Philips And Sony Lead Growth Of Super Audio CD

12-Dec-00

Two years after Sony and Philips demonstrated the revolutionary new high definition audio format, Super Audio CD (SACD), substantial progress has been made in establishing this new audio format. Today, Super Audio CD (SACD) presents a strong commercial proposition with rapidly growing support being demonstrated by the consumer electronics and music recording industries in Europe. By the end of the year, world wide, over 200 titles will be available on SACD, including some multichannel recordings.Having established a clear and cost-effective consumer migration path from compact disc to SACD, and having developed very sophisticated and robust anti-piracy systems, numerous companies are producing equipment and releasing music on the SACD platform. ""Overriding all these advantages is the unmatched audio quality that transports listeners from their living rooms to the recording studio or concert hall,"" said Paul Reynolds, Philipsí Business Development Manager for SACD. To date, nine SACD player models have been announced for launch on the European market by companies including Accuphase, Marantz, Philips, Pioneer and Sony. These devices include stereo and multichannel systems, dedicated SACD decks and combination DVD-Video/SACD players. With regard to software support, over 200 titles are expected to be available this year worldwide. Support comes from all sectors of the recording industry, including multinationals such as Sony Music and many high-end independent record labels. ""In both respects, we are witnessing strong and growing support from the European music and electronics industries,"" said David Walstra, General Manager of the Sony SACD Business Centre Europe. ""When we first introduced SACD, we made a number of promises to the industry and the market regarding SACDís compatibility, protection measures and availability. In every respect, we have delivered on these promises and the formatís development continues on schedule.""To date, Sony Music has released in Europe over 50 titles including historic recordings from artists such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Billy Joel, Billie Holiday, Carole King and Weather Report, and new titles from superstars Mariah Carey (""#1s""), Gloria Estefan (""Alma Caribena"") and Jennifer Lopez (""On The 6""), and in the classical field, recordings from Yo-Yo Ma, Leonard Bernstein, Glenn Gould, Murray Perahia, Isaac Stern and Wynton Marsalis. By the end of the year, this number will have risen to approximately 100 with releases from, amongst others, Tony Bennett, Harry Connick Jr., Billy Joel and Esa-Pekka Salonen.Sony Music Studios at Whitfield Street, London are in a unique position regarding DSD recording and editing, having been the European test-bed for the new technology over the past three years. Many recordings have been made both in the studio and in the field, and edited and mastered in the studioís post-production suites. Paul Russell, Chairman, Sony Music Entertainment Europe said, ""I believe the entire music industry has been waiting for a significantly upgraded technology which not only provides finer and more faithful sound reproduction but also helps protect our rights in the battle against piracy. I believe Super Audio CD will give new impetus to the entire music market.""At a time when music content and copyright protection systems are front-page news, Philips and Sony are highlighting the many security features that are found in the SACD format. ""SACD features a very strong set of content protection measures for the digital audio signal with five discrete lines of defense,"" explains Paul Reynolds. Before a pirate can access the music content, he/she has to break down each barrier and if successful in breaking through one, then the others continue to offer protection in its place. With this sophisticated approach, SACD offers protection against unauthorized copying.Alongside the successful introduction of SACD, Sonopress has developed, with the support from Philips Electronics and Toolex International NV, a SACD hybrid disc production line in its factory in G¸tersloh, Germany. The production line has been producing commercially released hybrid discs since the end of August 2000. So far, 40 titles have been released, and this will be increased significantly during the rest of the year. A significant development for the professional audio market is Sonyís eight-channel DSD audio workstation, which features a modular design that enables recording, editing, mixing, mastering and authoring. It includes a built-in high-capacity hard drive and also supports the use of high-performance Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) technology.In a related announcement, Sony is establishing a dedicated engineering group called Sony Studio Technology (SST) at its facility in Walnut Creek, California to complete the development work on the project and facilitate manufacturing. The DSD audio workstation is expected to be released by Autumn, 2001 and will accelerate the development of SACD software titles. Merging Technologies and Philips Electronics have jointly developed a Pyramix DSD editor for SACD. Pyramix covers the basic sequence of steps for production of a multichannel SACD recording, including recording, editing, signal processing and playback. Pyramix is based on current PC technology and provides the user with many advanced signal processing options, including the capability of DSD processing. All features which distinguish the DSD signal used in Super Audio CD from other formats are maintained during processing. Future extensions will include Direct Stream Transfer encoding and authoring capability, creating a single workstation solution for the whole SACD production chain. This cooperation on developing the Pyramix editor proves that it is possible to easily extend PCM equipment to support DSD/SACD.Also in the professional arena, Genex has introduced a Direct Stream Digital-capable recorder, while Mytek Digital and Tascam are developing recorder products as well. Augan Instruments has introduced a DSD workstation and professional DSD A/D and D/A converters are now available from dCS and EMM Labs. These products combine with the SACD authoring and text editing systems developed by Philips and Sony to provide the audio industry with a powerful range of SACD production tools. For more information about Royal Philips Electronics, visit www.philips.com. For more information about Sony Europe, visit www.sony-europe.com.

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