I recently took delivery of an Arcam AVR400 and connected it up to my home system. It has auto-calibration built-in which ran very easily. I tried out “Monster vs Aliens” Blu-ray and the audio is sensational. The boxy sound from the front centre channel has gone and the rear channels are clearly audible and very pleasant, adding effect without being intrusive. “Despicable Me” is also really well done on Blu-ray. Ok so you’ve guessed it: I have young children and an excuse to buy entertaining animations.

I also tried out the MTV Unplugged DVD of The Corrs. After getting over the visiual distraction of Caroline yet again, the sound was nicely distributed around the room and pretty seamless. It was relaxing and the surround added ambience. It’s a shame it’s not available in Blu-ray, as I’m sure the clarity would improve. I then compared my 2012 Arcam AVR,  fed from my Blu-ray player HDMI output, against my 1998 Naim CD3.5 through the AVR on Stereo Direct. The Naim+AVR combination still won on clarity, instrument positioning and sense of rhythm and timing, but then the Naim was £1000 on its own!

But overall I watch more movies these days, and now they have come much more alive for me; so why don’t you switch to Blu-ray and multi-channel audio?

Of course now I'm using Blu-ray discs, I have found out that the player is converting the lossless audio tracks into compressed non-HD format to go down the S/PDIF interface to my aging surround-sound processor. It's interesting it still sounds a lot better than DVDs, though. So my only option now is to get a surround processor with HDMI input, so it can process the full HD audio. As I have the surround amp in addition to my stereo system, I need a processor with pre-outs for the stereo power amplifier. The new "Audio Return Channel" feature sounds useful too, so I only need one HDMI cable between the processor and my TV.

An HDMI surround processor will also allow me to connect my Freeview-HD box too, which is the UK's fledgling terrestrial HD broadcast service, using MPEG-4 encoding for 720 or 1080 resolution. And what is the audio quality on Freeview-HD? Most use AAC at 320kbit/s for 5.1, although Dolby Digital Plus is permissible. This is then transcoded to Dolby Digital or DTS for the S/PDIF, with the extra option of uncompressed for the HDMI output. Well I think I'd rather avoid the transcoding!

I'll let you know how I get on in a future post.

When I got my full HD LCD TV and Blu-ray player connected a while back, I noticed the Blu-ray picture quality was much better. I could see eyes glistening properly, crowd scenes with such detail they gained depth, and far less blocky graphics during large, sudden scene changes. Animations like “Monsters vs Aliens” were so much better too. But what I also noticed, when I powered up my 5.1 surround system (connected to the player via optical S/PDIF), was a dramatic improvement in sound quality. I was actually enjoying the Blu-ray sound, whereas DVD had always been merely adequate.

So I did a bit of digging on numbers.  DVD movie sound tracks typically squeeze the 5.1 channels in to a total of 448kbit/s (Dolby) or 768/1536kbit/s (DTS). This means that those 6 channels are rather tightly squeezed in and probably make standard 128kbit/s MP3 files look generous. In my view, MP3s don’t get bearable until at least double that (AAC is better). So DVD is quite a compromise, but a DTS sound track is likely to sound better due to the higher bit-rate.

In total contrast, the Blu-ray movie HD sound tracks are lossless encodings and can run at up to 25Mbit/s. The detailed numbers show that this means that the audio is at better-than-CD quality. All my Blu-ray discs are HD for the English sound tracks, as it happens. What a big difference! No wonder they sound so much better.

In my next blog, I’ll go in to more detail on how to get the audio from the player to the surround processor.

Another breakfast briefing by Strategy Analytics discussed the connected everything. Your car will become a mobile WiFi hotspot. Using sensors and your mobile phone you'll be constantly hooked up to a virtual hospital monitoring every heartbeat. And - of course - everything in your home will be connected to everything else and they will all be connected to a smart meter which in turn will be connected to the national grid etc etc.

This theme was brought to life at the connected home stand in the show where operators, hardware OEMs, software and apps companies all came together to demonstrate the possibilities.

Although it does conjure up Orwellian visions (will there be any need for a street address or telephone number or email address or national insurance/social security numbers in the future? All that will be required is name & IP address...no hold on, no need for superfluous information such as names!), I for one am pretty excited about the opportunities this presents to change the way we do things not just for personal efficiency but even the way healthcare works at a national level. Just look at how banking has been revolutionised, does anyone miss using their lunch-break to go into a branch to conduct their personal financial business in person?

