January 31, 2006
Alas Poor First Amendment, I Knew You
Well at least I thought I did. The menace might be the terrorists, or perhaps the economic might of the Chinese. Or maybe it's a middle aged woman grieving and protesting the case of her fallen son. Cindy Sheehan was arrested at the State of the Union for wearing a tee shirt that protested the policies of those in charge. Letterman said it best, "for the love of Christ, how can you not have any sympathy for this woman". Let's forget about how we each feel about the issue of Iraq. This country was built on being able to question the status quo. It might not be popular, but that's how we do it. We piss and moan and try to change things, because, well, that's the way we are. It's our nature. Riddle me the irony in this Batman. Dude, self proclaimed leader of the free world says that we are spreading the cause of freedom, liberating the oppressed and spreading democracy to formerly totalitarian dictatorships. But then, we bust a mother of a fallen soldier for "unlawful conduct" 'cause she wore a shirt to a speech of a guy that she didn't agree with. Well you say, it's against the law to demonstrate in the House of Congress. Exfuckingcuse me? The same place where millionare blowhards that claim to represent the citizenry spout bullshit on a regular basis and some mom who's kid got killed in a war she didn't agree with can't wear a shirt expressing her opinion. That ain't right. Dude starts the speech by fetting the late Mrs King for civil disobidience but they bust a mom for wearing a shirt. What the hell is up with that? To add insult to injury, Dude goes on for the better part of an hour expousing the benefits of "freedom" and "democracy". I guess democracy and freedom are cool. If you agree with the powers that be. The terrorists are dangerous and need to be killed. The Chinese economic machine needs to be handled in a way that is beneficial to both parties. The real danger to our freedom and liberty doesn't live offshore.
It lives on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Posted by Dave at 10:38 PM | Comments (8)
Tour Manager to Plead Guilty to 100 Deaths
Dan Biechele, former tour manager of Great White will plead guilty to 100 counts of manslaughter when he detonated the pyro display that resulted in the fatal fire. Initial press accounts of the case are stating Biechele as the band's manager though he was the tour manager. Biechele, acting as an unlicensed pryotech was responsible for setting up and operating the effects that caused the fire. Club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian are still set to be tried on involuntary manslaughter charges.
Posted by Dave at 11:49 AM
January 30, 2006
The Great(er) White Way
The boom of musical theater to the Las Vegas resorts has caused quite a few divergent opinions in the industry. It's no secret that some of the more stalwart characters in the New York theater scene regard the culture of Sin City much like Milburn Drysdale regarded the culture of the Clampett clan. It's not so much the fact that the home of the Rat Pack is doing musical theater or the production values. In terms of production value Las Vegas is second to none in terms of complexity, integration and artistic appeal in the creative elements. We can hold our own, and well, a little bit of everyone else's too. I've trotted around this planet many times in the last few decades and I don't think it's an overstatement to say the Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world. Entertainment technology included.
The thing that has the classic B-way gang knickers in a twist is the changing of established shows to fit in the Vegas model. Ninety minutes, no intermission, two shows a night most nights. Anyone that's done the casino and corndog classic rock circuit knows all well what the deal is. Get 'em in, get 'em drunk, entertain them and turn them loose on the casino or other attractions. They just reworked Avenue Q to fit in the Vegas format. They'll do the same for Spamalot, Phantom of the Opera and the rumored Producers for their Vegas runs. The other thing that some are fretting about, the lock in of B-way hits to exclusive deals in Vegas. Case in point, Avenue Q and the soon to open Spamalot. Wynn inked a deal for multiyear exclusives for both shows outside of New York and the West End. That means no Spamalot truck and bus coming to a local performing arts center near you. I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing, truck and bus, or even regional runs aren't able to afford either logistically or economically the production value of the big shows. I've got several pals doing theater truck and bus or regional runs and they do a hell of a job, but you just can't make it feasable to offer the same production value on that basis then you can in a theater purpose built for the show.
My point, depending on where you stand is either an insightful prediction or me talking out my ass. Las Vegas will save the musical theater business.
What...The...Hell...Did...You...Just...Say...?
Las Vegas will save the musical theater biz in a way that until recently not too many have thought about. Theater is expensive to produce and it's a crap shoot. Having it based in Manhattan certainly isn't doing it any favors. It's been said that 80% of all B-way shows lose money, the next 10% break even and the rest are the money makers. What the hell kind of business model is that? That's as stupid as how the record industry works. Granted, legit theater stuff like Death of a Salesman or The Graduate (two of my favs) probably won't work here as a casino show. Comedy and musicals will though. There is a lower cost, higher standard of living for the employees, most of which are not bound by prohibitive union contracts. I love my brothers and sisters in Local One but some of the work rules and limited availability of theater space puts some constraints that add to the already difficult business climate. In terms of theater construction and development, we can build them twice as fast for a third the cost. In twelve months we could match every seat on Broadway in a modern setting and not even flinch. This could be a boon for those that can't get their productions financed in New York. The casinos are always looking for new ideas and in the big picture dropping a few mil on something where you already have the infrastructure isn't a bad bet. I might not be a theater arts major, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express the other night.
