January 2017 – How was the world of technology in 2016? – talk with the experts from San Francisco Bay area: Kevin Krewell, Principal Analyst of Tirias Research, Rodney Thayer, Cybersecurity Consultant and Pallab Chatterjee, Editor in Chief Media & Entertainment Technologies.
Autonomous vehicles made a lot of progress this year, more than anticipated – stated Kevin Krewell. The amount of effort and engineering going into driverless cars was remarkable. Typically, cars are a slow moving industry, taking 5+ years to qualify an equipment part going into a vehicle. But now things have changed and car manufactures are being blamed for not moving fast enough. Companies, such as, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Intel, NXP and others have been investing heavily to bring autonomous vehicles to the market in the next few years. Elon Musk and Tesla have done the most to promote this change. Musk broke the barrier by having pre-installed software built into the Tesla vehicles, like he knew it was going to get better over time. Car manufacturers are not just making cars any more, but rather building a software platform – Rodney Thayer.
“All our knowledge begins with the senses”- declared 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant.
The challenge with autonomous cars is that they are cameras based – added Pallab Chatterjee. Radar, lidar, sonar or real cameras are like senses of a vehicle. They are figuring things out but they create a huge amount of data. The flood of data is here and more is coming. By 2020, the average internet user will create 1.5GB of traffic per day, smart hospital – 3.000 GB per day, autonomous vehicle – 4.000 GB each per day, airplane – 40.000 GB per day and smart factory – 1.000.000 per day.
The biggest surprise that came up in 2016?
That VR came back again was a surprise to Pallab Chatterjee. It is like 3D, every 10-15 years people forget that it is not technology, it is what content is available and how the companies plan to monetize it. That was one of the problems with 3D. It was rushed to the market because the technology was available but people said – there was nothing to watch because the content was made in a rush and it was of poor quality and stories. We see that scenario right now. The only good content for VR is in games on very expensive platforms but it is not mass market. The VR devices for mass market are not professionally created and a content is poor and people get dizzy and nauseous.
For Kevin Krewell, the biggest surprise in 2016 was how many big money acquisitions were taking place. It is not that big companies are buying small companies but big companies are buying big companies. Intel buying Altera last year was a starting point. NXP bought Freescale and now Qualcomm is buying NXP that just bought Freescale, and Samsung buying Harman Group.
The overriding challenge in 2016 was security and privacy. A number of high level intrusions and data breaches took place, and as the year ends, more will come to light. The risks are at all levels, individuals, companies, organizations, even standard internet providers and countries – the cybersecurity threats are guiding the way business was done in 2016 and the new ways it will be done in 2017 according to Rodney.
Here is the full episode that was aired at Bay area Comcast tv in December:
December, Fathom events – L’Amour de Loin (Love from Afar), an opera in five acts, received its world premiere performance at the Salzburg Festival on August 15, 2000.
The current Met Production is distinguished for two historic reasons. First, composed by the Finnish Kaija Saariahoit , it is only the second opera composed by a woman performed by the Met since 1903. In addition, the brilliant conducting is masterfully handled by another Finn, Susanna Malkki, who enjoys the distinction of being the very first woman to grace the Met’s orchestral podium in it’s entire 137 year history. One might conservatively say, “It’s about time.”
The vocals for the evening were ably handled by Susanna Phillips as Clémence Tamara Mumford as the Pilgrim, and a powerful Eric Owens as Jaufré, all meeting and surpassing the challenges of the complex score.
Production credits go to Robert Lepage whose controversial Ring Cycle is remembered by Met opera goers. In this production, the entire Met stage is taken up with no less than 28,000 LED lights in parallel rows representing the sea. Except for the chorus occasionally popping up from between the rows, the principal vocalists are restricted to an odd, mechanical contraption in a cage at the end of a protruding arm.
The giant mechanism moves (carefully) between the rows of the distracting blinding lights. The set then becomes the forced focal point of the production, upstaging the vocalists in every scene.
On balance, the set stands as one of the more unfortunate expressions of scenic design in recent Met memory. Planning to attend? Don’t forget your sunglasses, the score is worth your time.
December, Logitech – Logitech SmartDock is secure meeting room console designed for Skype for Business. It can transform your meeting with a rich, collaborative experience. At Video Collaboration Press Briefing that took place November 21, 2016 at Logitech Headquarters in Newark, Joan Vandermate walked us through the details of the LogitechSmartDock and presented the functionality of the unit that was just shipped to the market.
The full interview and product demo can seen below:
November 2016 , Automobility LA – Where are we going with the cars? Brian Cooley in his keynote speech at the 2016 Automobility show in Los Angeles described the main characteristics for the automobile industry as follow: cars are doing more, the driver is the differentiator, many ways of electrification, the new performance and big data.
