LED Projector for 700 Euro

I’d like to share some screen news …starting with a rather unusual projector Wim Van der Hoeven of Mitsubishi Electric in The Netherlands showed me something they’re planning for Christmas for 700 Euro…

It's an LED projector, one of the first of its kind. It weighs 500 grams and uses DLP technology. This bulb is designed to last 10,000 hours. Unlike conventional projectors, this one has no fan - because it doesn't get hot. The snag at the moment is that the projector needs a really dark room since it only produced 15 Lumens of light. But it is great for small screen presentations for a group. The battery clips onto the bottom of the unit and goes for about 2 hours between charges. I think 5 years from now, most of the projectors we’ll see will be driven by LEDs not lamps.

Sony beats the rattle out of Sennheiser

Here is a recommendation to go for the new Sony UTX-P1 wireless microphone set, instead of the Sennheiser SKP 30U which is a very similar miniature plug-on transmitter. The Sony device is new, the Sennheiser equivalent has been around for about 18 months.

Sennheiser's blurb says that "any cabled microphone (even condenser microphones) can be instantly converted to RF wireless operation - simply by plugging the transmitter into the microphone connector." That is misleading. The microphone needs to have a metal casing, since the transmitter uses the metal case of the microphone as an antenna. And the locking ring at the bottom is certainly not suitable for all Sennheiser micrphones. If you start to rely on the strength of the spring inside the XLR-3 connector on the Sennheiser (made by Neutrik AG so I was told), then you will be sorely disappointed after a few months standard use - the microphone starts to rattle on the end of the transmitter creating annoying rattle noise.

I think that’s a design fault, but the manufacturers don’t agree with me - and were extremely unhelpful at IBC, making out that this was not a problem. Curiously the Sennheiser UK site says there is now a 10 year guarantee on these components, - but only for products purchased after August 1st 2005....oh what a shame I do not qualify.

I’m going to test the Sony version to see if it is any better. In the meantime, I'm looking for alternatives to Sennheiser.

Wind-Up Radios - 10 Years On

Both in Berlin (IFA) and Amsterdam (IBC) I saw some new wind-up radios. This week is actually historic because 10 years ago on Monday Trevor Baylis, of what was called Baygen (Baylis Generators) launched his first wind-up radio at IBC. He used the same spring you find inside a car safety belt to power his sets. The radios were made in Capetown, South Africa for quite a years by a factory employing mainly disabled people. However import tariffs and duties inside Africa meant that it soon became un-economic to continue to make the wind-up radios in Capetown. At that point, Trevor and the Freeplay organisation parted company.

Now the spring method seems to have been replaced by a wind-up battery charger in most variations….people like Grundig North America (now branded as Eton), make one….I like this range of radios because it comes with a set of chords to charge the phone with the radio, as well as having an inbuilt light.


Windupdab

The Tangogroup, who now own the Freeplay licence told me last month they are launching a wind-up DAB radio called DEVO in October 2005. I have only got a picture. One 60 second wind will work for an hour on FM, but only 3-5 minutes on DAB. If it is true they should do a deal with Telsell and market it alongside the body trainers!

Urban Fox at IBC 2005

On Saturday Sept 9th, as part of the What Caught My Eye series at IBC, Christina Fox did an excellent look at building a professional production kit for video producers. She’s putting up her selection of kit later this week at http://www.urbanfox.tv/. I really recommend you look at that. She runs excellent, very reasonabl-priced training sessions for those who aspire to do professional video productions. The website contains some useful hints and news too.

I have built a similar list of kit on these pages that tries to complement Christina’s list, but then more for people working with audio, either for radio, podcasting, or audio for video for TV or the web.

T-20 Recorder from I-River

The I-river 700 series, which people like Adam Curry use for soundscape podcasts is dead.