Posted by Dave at 12:09 AM | Comments (7)
January 29, 2006
No Room at the Inn?
Since moving down I've become pretty interested in the economic growth and forecast of the LV Valley. During CES some kats I'd met online that were pretty involved in the tech space were having problems getting rooms at an affordable rate. Reminded me of the glory days of Comdex when we'd stay in Primm (if we were lucky) or have to schelp to Laughlin. The growth rate is pretty incredible, projected at about 6% this year with an estimated 6000 people moving to town each month. It shows in the traffic, infrastructure and the service at some lower end or moderately priced stores catering to the locals. It really is a boom town.
The expansion is nuts. Most of the older casinos are being replaced with either newer resorts or condos. A few months back I found Nick Chirstensen's goulishly funny Las Vegas Casino Death Watch. It's a great way to keep up on whats happening with the older places. Once upon a time Vegas was a much different place. Cheap food and drinks to entice those wishing to partake in games of chance. These days it's swanky restaurants and high priced drinks. There are still places to go to get a good deal but old Vegas has been replaced with high end Vegas and is just starting to see a sort of "Manhattanization" of high rise luxury condos. My place is slated to be leveled in a month for a casino expansion and condos. The two places I had my eye on to replace this place are in the process of being converted to condos. My pals at the big production shows have been experiencing this west of The Strip for the last year or so. I'll likely move further off The Strip, which is kind of a drag or move into some accomodations that might not be so hospitible. Or safe. I could move down to Henderson or out toward Summerlin like the other middle class white folk but there's something about being about to stand out on the balcony and have a view from Mandalay Bay all the way to the Stratosphere. The New Year's fireworks shows were quite spectacular, similar to the view I had in Seattle that stretched from the stadiums to Fremont, with a direct shot at the Space Needle. I'm having a blast down here and though things didn't quite go according to plan, it's the best move I've made. Right up there with moving from Hollywood to Twin Peaksville just in time to ride the grunge rock trend to the next level of my career. If anything, I wish I would have moved down a year or two ago.
One thing that has been puzzling me was what was going to happen in the next few years as all these resorts are being replaced by newer resorts. The average occupancy rate in town is 93%. We have about 125k rooms available right now. According to Las Vegas Tripping, we'll lose nearly 15k rooms over the next couple of years as several properties revamp. While it's true we will be getting the benefit of a Hooter's Hotel and Casino (no, really dude I couldn't make this up) those rooms were already available as the San Remo but what's going to happen to the growth rate when we lose 12% of the hotel room capacity for the next few years? About 40 million people come through town a year and in order to keep up this sort of growth rate, we need to be able to house them. In the long run it will be good as from the Wynn north on The Strip, it needs a bit of a facelift. Downtown has been faltering for years and I've got an idea. As the mega resorts on The Strip have been catering to the more well to do, the properties downtown can capitalize by getting that old Vegas vibe back. They kind of do that now but they need to kick it up a notch. Five buck t-bones, two buck beer, 99 cent breakfast, affordable rooms. The stuff that made Vegas famous. It's true that a lot of the need to go to Vegas was lost as tribal gaming opened up all over the country. Those tribal casinos don't have the Strippers, err I mean Sirens of TI, Carrot Top twice nightly or the biggest headliners and production shows (including B-way hits) in the biz. Going to the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt Pleasant, MI (like I have) though a nice place, is no substitute for the real thing. The demand is certainly there, let's hope that it isn't reduced by the lack of capacity over the next few years while the next phase of the expansion is happening.
Posted by Dave at 12:07 AM
January 23, 2006
The Difference Between Men and Boys is the Price of the Toys
This year didn't seem to have quite the number of new pro audio products as most of the big ticket items were announced or launched at ETS late last year. My candidate for sleeper product of the show is the recently announced Peavey Versarray. That's right kids, Peavey. Known mostly for MI products and bashed often in some circles where most of those doing the bashing are sans clue. Peavey is a reputable operation that pretty much has a license to print money selling tons of product to those that don't have the budgets or need for other solutions. Plus they do it without ripping off other people's designs using inhouse engineering and R&D. Peavey has yet to make any inroads in pro audio instead relying on the purchase of Crest some years back as an expansion vehicle into that segment of the market. I'm a bit surprised this wasn't a Crest branded product because this ain't your daddy's Peavey PA. This is a well built pro level product that based on the limited demo I had in the plexiglass room, or roadie terrarium as I like to call it, should perform as well or better than other offerings from the pro audio side of the market. It's tough to get an idea in a room that small and made of a material that is easily excited but my initial reaction is very positive. The sound is defined and smooth in the highs and snappy in the lows. The sub is quite good in fact and uses a porting mechanism in which airflow through the ports are used to cool the driver, a massive neodymium, two coil unit. There is a small rack mount distro that interfaces with a range plug which will likely help the smaller operators or bands that buy this rig. They're also marketing a crank tower so the user will be able to hang the boxes in the manner intended. My only question is if the ribbon driver used in the highs will be able to take the punishment that lesser experienced users in that market seem to subject the systems. There are plans to do a touring dog and pony show with it later in the year. This warrants an ABD "go check this out". Don Boomer and his team have done a nice job on this.
