRO, have developed a system called Void – short
for Voice liveness Detection – to prevent voice-spoofing attacks. A
research paper describing Void will be presented at the USENIX
Security Symposium in Boston in August.. Void looks at 97 spectrogram
features, or how recorded voices look when the frequencies are
visually mapped. There are significant differences that emerge when
comparing live voices to recorded ones. Played-back voices have
distortions that occur when played through loudspeakers, the
researchers write.
Tomi Engdahl says:
First Monolithic MEMS Speaker to Silence Voice-coil Speakers
https://www.eetimes.com/first-monolithic-mems-speaker-to-silence-voice-coil-speakers/
Traditional electret condenser microphones have long remained the most-used microphones, but micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones are increasingly displacing them. Voice-coil speakers have long remained the most used speakers, but will MEMS speakers ever displace them? Santa Clara-based startup xMEMS, Inc., aims to change the game and eclipse voice-coil and hybrid-MEMS speakers by implementing the entire MEMS speaker — actuator and membrane — in silicon.
Tried and true?
Founded in October 2017, xMEMS is emerging from stealth mode with the introduction of what it claims is the first monolithic true MEMS speaker, delivering high fidelity, full-bandwidth sound, and low harmonic distortion for smart personal audio devices such as true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds, in-ear monitors and headphones. Dubbed Montara, the MEMS speaker has been sampled to select customers since April. Engineering samples are now released to more OEMs and manufacturers, risk orders are expected to start at the end of this year, and mass production is planned for April 2021.
Montara is “the first monolithic, single-die, all-silicon speaker, so it comes out of the fab as a fully functional speaker,” Mike Housholder, VP marketing and business development at xMEMS, told EE Times. “There is no additional process and assembly step other than traditional semiconductor packaging.”
Montara has a cell-based architecture, and each square is an individual speaker. “It has got a piezoelectric MEMS actuator and, on top, there is a speaker membrane etched out of silicon.” The silicon membrane is pushed up and down by the piezoelectric MEMS actuator, generating air pressure, which moves the membrane and creates sound. “We have basically created an array of six cells for this first implementation of Montara, and those six cells move in concert to generate the sound signal.”
Why MEMS?
Voice-coil technology has been around for a century, and it seems to be working fine, said Housholder. Multi-component voice-coil speakers, however, require labor-intensive, high variability factory assembly lines. Because voice-coil speakers are semi-automated, “you will see in any speaker factory hundreds or thousands of workers manually wrapping voice-coil speakers around magnets, mounting plastic or paper membranes. And anytime humans are involved, you have variability.” When manufacturing earbuds, he continued, “workers have to go through a calibration and matching process for the speakers to make sure the left speaker and the right speaker sound are roughly the same.” This calibration step inevitably takes time and money.
What xMEMS aims to bring to the table is a full bandwidth speaker with “the benefits of a full semiconductor process: uniformity, repeatability and consistency,” said Housholder. “We have a very tight guard band, where every speaker performs very similar to the other so we can eliminate a calibration and test step on the earbud assembly line.”
Furthermore, piezoelectric materials are dust and water resistant, “so it makes it very easy to make a waterproof, dustproof speaker, without any special coating or any waterproof mesh.” Basically, the chip as it comes out of the fab is IP-57.
Today, every speaker on the market has a resonant frequency within the audible frequency range, but that resonance creates an unnatural sound profile that needs to be handled during the manufacturing and the design of the speaker and the earbud, Housholder explained. With voice-coil speakers, “you have to either dampen the resonance or to design some sort of filtering.” Montara’s resonant frequency is “north of the audible frequency range (20 khz), so there is no special dampening, filtering, or accommodation that need to be made for our speaker.”
xMEMS will position itself in the fast-growing market of near-field audio speakers, and its two first products segments will be TWS and in-ear monitors. “We have to produce an equal or better sound to voice coil to really be considered for new designs,” said Housholder. “What’s unique about piezoelectric MEMS speakers is where your traditional voice-coil speakers dip and fall off at higher frequencies.” With piezoelectric MEMS, “you gain more SPL.” It also allows OEMs to shape the sound profile, because it “introduces no artifacts into the sound if you filter it to shape either a bright sound or a warm sound.”