When it comes to advances in communication and entertainment, all this points to the need for extremely high quality audio voice experience (transmit & receive), audio record, audio multimedia playback and audio conference delivery: everywhere, anywhere, on any device.

Voice control is the interface of the future and regardless of what device you will be listening to content via - smartphone, tablet, TV, gaming console, ultrabook, PC, docking station or just smart standalone speakers - capture and playback quality can be fantastic no matter if you are 50cm or 5m away from the device.

At Wolfson we are serious about making this a reality by managing the entire signal chain with:

• Mems microphones to ensure high quality, highly sensitive capture,
• The best mixed signal conversion technology available
• Ultra low power Audio DSP engines
• Smart speaker management and protection technology
• A suite of audio algorithms from beamforming to noise/echo suppression/cancellation to psychoacoustic audio enhancements

As I left the show on Wednesday evening, it was with a real injection of enthusiasm that technology can have a positive economic and social enhancing impact and that Wolfson is in the right market at the right time with the right product.

The atmosphere of Day 2 felt much more business-like, with some of the novelty of Day 1 wearing off and the serious business of client, partner, supplier and analyst discussions being the focus for attendees.

My day started by attending a briefing by a market research company Strategy Analytics on what they see as key dynamics in the marketplace. The presentation focussed on the predicted huge growth in network traffic over the next few years, driven in the main by content consumption via a continually fast growing tablet market. They predict almost 1 in 2 homes in the US and 1 in 4 in Western Europe will own a tablet by 2016, and made a plea for a review of network pricing plans sold with tablets (and online gaming products), which they suggest could be too expensive and thus contributing to the large proportion of Wi-Fi based sales. This all bodes well for Wolfson and our significant share in android tablets, as publishers of multimedia content are working hard to deliver better consumer experiences on these form factors (i.e. better audio). Given some of the less than enthusiastic coverage of new tablet announcements at the show (or lack thereof), this was very encouraging.

We left the briefing for a really exciting presentation from a company who have some really nice audio algorithms which would complement our own suite of software.  As opposed to adding any new effects or enhancements, their value proposition is that they can recreate the original sound of a recording, “repairing” or “replacing” anything that was lost on the way from the recording studio to the device. They demo’d their product on a very popular smartphone made by one of our customers, and it’s the closest I’ve heard to listening to vinyl on a digital device – my first “retro” moment of the day.

This theme of resurrection of good technology continued as I had a play with the Galaxy Note and its stylus. I could imagine replacing my paper notebook with it, having not used a device like that since Palm Pilot days.

We had a couple of meetings with press and customers focussing on our noise cancellation headphones, which generated great interest as usual. My day was rounded off with a really exciting meeting with a start-up handset firm who have a vision to deliver very affordable high quality smartphones to emerging markets and by doing so stimulate economic and social growth. It was a good way to end a day which had saw some of the best of today’s technology augmenting some of the best from the past.

Anticipation…excitement...curiosity...all of these feelings were apparent in abundance as the crowds streamed up the avenue this morning in front of the Wolfson booth under a clear blue spring sky in Barcelona. The Wolfson team were in place and ready to rock, final adjustments were made to the meeting plan, the demos were fired up and the organisers even switched on a couple of dozen fountains outside our booth to give us a nice added background frequency for the noise cancellation demo!

My day One was very… “balanced"...A couple of customer meetings, a couple of market analyst meetings and a really exciting meeting with a company who has fantastic software offering “Real World Interface” products based on audio, running on mixed signal+DSP.

In between meetings I chose to start my Crocodile Dundee-esque walkabout in the App Planet (sans 18inch hunting knife). OK, so my antennae are naturally up for the cool audio apps and there did seem to be some nice stuff around VOIP and in-Car hands-free control as well as the ever more inventive mobile marketing firms and proliferation of mobile payment apps.

Most app developers don’t think about where their service will run in the system, infinite processor capacity is assumed BUT...With LTE RF potentially threatening to (at least at the start) reduce battery life to half of what it is with 3G, ( http://gigaom.com/mobile/when-will-lte-stop-sucking-your-battery/ ) the fact is that some apps shouldn’t even need to bother the AP, disintegrated audio and distributed Mippage just make more and more sense.