Who says analog consoles are dead? Well, for one I have been. Chuck Augustowski may have changed my mind, if only for the time being. Also ranking high this year on the list is the release of APB Dynasonics Spectra series consoles. They were a few months late but doing a ground up company that is that specialized is no easy feat. They are high performance, low cost analog consoles that are built well with quality components. I've talked about these guys before here but this was the first hard product I've seen. I didn't get to hear it but based on my previous experience with these kats I don't doubt it will perform as promised. The console is more spartan in the look and aesthetic, instead designing a piece with rolling curves, designer color and lots of flash, they concentrated on what matters, offering the features and performance required from pro level apps. The construction is robust and solid. When dealing with consoles at this price point it's not possible to go totally modular in construction. What usually happens is that groups of inputs, typically 4 or 8 share a common board where most of the components are on the shared board. If something in the board goes TU, it requires that whole thing to be swapped. The Spectra uses an 8 input module but the key components of each input are on daughter cards so they can be replaced in the field on a individual input. The routing is pretty comprehensive, matrices can be fed from auxes, real LCR panning as well as mono sum. The console has a feature set that is comparable to consoles costing two or three times as much. As the year progresses they plan ot offer other products to eventually have a full line of analog consoles and eventually get into surfaces. These are the guys that could likely be in a position to take the surface away from mimicing an analog desk and start to implement some user interface elements that could define the next generation of console operation.
I used the show to see a couple of surfaces that were announced earlier but that I hadn't had a chance to see. The A&H iLive I've wanted to get up close and personal with since they announced. Not quite done yet and slated to ship later this year, I like the layer interface though the selected operation area of the surface is a bit large for my taste, but that's not really a big deal. I like that the DSP can be remoted and the fact they are designing the surface with the potential for some sort of digital transport. The operation of the aux busses as being on the fader deck only might be a limiting factor for some. The software isn't quite done so I'll wait until I see it further along before I comment. I think the positioning in the market is pretty interesting. They're going right in to what is going to be the most popular, and possibly most congested part in the mid range (US$50k or so) of the market. There aren't that many in that part of the market just yet, but traditionally most of the regional and many of the touring companies are buying consoles in the US$35k to 60k range. I would have thought they might come in lower in the range, where most A&H users are now but they have focused on going toe to toe with the big players in the space. They've got the chops to compete against anyone in the space but the real test will be if the users see A&H as an alternative to Yamaha or Digico. It's more of a perception thing that anything else as they can build the product and support it very well but will the public see them as an alternative to the other offerings.
I got to spend quite a bit of time with my pals from the corner of Church and Main St in Whitinsville. The EAW badged UMX96 first went public late last year but has been in development for a couple of years. I was fortunate enough to see an engineering prototype at NAMM last year and came away pretty positive. The thing I like best is the touch screen, perhaps the best implementation of touch screen interfaces on a surface to date. It's big, it's bright and it's not too densly populated with controls and is pretty responsive. It's also of a design where for many functions where there is more than one way to do something. I also like the "Big Knob" feature where a motor driven encoder provides tactile feedback much in the way of a traditional knob. Having built in FFT in the form of Smaart is very cool as well. I see this as more of what I call a transition surface, with the main appeal being to people reluctant to switch to surfaces because they don't like working in a layered environment. I would have liked to see more onboard effects though with an expansion card the number can be increased. And a second cue bus and cue system. That's one thing that most others haven't done yet and when I mention this to most of the designers they get it right away when I explain for example, doing a wedge and ear gig or having two mixers working on the same surface. In some ways the UMX faces some of the same challenges in the market as does the iLive. Both are charting new territory with the brands and both have been prejudiced by former places in the market and going against the established players. If there is one thing to take away from the show this year, it's judge the products for what they are now, not for whatever reputation they may have had previously. This is a time of great change in the pro audio world and to dismiss something based simply on old prejudices one is likely to miss the boat on some new products that could be beneficial to what we do.