Though not releasing the price, Housholder said the company has benchmarked Montara with off-the-shelf, high-end solutions. “We will be competitive with today’s balanced armature speakers, and we feel we are bringing new benefits to the table for equal price.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
OLED vs. LCD vs. LED vs. TN vs. IPS vs. VA
https://www.electropages.com/blog/2020/07/oled-vs-lcd-vs-led-vs-tn-vs-ips-vs-va?utm_campaign=2020-07-07-Latest-Product-News&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=article&utm_content=OLED+vs.+LCD+vs.+LED+vs.+TN+vs.+IPS+vs.+VA
When it comes to display technologies such as projectors and panels, factors such as resolution and refresh rate are often discussed. But the underlying technology is equally, if not more, important. There are tons of different types of screens, from OLED and LED to TN, VA, and IPS. Learn all about the various monitor and television types, from operation to pros and cons!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Set-Top Boxes Evolve from Media-Consumption Device to Smart-Home Hub
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/iot/article/21135993/settop-boxes-evolve-from-mediaconsumption-device-to-smarthome-hub
The evolution of the set-top box into a true hub of the smart home is being driven by three forces: changes in the human interface, the content-delivery network’s approach to data security, and changes in processing of visual data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FPGAs Tackle Transcoding to Shrink Bandwidth Cost
Bandwidth equals cost when it comes to video streaming—transcoding helps solve that problem by reducing bandwidth requirements.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/embedded-revolution/article/21134122/fpgas-tackle-transcoding-to-shrink-bandwidth-cost?utm_source=EG+ED+IoT+for+Engineers&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS200706074&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
COVID-19 has turned a lot of people onto video streaming. However, it just accelerated an already growing trend. Streaming video is being used for all sorts of things, including live game streaming. Increased bandwidth and low latency are making video streaming very desirable, but bandwidth equals cost. To save money, bandwidth requirements can be reduced through transcoding.
Transcoding essentially converts data of some input format to an output format. Typically, this is done to compress video so that, say, a 4-Mb/s input stream scales down to 2.8 Mb/s. If the monthly cost of a gigabyte-per-second is $0.05, then 100K stream compressions will result in a cost savings of $21 million.
The Xilinx Real-Time (RT) Server reference design targets the video-streaming space (Fig. 1). The High Channel Density Video Appliance version contains up to eight Alveo U30 FPGA accelerator cards, while the Ultra-Low Bitrate Optimized Video Appliance integrates up to eight Alveo U50 cards.
Tomi Engdahl says:
We have noise-cancelling headphones; why not noise-cancelling windows as well? Now, researchers in Singapore have created just such a thing for mockup room, and they are working on adapting their proof of principle to a real one.
Noise-Cancelling Smart Window Blocks Street Din
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/green-tech/buildings/canceling-street-noise-at-your-homes-window
During hot weather, it’s nice to open a window to let in a breeze. Maybe not, though, if the window also lets in a cacophony from cars and trucks roaring past.
Street noise is a nuisance, a health hazard, and often cited as a reason to abandon the city for the quieter pastures. Why can’t technology ease the problem? We have noise-cancelling headphones; why not noise-cancelling windows as well? Now, researchers in Singapore have created just such a thing for mockup room, and they are working on adapting their proof of principle to a real room.
“In a way, we are treating the window opening as the noise source,” he tells IEEE Spectrum. “Effective control of the noise source will result in noise control everywhere in the room.” He adds that simulations show that it ought to work no matter how big the room is.
There are two engineering tradeoffs. First, as you move the speakers further apart, the highest frequency they can cancel goes down. And as you make the speakers smaller, you reduce their maximum output power and their bass response. But if you really want to make the most of today’s speaker technology, Bhan says, you can enlarge the window so that it can accommodate bigger speakers.
“In an open space, if the noise source is far away—say, from an aircraft—it becomes a challenging problem,” Bahn explains. “This type of control is termed as spatial active noise control, and the research is still in the fundamental stage; only simulations have been reported thus far.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists Say You Can Cancel the Noise but Keep Your Window Open
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/science/windows-street-noise.html
Researchers in Singapore developed a system that’s sort of like noise-canceling headphones for your whole apartment.
Researchers in Singapore have developed an apparatus that can be placed in a window to reduce incoming sound by 10 decibels. The system was created by a team of scientists, including Masaharu Nishimura, who came up with the basic concept, and Bhan Lam, a researcher at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Borrowing from the same technological principles used in noise-canceling headphones, the team expanded the concept to fit an entire room by placing 24 small speakers in a window. The speakers emit sound waves that correspond to the incoming racket and neutralize it — or, at least some of it.