There are three forces changing cars today: Electrification – likely in 2025 EV will reach a tipping point. 35% of new sales by 2040? Connectivity – 75% of 90M+ new cars sold annually connected by 2020. Autonomy – 10M+ full/partial autonomous cars on the road by 2020.
The world is getting serious about EVs. MIT study pointed out that 0.83% of US car market is BEV/PHEV and 87% of cars are replaceable by current BEV/PHEV. In addition the electric vehicles are easy for car sharing what is considering as the future of the industry. The young people’s attitude towards cars has been changing and they not necessary feel a desire to own a vehicle. Bloomberg predictions are very optimistic: 40% of global new car sales by 2040 will be BEV/PHEV.
Car connectivity is necessary because of constant need of communication (web messaging, social media sharing), navigation (search to destination), entertainment (streaming music and video) and telematics (remote status and control). Cars come home. Two main spaces: home and car are connected.
Autonomy is the future. The autonomous cars advantages are as follow: accident reduction, personal time recapture, congestion reduction, better road utilization and fuel efficiency.
December 2016, NAMM – The 32nd NAMM TEC Awards nominees for upcoming Winter NAMM were announced. The celebration of the winners in 23 categories of Outstanding Technical and 8 categories of Outstanding Creative Achievements will take place during the in Anaheim on Saturday, January 21, 2017. The TEC Awards are recognition of the individuals, companies and technical innovations behind sound recordings, live performances, films, television and video games. More info at www.tecawards.org and congratulation for the nominees.
Outstanding Technical Achievement
Amplification Hardware – Studio & Sound Reinforcement: Crown – XLS DriveCore 2, d&b Audiotechnik – 30D, dbx – DriveRack VENU360 Series, JBL – M-Patch, Lab.gruppen – E Series, Powersoft – Deva HD
Ancillary Equipment: Antelope Audio – OCX HD, Antelope Audio – 10MX, Dangerous Music – 2-BUS+, Little Labs – Monotor, Radial Engineering – DiNET TX & RX Dante direct boxes, Rupert Neve Designs – RNHP: Precision Headphone Amplifer
Audio Apps & Hardware/Peripherals for Smartphones/Tablets: Antelope Audio – Satori Remote, Avid – Pro Tools | Dock, iConnectivity – iConnectAUDIO2+, Moog Music – Model 15 App, Radial Engineering – BT-Pro, Sennheiser – Wireless System Remote
Audio Education Technology: EarMaster – Pro 6, Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group – Recording Unhinged, iZotope – Pro Audio Essentials , JBL – SpeakerPro, Neumann – Neumann in the Home Studio, NYU Music Experience Design Lab – Groove Pizza
Computer Audio Hardware: Antelope Audio – Orion32+, Apogee – Symphony I/O Mk II, Prism Sound – Callia, Focusrite – Red 4Pre, PreSonus – Studio 192 26×32 USB Interface, Universal Audio – Apollo Twin USB Interface
DJ Production Technology – Hardware/Software: American Audio – VM55 Controller, Denon – DJ MCX8000, Native Instruments – TRAKTOR Kontrol S5 controller, Numark – CDmix USB, Rane – MP2014 mixer, Reloop – Mixtour 2 mixer/controller
Large Format Console Technology: Allen & Heath – dLive Series, AMS Neve – Neve 88RS, Avid – S6L, DiGiCo – Stealth Core2 , Solid State Logic – System T, Yamaha – Rivage PM10
Workstation Technology / Recording Devices: Avid – Pro Tools 12.3, Celemony – Melodyne Studio 4, MOTU – Digital Performer 9.1, PreSonus – Studio One 3.2 Professional , Steinberg – Cubase 8.5, Tracktion – T7
Outstanding Creative Achievement
Film Sound Production: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Bridge of Spies, Star Trek Beyond, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Martian
Interactive Entertainment Sound Production:Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, Star Wars: Battlefront, Uncharted 4 A Thief’s End, World of Warcraft: Legion
Record Production – Album: Blackstar, David Bowie, A Head Full of Dreams, Coldplay, Culcha Vulcha, Snarky Puppy, Crosseyed Heart, Keith Richards, Hamilton, An American Musical, various artists
Record Production – Single: Blackstar, David Bowie, Can’t Stop the Feeling! Justin Timberlake, Empty, Garbage, Hello, Adele, Stare, Prince
Remote Production – Recording or Broadcast: 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, 58th GRAMMY Awards, 70th Annual Tony Awards, 88th Academy Awards, Superbowl halftime with Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars
Studio Design Project: Boston Symphony Orchestra Control Room, Deadmau5 Mau5trap, Man Made Music, Valenzo Studios, VSL Synchron Stage
Television Sound Production: Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Mr. Robot, The Walking Dead, Vikings
Tour/Event Sound Production: Adele Live 2016, Dave Matthews Band 2016 Summer Tour, One on One Tour – Paul McCartney, Radiohead 2016 World Tour, Rock Paper Scissors North American Tour – Sting and Peter Gabriel