A cause near and dear to me is the subject of hearing conservation. They've been out in force for the last several years to help educate those that might not be familiar with how easy it is for people that do what we do to permanently damage their hearing. Shure usually sponsors a mobile hearing lab where you can get a test and all the ear mon companies in attendance are promoting safer listening. Hopefully it's working though lately some of the posts I've seen on the Web seem to indicate that myths and untruths about how bad this is still abound. The House Ear Institute was there with plenty of good info as was Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers. House has a campaign targeting kids and teens that features a large, walking, talking ear called Earbud to help promote the dangers of listening too loud or too long. I attended the Sensaphonics press event to see what Micheal Santucci had to say. They were announcing their featured product called 3D Active Ambient but also making a general pitch for hearing conservation. The ambient product is an idea that's been kicking around for a while with at least a couple of other manufacturers doing something like it but this is the first time to my knowledge that it's been shown as a completed product. What happens are small mics are built into the ear mons and controlled by a pack. The idea is to give the artist wearing the molds more control over the ambient environment. I've witnessed that when artists want more control over the ambient environment and can't get it, they result to pulling one mold out and leaving one in. This typically can result in higher levels for the remaining ear piece to compete with the ambient sound, driving the level dangerously high while sacrificing any sort of tonality. Pretty much the worst possible combination. I had a particularly bad experience with this some years back and as a result I think twice about taking a gig where the artist wears only one mold. Most of the acts I do ears for I don't add any additional ambience unless there is a strong desire from the performer. Using room mics can work, but in some cases summing them with the mix can lead to some issues with distance and timing. By putting the mics in the molds, this eliminates that problem and the pack gives the artist the ability to control the level of ambience. They had a demo area set up with a small surround sound system but I didn't get a chance to try it.
I stopped by Shure to see if they yet had the next version of pro level ear mon rigs. The Sennheiser ie300 and later the G2 surpassed them in terms of features, ease of use and performance. Shure was busy over the last couple of years basically getting a stranglehold on the lower end market, worthy for sure but the byproduct was losing much of the upper end to Sennhieser. The couple of guys I spoke with did lament that so it's not like they don't realize what's up, they are well aware of what's going on. They did though release a helical antenna for ear mon apps that looks good and is affordable. It will be neat to see what they come up with for the predecessor to the PSM700. Especially if it's anything like the new UHF-R series. Shure has always been known for good quality radio mic products at an affordable price. It's not got the compact form factor that the Sennhieser packs do or the radio performance of the Lectrosonics but you could get full featured products at affordable prices with well known mic elements. One of the problems with some of the other lesser known though high performance radio units is the mic element. With the Shure stuff you have the consistency of stalwarts like the SM58 and related Beta lines. You know what you are getting and how it behaves but there wasn't anything really high end. Until now. The Shure KSM9 seems to be an answer to the KK105 on an SKM5000 body. My pals out with a pop princess for most of last year were using one but I'm not supposed to tell anyone that I knew about it. My current gig is with a longtime Shure endorsee and both me and dude at the other end of the wire are eager to try it. The coolest thing I think about the new stuff isn't the mic (though that's been needed for a while), it's that networking, coordinating frequencies and spectral analysis are being brought to the masses in an affordable, widely available package. The receivers network together via ethernet with control software that can not only coordinate between the Shure units, but allow for users to enter parameters from other radio devices so when the software calculates safe channels, even though it can't actively monitor the non Shure gear it can take all of the frequencies into account when trying to find clear air. You can use a spare or extra receiver to monitor the spectrum in real time though future versions will be able to interface the much more cost effective Winradio tuner for that app so you won't have to dedicate a channel of UR to use the analyzer. There's lots of channels, it's pretty easy to use and the mics and packs can take config info from the receiver after you find enough channels. With more and more acts using more radio channels, it' not uncommon for me to use 20 or more for a rock show though the theater guys have dealt with that for years. Now with DTV and expanded production value, the rock guys have to deal with it too.
It was good to go but a couple of days is quite enough for me on the show floor. It's always great to see friends away from the show floor and catch up. Looks like I'll be overseas during NSCA but if others want to keep the ball rolling on notes for the shows (Bink is doing a great job on the LAB) let me know and we should be able to work something out.
Posted by Dave at 11:26 PM
January 22, 2006
All This Machinery Making Modern Music
This years version of the National Association of Music Masochists seemed to be more packed than normal. In some places if they were to get any more people in they'ed need to use a lubricant. My first NAMM visits were many, many years ago as a young turk working for various PA companies doing the associated events and after parties. Later I attended as a buyer (and NAMM member) for the various PA companies I managed, later as a consultant to manufacturers, later as an exhibitor and most recently as a member of the media. That's right kids, ol' Dave has attended as a member of the media, a regular Wolf Blitzer of pro audio if you will. This year I thought I'd try to get in on my own and it was decided that I'm not quite a media outlet, and I don't meet the requirements to join NAMM. Nevermind that I've attended most years for the couple of decades. Fortunately I've met enough people that I'm able to make a call or two and come up with a pass. The last couple of years Live Sound International was nice enough to credential me so I could do these posts from ABD. Having a media pass is great. There is a small area to sit and use a computer but best of all, free refreshments so we can forgo four dollar a cup swill that they pass off as coffee in concessions and if you play your cards right, at the press conferences around lunch time, you get fed while listening to the latest greatest pitch. I usually find a couple that I find informative.
