CES 2008: Alan Taffel Takes a Look at Next-Gen Audio from CES
January 23rd, 2008 — By Alan TaffelHigh-End Audio to Blu-ray and HD DVD: No Thanks!
It’s no secret that both SACD and DVD-Audio are officially dead [although SACD lives on in new playback hardware and significant software support from independent labels–RH]. But whereas early industry speculation was that one of the new HD-video discs would ultimately emerge as a replacement, that no longer appears to be the case.
Not only do purveyors of these formats have no plans for multichannel music, as noted above, they have no plans for music at all. The high-end community, however, is taking matters into its own hands. Notice how every one of the hi-res services and formats described above is delivered via download? This is no accident. By making music available as files, record companies can propagate new titles quickly and at far lower cost than via physical discs.
Essentially, “HD audio� has skipped a generation compared to its video counterpart.
One reason this is possible is that even very high bit-rate audio files are paltry in size compared to HD video. This is particularly true when there are only two channels rather than six. Still, some readers may be concerned about the time it will take to download large audio files.
Fear not–the cable and telecom industries are coming to the rescue. Both see downloadable HD movies as the Holy Grail. But the current infrastructure, which averages a few Mbps per subscriber and tops out at around 16Mbps, doesn’t yet support such a service.
The industry giants are moving to rectify this situation. Comcast, for example, wowed a packed keynote crowd with its new 160Mpbs cable modem. In a live demonstration, the company downloaded an entire HD film in just four minutes! With capacity like that coming, we can look forward to receiving our hi-res music files in no time flat.
Next: Music Servers Will Displace CD Players
While I heartily applaud just about all of your observations (especially the recognition that REAL High Definition audio has finally arrived and can be downloaded at iTrax.com), I would like to point out that multichannel audio is not dead at all. It’s true that there was very little surround being demonstrated at the Venetian this year…but I believe the reason is the lack of adequate space to pull of a great demo and the limited view of most manufacturers.
The future is high definition, surround audio playing back from a music server. It will take time and the tipping point is still some years away, but those that have heard great recordings in 5.1 surround wonder know it’s coming.
AIX Records has been creating true HD Audio in stereo and surround for 8 years (almost 58 recordings many with HD Video) and is glad that optical discs are diminishing in importance. We still produce and release DVD-Audio titles for those that appreciate the benefits of HD PCM encoding…but now those that are properly equipped can download HD into dedicated music servers. The show was a hint of things to come.
The most important technological innovation in the area of music servers was not being shown to the public but was tucked away in a suite at the Belaggio. The future is coming but I have to hold my thoughts until April or May.
Comment by Mark Waldrep January 26th, 2008 @ 8:33 pm