Which brings me to my main takeaway from today...what did I enjoy most? I really enjoyed the RIM stand; there was a big emphasis on the new OS for Playbook and having very carelessly left mine at home I’m looking forward to seeing it again. I also enjoyed the big Galaxy Note 10.1 posters plastered all over the place and the fact they had a live band in one of their stands. No doubt some of the handsets are super cool and I await tomorrow like it’s Christmas Eve, but what I really enjoyed was watching the reaction of people when they listened to our demos.

Wolfson’s transmit noise cancellation (we remove all the background noise and only send your dulcet tones to the lucky recipient) has such a WOW effect its really should be a standard feature on all phones (not just the Smart variety). The Ambient and Adaptive noise cancellation will change the way we think about mobile communication – a conversation anywhere, anytime: aye right...aye, right (a phrase in Scotland used as both a challenge and an answer). Then, I was standing at the back of the demo room when the tablet audio enhancement effects were turned on and realised it was better than what comes out of the speakers of my TV at home. The customer thought so too (his TV obviously, not mine). Then there was our tablet beam-forming demo...I promise you, your family Skype call to Granny will never be the same again.

So there it is, Day One was very exciting, but…. the best was at home. Our chips are fantastic – they have to be, you’ll want to check them out. Our algorithms...they’ll keep you here.

Please come see for yourself!                                 

When demonstrating high performance music playback systems, I am often asked, "what should I listen for?". I usually talk about the following:

• Precision & Accuracy
  • How precise and accurate is the sound of individual instruments? Listen to plucked strings such as acoustic guitar, are the notes precise? Can you hear each note clearly and distinct or does each note smear into the next? Listen to percussion, does each beat sound crisp and sharp or dull and indefinte?
• Soundstage & Location
  • Can you identify where each instrument or singer is? Does each instrument occupy it's own acoustic space?
• Separation
  • Think of how you can tune into individual voices in a crowded party. Can you separate each instrument or do they appear to be on top of each other?
• Silence
  • Music is a mixture of sound and silence, listen to the silence.
• Presence
  • Are you there? Can you imagine the artist in the concert hall, on stage at the intimate bar, singing in front of you?
• Emotion
  • Perhaps the most important question. Can you connect emotionally to the artist and to the music? Can you feel the tingle on your spine?

A few questions can start to develop your audio palate and help you can reveal more about your favourite music. If you have any favourite attributes you look for in music playback, share them in the comments.

The natural starting point is to listen to live music. Listen to different types of live music in different locations. At Wolfson technical conferences, we have organised a church pipe organ classical recital (did you know our chief technical writer was so talented?), attended a concert by the flamenco guitarist Juan Martin, and spent time watching a local band in a recording studio. Each event had it's own acoustic signature which has it's own challenge to the listener. Only by attending many live music events and building that background of experience can we begin to educate our ears and appreciate recorded music.

I listened to a string quartet play Mozart in Austria. No electronics, just the amplification of string via a hand crafted wood cavity and well designed room acoustics. I was struck by how I could clearly separate the sounds made by each musician in the same way you might tune into different conversations at a cocktail party.

So to start the journey into fine audio, get out, listen to live music. The local trad session in the pub, the church organ recital, the stadium rock gig, the busker outside the shopping mall. And as you do, spend just a few moments, listening critically. How does it sound, what can you hear, where is the sound coming from, how does it make you feel? Build up your audio experience and acoustic memories.

So have some fun and invest funds in your acoustic bank account.

People expect to plug in headphones, which have three terminals, and headsets, which use four terminals (one extra for the microphone). They might plug in a lead to connect to their car audio system or home hi-fi, or even a video cable. Then there’s those buttons on the cable. Is there just one? How many ways can you press it? Is it just for phone calls, or can it control music playback? Perhaps there are several buttons. How do they work through those four terminals? Do the buttons affect sound quality when operating?

The solution involves analogue and digital IC technology and software. Wolfson accessory detection has to be clever, so it is inaudible and can differentiate between headphones, microphones, video links and button presses - all without consuming a lot of power. It uses tiny, varying measurement currents with a high degree of precision, coupled to a digital control engine, to achieve this. This allows the correct signals to be activated and offer features like safe volume limiting on headphones, but not on a hi-fi connection, as this would reduce the signal level and make background hiss more apparent in a quiet room. And the combinations of uses keep on growing.

So next time you plug something in to that socket, do think of our engineers solving your problems behind the scenes.