Another reason to go is that it's a great place to meet up with others in the biz and do some networking. This year while going to find a few nuggets to write about, I also had some meeting with folks about a variety of things and shaking some hands and kissing some babies. While this year it seemed more difficult to get in, there didn't seem to be any shortage of those lightly or not affiliated with the biz. The show is organized and well run, but it seems to have outgrown the Anahiem Convention Center even though there was an expansion a few years back. Hotel rooms in the immediate area fill up and jack the rates so that the crappy dives that cater to budget minded tourists in the Anaheim Resort area most of the year get a coat of paint jacked rates three or four times the norm. Forget about any hot water on Sat or Sun mornings. If you can afford it and get in, the Marriott and the Hilton are right onsite and home to many of the private parties and functions. It seems they are a lot tighter on the credentialing process this year though it was still packed balls to the wall. A typical schedule will be mostly upper level biz types or people that don't want to fight the crowds on the weekend attending the first two days, Thursday and Friday, returning home before the weekend. That's what I've done the last few years. The weekend seems to be more musos and those working in the stores with Sunday being what I like to call "check out the guitar player's girlfriend" day. By Sunday most of the bosses and higher ups have left and you can see the exhaustion of those in the booths, subjected to 8 hours of show per day plus evenings jam packed with networking and partying well into the wee hours.
My trips to the various trade shows these days aren't so much to see stuff as they are to meet with various people and network with others that I know but don't really see most of the rest of the year except for the shows and an email or call every now and again. You seem to forget how many people you've worked with or met over the years until a big show hits and a pretty significant portion of the day catching up and saying hi. I used to troll each row of each show to make sure that I didn't miss anything. NAMM is just too big these days to do that in a couple of days and also do meetings and networking on the show floor. And most of the stuff is MI anyway, not specific to pro audio. A few weeks prior to the show, I start looking at the press releases for what's coming out, noting the things that look interesting to me. By that point I've been made aware of any private demos or events and plan accordingly. When I hit the show, the first stop is the press room for good coffee and perhaps snacks and to get the latest press kits and press releases. For the younger companies or companies with a new idea, using the press room is a way to get more exposure for your product. Become a NAMM member (or AES or NSCA depending on the show) and use that network to get the word out on your product. Most of the press kits are available on CD and that's what I use in addition to my notes as an info resource for whatever I'm looking at. I take the show in short blasts of a couple hours at a time, retreating to either the Hilton or Marriott to surf some WiFi, grab a bit to eat and sit in a comfy chair for a few minutes away from the sea of people that has become the show.
Next up, the gear.
Posted by Dave at 01:38 PM
January 19, 2006
Voyage of the NAMMed
Posted by Dave at 01:38 PM | Comments (2)
January 12, 2006
End of the Road for Windows Media Player for Mac
Microsoft announced they will no longer support or upgrade the Macintosh version of the Windows Media Player. Right, like they were upgrading or supporting it for the past few years. The Mac version sucked. And that's being nice about it. I kept a copy around because I needed it for, errr, well comparisons sake. Yeah, that's it. But fear not those that visit WMV only sites like Ultra MILF. MS has passed the torch to Telestream's Flip4Mac plug in for Quicktime. Seems to work as well as WMP Mac did in the few times I've used it. There's a free version and enhanced version with import and many other features not found in the MS version. Like the ability to encode WMV files from Final Cut or iMovie.
So, what's the big deal Dave? It's not a big deal for Mac users. It's a time to celebrate. We got a better player from it. What's going to suck is that vendors that are lining up behind MS for the latest versions of the WMP DRM for their pay for play music download sites are basically ditching the Mac users. That's not going to suck for Mac users, we've already got the best, most trafficed online music store with iTunes Music Store. There other offerings coming online, some already online like Rhapsody, the new Yahoo store and Urge, the Borg's attempt to out do the guy in the black turtleneck and rumors of others. What's happening, to steal a comparison I heard in a podcast, is that all these vendors will be selling the same thing, for pretty much the same price, in the same mall. There is very little differentiation. There might be some exclusive content, but I really don't need to see Flavor Flav banging a hammered Bridgette Nielson or Vern Troyer naked and drunk on a mobility scooter peeing in the corner of his room. Been there, done that, got the shirt though I'm not sure what the stains on it are. With the lackluster demo of WMP 11 that I saw at CES (which isn't due for a couple more months) there's really nothing new that iTunes doesn't already have, right now. The lockout from the WMP DRM is an issue, but not for Mac users. If the people using WMP DRM don't want our money, we'll find another place to spend it. And be happier for it.
Posted by Dave at 11:49 PM | Comments (2)
January 11, 2006
For Don
A great man passed away Jan 9th. Don Pearson or Dr Don as he was known. I got to know Don a bit in the late '90s as we worked on a couple of projects and he participated sparatically at the LAB. Most importantly he was responsible for mending the silly feud I had with Sam Berkow a few years earlier. In a couple of private talks he made me see another position, without being preachy or condescending and it lead to me getting to know Sam, who is one of the most outstanding humans I've met. I hadn't talked to Don in maybe five years. Here is Sam's tribute to Don...
====================================
Don Pearson was a great inspiration, teacher, friend and guiding force. Don
loved playing the role of "Dr.Don - audio guru" - and after years as a
road-rat, he recently found position that offer a way for him to teach
others. He was thrilled to be able to share his insights into audio.