The T-20 is the new device to replace it, which looks like it will have an external microphone input as well as "line-in". The photo is misleading....you think it is big....infact the unit is the size of stick of gum and the USB connector slides inside out of the way. I see that Engadget is reporting the units are starting to appear in the US now.

I bought one of the first T-20's on September 9th. It cost me 170 Euro for the 1 GB version. The built-in microphone is actually quite good. You can record 18 hours at the highest quality.

BUT.... the controls are very confusing to operate, especially when the thing is hanging round your neck. This is clearly an MP3 player where someone has added on a few extra bits to make it record. I would vote the older version as much better.

It is still very difficult to get information out of I-river and dealers tend to stock other brands around here. For that reason, I would not recommend this unit to friends.

IBC -Thanks for visiting

Chances are that you were one of the 106 people who turned up to Room L on Monday to see the session 'What Caught My Eye' on gadgets. I will be posting the presentation, with the links to the companies concerned in the course of this week. Please check back for that, and mark this blog in your list of favorites. You can also subscribe using RSS with most of the popular readers, so when updates come, you will get an e-mail with the contents of the post.

Grundig Name Becomes Eton...

That picture I posted yesterday? It is the exhaust of a Porsche, which was the inspiration for a new line of radios being marketed by the Eton Corporation, formerly Grundig of North America. They have designed a radio which actually fits into a subwoofer, with the knobs doubling for both volume and tuning as well as being the "tweeters". The radio does sound terrific - costs around 300 Us dollars in the States.

Samson C01U - USB Condenser Microphone.

Now this looks like something for serious podcasters - a USB mike. It costs around 200 US dollars.

The US manufacturer Samson claims the C01U USB Studio Condenser Mic is the first affordable studio condenser mic with a USB interface.

Seamless integration was the idea, and it was obtained by creating a studio condenser microphone that can be plugged into any computer with no in/out boxes, no expensive computer pre-amps, just a USB cable. The C01U condenser microphone is based on the C01. It features a 19mm internal shock mounted diaphragm with a cardioid pick up pattern ensuring studio quality recordings. The C01U works perfectly on any computer, Mac or PC, and with any DAW software program. It immediately solves a huge problem for users of many laptops, many of which have no other input method for audio devices. The mic also opens up possibilities for anyone who records audio - from Podcasters, radio reporters, students, and business people adding audio files to websites and multimedia presentations.

Can you guess what this is? Answer tomorrow 

Onkyo Stuff & Nonsense

So why is this nonsense? Onkyo is trying to sell you "gold plated" cables as if this will do anything to the encoding quality of the original MP3. It is like putting a golden steering wheel on a SMART. What is the point?

Anyone tried the Alesis Mixer?

Looks like this might be a useful unit for remote podcasts that are now being recorded on location. Retails at US$250 in the US.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Series : Can you believe your ears?

So what's the deal here?

Creative TechnologyLtd, the people with over 250 millionSound Blaster(R) sound cards sold to date, have just announced, what they claim, is a major step upwards in audio fidelity.

They have introduced the Sound Blaster X-Fi(TM) line of sound cards. Powered by the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity(TM) audioprocessor, the Sound Blaster X-Fi cards introduce Xtreme Fidelity, an entirely new audio standard for music, movies and games.

As I am currently encoding a radio library (old tapes), I was intrigued by the press-release claim " With Sound Blaster X-Fi's 24-bit Crystalizer(TM)and CMSS(R)-3D technologies, all your MP3 music and CD music can sound even better than the original studio recording"

It goes on: "Sound Blaster X-Fi heralds the beginning of a new epoch in audio, whereX-Fi enabled audio products will eventually and completely replace the old hi-fi equipment in the home,

Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro features professional-quality digital-to-analog converters (DACs) with 116dB SNR, plus an I/O module with acomprehensive selection of connectivity for audio creation with easy-to-usecontrol knobs for the X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer, X-Fi CMSS- 3D (Creative Multi-Speaker Surround), 3DMIDI, and EAX.

The Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro also features 64MB of on-board X-RAM-- audio memory dedicated to higher gaming audio quality and performance, in addition to a built-in pre-amp for direct recording, and high-impedance inputs for electric guitars. The "top of the line" Sound Blaster X-Fi solution, the Elite Pro includes all of the standard features, application software, power and performance capabilities of the entire family of Sound Blaster X-Fi cards (described below), in one solution.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS : Yes that is a "1" not an "i". Designed to meet the performance demands of the world's best-known professional gamer, Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, the Sound Blaster X-FiFatal1ty(TM) FPS sound card provides stunning 109dB SNR audio quality, accelerates gaming performance and includes 64MB of on-board X-RAM for high performance gaming. With support for EAX(R) ADVANCED HD(TM) 5.0, the latestversion of the EAX Environmental Audio standard, the Sound Blaster X-FiFatal1ty FPS card utilizes X-Fi CMSS 3D technology for stunning audio realismover headphones in LAN gaming. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS features a convenient front-facing internal drive bay for easy connectivity, plus the X-Fi IR remote to easily access and control all digital entertainment, and tocontrol the X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer, X-Fi CMSS 3D, 3DMIDI and EAX.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum The ideally versatile sound card to suit all digital entertainment experiences, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum sound card includes an internal drive bay with additional, convenient front-facing input/output connectivityfor headphone listening, PC gaming and audio creation. Delivering 109dB SNR audio quality, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum includes the X-Fi IR remote, for easy access to the Entertainment Center software console, which enables access to music, movies and picture slide shows through a slick, streamlined interface. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum also includes all of the standard features, application software, power and performance capabilities of theSound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music.

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic. The Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card harnesses the full power ofthe Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor to upgrade any existing library of MP3 or any music files to the Xtreme Fidelity audio standard. With the X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity 24-bit Crystalizer, MP3 music and movies are converted to Xtreme Fidelity, which deliver an experience beyond the original CD or DVD recordings. With the included Creative MediaSource(TM) 3 software suite, users can easily SuperRip(TM) all their digital music permanently toXtreme Fidelity. In addition, MediaSource 3 also allows users to further enhance their music content with single-click access to rich features like X-Fi CMSS-3D, Smart Cross-Fade and Smart Volume Management. The Sound BlasterX-Fi Xtreme Music sound card plays back audio with rich 109dB SNR quality. Optimized Modes for Peak X-Fi Performance

Pricing and Availability: The Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro, priced at US$399.99, the Sound BlasterX-Fi Fatal1ty FPS, priced at US$279.99, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, priced at US$199.99 and the Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic, priced atUS$129.99, will be available this month in the US (August 22nd shipping), probably in September in Europe.

I hope to test the Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic by the end of the month. Watch this space! Wonder if the card gets hot with all those components on it?

Thanks to Gamespot for the indepth preview.

Yellowtec Microphone Arm

Not such a good photo, but the Yellowtec microphone arm is as good as, if not better, than the US made O.C. White. I like the fact that it has a plastic sleeve over the springs (to avoid the twang) and also hides the cable neatly inside the arm. Cost? About 175 Euros, excluding VAT.

Best Microphone Arms

Now is this the best microphone arm in the world? It is certainly one of the heaviest and designed for radio stations and/or very serious podcasters. You can hang a great studio mike - and this new version of the OC White arm allows you to conceal the microphone wire. But there may be a better rival from the German company of Yellowtec....

Great Microphones, But No Passion

Sennheiser Worldwide: Microphones, Headphones and Wireless Systems OK, so here's the problem. I have a Sennheiser MD-431 II microphone and it looks like the windshield is bust. I dropped by the Sennheiser Nederland HQ on an industrial estate just outside Amsterdam. Boy, were they unhelpful. A new windshield would cost 80 Euro ex VAT. Forget it, I will use a bit of superglue....and it works again perfectly. Great products sold by people with an apparent grudge against society.