Sound + Image Oct/Nov-14

I am exceedingly impressed with FreeviewPlus, the new free-to-air service which combines a conventional programme guide with all the available online catch-up TV services. It is smart TV at its best — not some silly way of changing channels by waving, not TV-sized Skype with a microphone too far away to work properly, but what we all actually want — more content. For sure, there were several delays in getting FreeviewPlus on the air. And WIN and Prime have both opted out, so it won’t work on those channels in rural areas. And I gather from some of the equipment manufacturers that there were issues even after it went to air on September 2, because the system relies on accurate and well-formatted data coming from the backroom folk at all the…

As we go to press on this Oct-Nov issue of Sound+Image magazine we are in the process of finalising judgements on the most excellent products of the year in every category of audio and AV. The winners will be announced at our Gala Awards Dinner at The Hotel Intercontinental The Rialto in Melbourne on the evening of Wednesday 15 October. It’s a black tie event with full dinner and entertainment as well as the main event of the Awards, and for the first time in our 26 years of awards, we have made tickets available to our readers and the public. Our Awards Special Issue will be on sale 8 December in both premium print edition and digital versions for iPad/Android, detailing all the Winners and Highly Commendeds in what has become…

THE SHOW BEGINS 17 OCTOBER... You can get advance Show tickets from www.chestergroup.orgright up to the start, saving yourself dollars and queueing time... full details of everything can be found in the Show Guide included with this issue of Sound+Image... HEOS BY DENON IS AUSTRALIAN! We were amazed to discover that Denon’s new multiroom system, HEOS, was developed here in Australia from an office in North Sydney. At the recent Sydney launch, we were walked up the road in North Sydney to discover a D&M Innovation Centre hiding away in Berry Street. It turns out that the technology behind HEOS was born here in Australia as the Avega system of wireless speakers going back almost a decade. After being owned by Radiata, CISCO and Altec Lansing, D&M “quietly made an offer” and acquired…

Cambridge Audio has updated and expanded its Bluetooth speaker range with a number of models... The $399 Bluetone 100 wireless speaker (pictured) is 35cm long and uses 100W of Class-D amplification to drive Cambridge-developed 100mm Balanced Mode Radiator (BMR) speaker drivers. It can stream via Bluetooth, including the near-CD-quality aptX codec if your phone supports it, while also offering minijack and RCA analogue inputs. Also available are two new versions of the 24cm-wide Go portable speaker (previously the Minx Go), both as a straight NFC-pairing aptX-compatible Bluetooth speaker claiming 18 hours of playback ($229), and also as the new Go Radio (price to be confirmed), adding FM radio and three presets. Both use twin 5cm bass/midrange drivers and titanium tweeters plus a rear-firing ABR (Auxiliary Bass Radiator). A USB socket also…

Panasonic announced at IFA 2014 that the Technics brand, dropped in 2008, is to be revived. The brand’s new project director is engineer and jazz pianist Michiko Igawa, and two ranges are to be offered initially — a reference class Series R1 (in the tens of thousands of dollars) and a C700 Series (much less pricey, but nevertheless described as a premium series). The Series R1 is thoroughly modern, including a network player, a power amplifier (above) and speaker system but no CD player. The C700 system will have a CD player, network player, stereo integrated amp and speakers. These are launching in December. Ogawa explained the brand’s concept as comprising three technical elements: • ‘Accurate Digital Technology’, which ensures signal transmission with precise phase and gain characteristics, and ideal power conversion; •…

With curved TVs fashioning a certain premium niche in the market (despite their apparent inconvenience and the lack of any performance merits), Sony’s series of 4K TVs announced at IFA is led by the curved LCD Bravia S90 series, in 65-inch and 75-inch sizes. Screen technologies on the S90 include X-tended Dynamic Range, intelligently boosted contrast, and Sony’s 4K X-Reality PRO technology to upscale regular TV broadcasts and Blu-ray movies. The new series also includes a 4.2-channel Multi-angle Live Speaker system which uses separate drive units that accurately direct left and right front and surround channels into the room at carefully-controlled angles... though we’d hope screens of this size might justify a separate sound system! In Europe purchasers are being promised a ‘Privilege Movies 4K’ hard drive with ten 4K movies…