He was also stubborn as a mule. Don was relentless in is passion for finding
the 'better or correct' way to do things - not just audio. He looked for
ways to improve almost any thing he did. From audio system tuning and
grounding, to making coffee or even toast, or the way he tended his garden.
Don strived to find the method that yielded the better result.
Don did not suffer fools. Don was really touched by the fact that so many
important and active people in audio industry (many of whom do not regularly
speak) gathered together one night a few years back, after the L.A. AES
convention to celebrate his 60th birthday ! It was a great party, and Don
considered it is 'award for years of service'.
For me, Don was a friend, older brother and unceasing voice, urging me to
elevate my game - no matter what I was doing! Last year, I was honoured to
have Don be the best man at my wedding! I can not count the number of days I
spent at Don and Fran's house - always working on a project two or planning
new ones or just sitting watching the grass grow!
For those of you who didn't know, Don had a secret weapon - Don's wife Fran
is as wonderful a person as you'll meet. Fran (who we call Fran-eeeee) was
Don's personal support team. Few people knew Don before he and Fran we
together - Don and Fran we married just after I was born! I spoke to Fran
yesterday, and was happy that Don didn't suffer, or survive in a compromised
state. Even after he passed, Fran-eee was supporting Don!
Last week, Don and I started a new project, and we spent a long day in the
wine country north of San Francisco - in meetings in the morning and
drinking fancy grape juice in the afternoon. Don was a bit nervous about his
up-coming procedure, and we took a few hours to laugh about all the times he
pushed me hard - always to improve a design or change some software. I think
it is no secret that Don was a major influence and a major inspiration for
the development of SIA-Smaart!
One of my favourite 'Don moments' was the first time I sent Don a pre-beta
sample of what was to become SIA-Smaart software. This fragment was able to
perform a simple transfer function in real-time. It was late at night in
NYC and I was really excited. I was pretty sure this was the first time a
transfer function was running in real-time on a PC without a DSP. I emailed
Don a copy, then called and asked "whata think?'. I was expecting some
encouraging words..... Don rattled off 20 reasons why this was not useful -
"there's no phase trace, your can't store the traces, you can't change the
scales 27 different ways, the cursor needs to do XYZ..." and on and on. I
was almost in tears - "Don, we just finished the transfer function less
than an hour ago - we'll get to these features, but what do you think about
the transfer function", Don just repeated his "wish list"! I wanted to cry!
Over the next few years, Don's wish list never seemed to get smaller no
matter how many items we included. Over the following years, Don and I
talked about measurement, software, audio, and life in general almost daily!
- I was very lucky to have him in my life!
I feel privileged to say that Don was a great friend. - and the sadness I
feel today is really lessened by thinking about how lucky I have been to
have Don in my life for so long! Add me to the list of those who loved and
will mis Dr Don!
Sam Berkow,
SIA Acoustics
Posted by Dave at 02:31 AM
January 08, 2006
In and Out, That's What a Lawsuit is All About
The recollection of my first In and Out burger was in the early '70s. Perhaps after the Sylmar quake in '71. I remember my parents taking me to the San Fernando store just off I-5. One of the things I did crave when I lived in the Northwest was a Double Double. On my many trips to locales down south, one thing I would always try to do was to have a Double Double, fries and a shake or other refreshing beverage. Now down in Sin City, I have seven of the tasty burger joints in the area, including two close to Roaddog Desert Manor. My fav these days is a 4x4, light tomato, grilled onions, animal fries and a Choco-Van swirl or perhaps a Dr. Rootbeer or Pepperbeer. Yummy. You won't find those things on the menu, but order them as I described and you will be provided with a special culinary treat.
Trolling the 'net like I do, I found this today at the LA Times. An In and Out exec, Richard Boyd, has filed a lawsuit claiming the only grandaugther of the remaining co founder is trying to oust her own granny and expand the company in a manner which is dangerous. Natch, this has caused some turmoil in the company. The company mouthpiece, err I mean counsel says there are "numerous innaccuracies" in the suit. The target of the suit is 23 year old trust fund baby Lynsi Martinez that will inherit the company over the next 12 years in the terms of the trust. This is a result of Martinez' grandfather and co founder Harry Synder dying in '76 with his son Richard taking over and being killed in a private plane crash that also claimed the lives of some sr execs in '93. The older brother Guy took over but died in '99 after an overdose of pain killers.
A couple of thoughts. At 23 it's likely you don't know that much about the biz and it's time to sit the hell down, shut the hell up and wait until you learn the ropes. I can hear a lot of you kids rallying around the young folk but hear me out. At that age, I too was a young up and comer. The best thing I did was to listen to the graybeards no matter what my inclinations were. You guys have got a great thing going. Don't blow it by being too greedy.
Posted by Dave at 01:36 AM
January 06, 2006
Booking Mr. Page
Convergence, video on demand, content anytime, anywhere, on any device. 24/7/365 always on, anything you want. Unless of course it's one of the most anticipated keynotes in the biz. Among the thousands of display pieces jamming the Las Vegas Convention Center with the so called always connected digital lifestyle it's hard to escape the irony that one of the largest conventions in the world is not able or willing to broadcast one of the most anticipated keynotes of the session, if not the industry. That would be Larry Page, co founder and President of Google. If you don't know who Google is, Google 'em and find out. A lot of the reason that I attended the 2006 CES show is to get a chance to see these sorts of keynotes in real time. That and the fact that now that I live here it's a good way to kill a week for cheap. As long as you don't eat in the LVCC concession area.
Friday, the second day of the show not only had the afternoon keynote by Page, but Terry Semel, currently the chairman and CEO at Yahoo. If you don't know who Yahoo is, Google 'em to find out. Semel had the morning keynote and I'm only a good morning person in the early part of the morning. Say from midnight to 5 am or so. I was interested in hearing what Semel had to say but not so much to get up and mobile by the 9 am start time. I figured I'd get up just before, make some breakfast, do some email while watching the keynote streamed to me then hit the show late morning. Except I couldn't find it online, convergence, video on demand, content anytime, anywhere, on any device, 24/7/365 always on, anything you want. I knew that some kids would blog it and there might eventually be some sort of Webcast so I was OK not getting it for a few hours.
The Page keynote, I really wanted to see though I would have to settle for the overflow rooms at the show. Only a couple of thosand people out of the estimated nearly 150,000 would be able to see it live, in the theater of the man who writes the songs the whole world sings in the hotel named after the waify blonde chick with the little dog. Or is that a monkey? (technically Bruce Johnston wrote the song, but that would bummer my reference) The Page appearance had quite a buzz. Everyone was talking about it all week. CES even sent me (and 150k of my closest new pals) a reminder at 10 am, day of to remind me about it and inform me of the locations of the overflow room. When I found my way to that part of the show, about 10 mins prior to the start time it was assholes to elbows. Nothing in the advertised rooms and a line out the theater, through the casino and down the hall. And that was just people wishing to get in if there were noshows. The supposed overflow rooms were being set for other events. I did happen on staff member saying that said the only overflow was in a tent in the parking lot that was temporary home to some hospitality areas. Which happened to be about a 1/4 mile back in the direction from which I just came. The guys running this show are pretty good, particularly for the scale and magnitude of the show so I have no idea how this got so screwed up.
Several hundred of us were headed that way. When I got to the tent, it was already packed. There were four or five TVs in the Intel lounge, and a smattering of TVs in the Freescale (they used to be the Motorola chip division) Lounge area across from the AOL booth. Just after start time and it hasn't started but the tent was getting packed. We can hardly see the Google Zeitgeist rolling preshow with what I'm ASSuming are real time depictions of search terms. There are several other realtime reports of what happened after the event started. I'll refer to Engadget's real time transcription (with pictures). What happened next in our little group, now with too many people to really see or hear what was going on wasn't a fun time. We were packed in the back of this tent and the position of the displays made it such that the majority of people in our group had to stand in the aisle to see. Apparently some sort of fire code violation as they removed us from the asle. Err, then why did they put the displays there in the first place? It started and we couldn't hear anything. The audio in our area was provided by what looked to be a couple of JBL Control 1s on some truss in the AOL booth behind us. They did however, adjust the audio within the first 30 secs or so to bring it to a listenable level, though the distortion was into double digits at that point. At least we could hear him. About 10 mins into it, we lost video but not audio. Then the hard rock band in the Gibson tent next door started. At least those that ran the sound had the fortitude to adjust it again, alas more distortion. Someone in the crowd yelled something to the effect of "it's ok, they're showing video clips and don't have clearance". Well, no. We still had audio and Page was just going through some standard dog and pony. Besides, we had a feed of the IMAG from the room, not a program feed of the included vids and slides. And at times when that does happen, the vidiots usually throw up a bumper or at least bars.
After a minute or two of audio only, we got the picture back. It continued along through some more dog and pony ending with the announcement of Google Pack. At that point I thought, you gotta be shittin' me, that's it? Up until this point the presentation was pretty lackluster. I kept thinking there has to be more than this. Page said there was one more announcement, that Sergy always wished that Google connected directly to your brain. The feed ended abruptly, with a bumper stating that due to the proprietary nature of the content, they were suspending the feed and it would return in a "few moments". WTF? This was an international product rollout with a couple of thousand journalists watching live, many of them blogging and shooting pix in realtime and the rest of them ready to post stories minutes after the session. What the hell was proprietary about that? There are currently several stories on Google News detailing the event. They WANT people to know about it. I waited for several minutes before I got all Cartman about it and thought "screw you guys, I'm goin' home". There had to be another reason for the blackout.
The Inquirer over in the UK attributed it to Robin Williams making some disparaging comments toward the French as the reason for the blackout but it happened several minutes prior to that. TG Daily is reporting that the spots were blacked out due to issues that CEA (the promoters of the show) had with the prescreened content of Williams' routine. I don't really need some balding, fat, old bastard to determine what I should or shouldn't see, particularly when they used that event to drive traffic to the show. I'm old enough, fat enough and enough of a bastard to determine on my own what I think is or isn't offensive. Thankfully, I still have a lot of hair. CEA did a disservice to Page, Google and the attendees of the show by trying to play Big Brother in determining what was or wasn't offensive. Plus they bullshited us with that "proprietary info" line of crap. At least have the balls to make a bumper that states WHY you're censoring the content. Off color? This from a location where the largest porn show in the biz runs concurently, sharing one of the same venues no less and mobile billboad trucks advertising "Strippers Direct to Your Room" are circling the venue all day long.
Convergence, video on demand, content anytime, anywhere, on any device. 24/7/365 always on, anything you want. As long as CEA doesn't find it offensive.
Posted by Dave at 10:53 PM
January 05, 2006
Urge Underwhelmed
Apparently CES stands for Convergence Every Second. In the lastest and greatest round of the fabled show looks to ring in the year where they'll finally ram "convergence" down the collective throats of the buying public. Every booth seems to have the latest and greatests phoneorganizermoviemusicplayerinternetviagradispenser. I spent into the wee hours of the morning prior to the show welcoming my pals that are working for the breaking big time rock band in town for a gig. I got a bit of a later start on the festivities making the show floor by mid afternoon. I wanted to catch Intel's announcement of what was known as Yonah, or now properly Centrino Duo the new dual core cup for laptops. As I couldn't get tix to the keynote, I decided not to watch in an overflow room and catch it in the Intel booth. There was some time to kill and the mega booth of the Unholy Borg of the Northwest was across the aisle just getting ready to demo Windows Vista for Music.
The demo started a little late, but not near as late as Vista by the time it ships. In reality it was a demo of Windows Media Player 11 running under Vista. To me it looked like the latest in ill fated attempts at catch up to iTunes. I was surprised by the lack of some features and how far behind iTunes the product was particularly with regards to device integration. Vista though, looks pretty cool particularly on the latest group of tablets that are on display in the booth. More on the tablets in a few days after I spend some more time with them. The recently announced deal between Bill's Kids and Viacom in the form of "Urge" is gearing up to take online music world by storm but may fall flat on it's face. The service will specifically make content unusable on iPods by using the bundled Windows Media DRM. The reason the iPod (and as an extension iTMS) is so popular is because it's hip and cool. The kids dig it. The integration between the player, computer and the online store is excellent, even on Windows. Microsoft, Windows and even MTV are anything but hip and cool. The media player is less capable, the integration to all the different players is problematic and we have no idea what the price point will be or how easily the store will integrate with the software. There is also no real data to point to that consumers are willing to "rent" their music collection by subscription though that may be more of a generational issue. Even then, that's a pretty big leap of faith to think those kids are going to buy new devices only to use that service or hope that the myriad of device makers that support WMP will be considered better devices, let alone be percived as hip. Way too early for me to predict failure but at this point it seems more of a hamfisted play to gain marketshare rather than provide music fans with a pleasurable experience. We'll see...
The keynote by Intel's Paul Otellini introduced what had been widely known and anticipated, Intel's mobile dual core CPU. Not only for notebooks, expect to see this chip on other so called "personal devices". This also fuels speculation that at Macworld next week will rollout the first Intel based Macs, starting with iBooks and Minis. Otellini invited Micheal Dell on stage to demo a 20" laptop, with 8 speakers no less. In one seemingly unscripted moment when Dell was comparing side by side the 20" to a current Dell laptop, Otellini joked asking if Dell was planning on having a two for one sale. Without missing a beat, Dell shot back "well, are you going to be having a two for one sale?" With rumors coming out today that Dell may start using AMD processors in some lines, Otellini might want to think about giving that sort of deal to keep him in the fold.
Lotsa handheld gadgets, the Motorola Q looks cool. It's like a RAZR meets Treo meets Windows Mobile PC. I'll take a better look at it in the next day or so.
The stage in the Sony booth powered by Nexo Geo S and a new Yamaha M7CL.
LG was showing the "V" phone specifically for Verizon's V-Cast service. It's sort of a portable entertainment center that opens to a QWERTY keyboard and nice little (operative word being little) video display. It's been out for a bit, surprised I missed it until now.
Posted by Dave at 09:04 PM
January 01, 2006
Ringling to Ditch the Rings
Perhaps the best known touring circus on the planet and self proclaimed "Greatest Show on Earth", the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus has decided to try a new format this year. The "blue" company is abandoning the traditional three ring format along with some other pretty significant changes. The "red" company will continue with the traditional format at least for the time being. Part of the reason is a sort of changing of the guard with Nicole Feld, daughter of longtime producer Kenneth Feld in an co producer role. Other changes include adding IMAG (that's video screens, for you civilians), moving the circus band from the arena floor to a landing, or bridge above the floor. Other changes include getting rid of the "ringmaster" role and adapting the format to more of a story encompassing the whole show and incorporating ringers in the audience playing wannabe circus performers.
It's good to see the old circus get a facelift to compete in the entertainment market of today. I haven't been to see them in several years. Might just have to go check this one out.
Posted by Dave at 07:24 PM | Comments (2)