If you are really serious about building a home theater, and you really want to maximize the results, it’s not just the equipment that is going to make your theater stand out.  Choosing a proper wall colour is one of the most important decisions to make when building a theater.

Everyone knows that light is absorbed by the colour black right?  That’s why baseball players put that paint under their eyes, that’s why you don’t wear a black t-shirt to the beach.  The same rule applies when painting your theater room.  A projector throws light over a large distance in an effort to reflect off of the screen.  Said screen will have, if it’s a good one, reflective attributes that will multiply the amount of light returning to the viewers eyes.  This is what is known as screen gain.  Generally the higher the screen gain, the brighter the image.

“What does this have to do with the wall colour?” you ask.  A projector’s lens is built to focus in a rectangular shape at a ratio of 16:9.  However, the light that leaves a lens will always, always, always create spillage around the intended target.  If the walls surrounding your screen are white, they will reflect this spilled light.  This reflected light will not only draw your attention to the walls, but will also shed light on the image causing it to wash out.  If they are black, they will absorb it.  It’s as simple as that.

Unfortunately, black walls are not in everyone’s design scheme.  Ideally, you should bite the bullet and work a black wall into your scheme, at least, on the wall the screen is mounted to.  If black is just plain not an option, choose the darkest colour you can live with.  Trust me, you will appreciate it in the long run.

Look at the way this image stands out on the black wall!

Een enorme ervaring waar vele muziekliefhebbers alleen maar van kunnen dromen.
Geluiden gehoord die voor 99% de realiteit benaderen en een echt ‘live beeld’ neerzetten!

Zo heb ik de kans gehad om bij Fritz De With himself topopnames te kunnen beluisteren. Hij staat bekend voor zijn unieke kijk en gevoel met muziek.
Zijn uitzonderlijke opnames van top kwaliteit. (zie Marantz, Ken Ishiwata,…)

Fritz De With

De opnamefilosofie van Fritz De With
• Wat eerst en vooral opvalt bij elke registratie van STS-Digital is de warme, natuurlijke klank van elk instrument. (rekening gehouden met ruimte, akoestiek)

• Dank zij het originele STS-3 en STS-6 opnamesysteem met gebruikmaking van uitstekende Schoepsmicrofoons kan elk instrument ook duidelijk in de ruimte gesitueerd worden, zoals bij een driedimensionele foto. (en dat hoor je!!)

• Nog een belangrijk aandachtspunt is de gelijke signaalverdeling tussen L en R of de symmetrie.

• Elke opname klinkt helder en doorzichtig, zonder enige scherpte.

• Grote aandacht voor fasereinheid, mede in de hand gewerkt door het gebruik van Siltech zilverbekabeling. (en anderen)
Meer info: www.sts-digital.nl

 Al ooit gehoord van een Q-sound?
“Q-sound” is een merknaam die gebruikmaakt van binaurale stereotechnieken. Bij deze technieken houdt men rekening met de Head-Related-Transfer-Function (HRTF). Dit is een tabel die de overdracht van het omgevingsgeluid op het gehoorkanaal omschrijft. Men lokaliseert geluid door looptijd- en intensiteitverschillen.

Deze verschillen ontstaan tussen de oren, veroorzaakt door het hoofd. Men lokaliseert tevens door verschillen in frequentierespons, veroorzaakt door de oorschelp. Dit alles in een tabel over geluidsbeeld van 360 graden, ook wel azimut genoemd. Deze gegevens zijn o.a. verzameld met behulp van een kunstkop en worden zodanig geïmplementeerd dat bij afluisteren over een koptelefoon een geluidsbron rondom de luisteraar kan worden geplaatst.

En dan spreek ik in naam van mezelf: ik heb althans het bewijs gehoord dat surround niet kan tippen aan een degelijk stereo installatie. Ook al stonden de twee speakers perfect opgesteld voor me, toch hoorde ik volledig rechts en links van me verschillende geluiden en muziek. Bekijk even de foto, ik ben het kruisje dat muziek aan het luisteren is. De rechthoekige, staande vlakken zijn de speakers waar prachtige muziek uit komt. Door Q-sound lijkt het of je links en rechts van je ook speakers hebt staan, die er totaal niet zijn! Ook hoorde ik iemand wandelen, en hij kwam recht op me af wanneer ik mooi centraal in het muziekbeeld zat, eng hoor)

Q-Sound

Jazeker en dat met stereo en niet te vergeten, alles zat nog mooi op zijn plaats. De stem hoorde je mooi centraal in het midden met de muziekanten er omheen.
Bij surroundsystemen hoor je zelfs vaak de stem vanachter, totaal waardeloos dus.

Thnx to Fritz De With voor deze prachtige ervaring!

It’s Monday and it ’s not a full week, but I feel like it is because of all the things that are going on.  I really feel as though I will not be able to breat this week considering all the things that I need to get done.  It starts today and doesn’t really end till Friday afternoon.  So it was time to begin the week.

I got up this morning and got myself going.  Heather was up bright and early and had the kids going with her.  It is so nice go have her here.  She is supposed to have her bus test today, so at about three o’clock I’ll be saying a quick prayer for her to make sure she passes the test as well.  We really need her to be driving bus and making more money than she currently is.  We all sat down and ate breakfast together and then I got ready for work while the kids got ready for school.  We watched the “Early Show” on CBS and then I was off to work and the kids left for school.

Got things set up for my day.  It was another day of trying to teach my students some music theory.  They fight me in learning some of this information, but I always try to emphasize the cross-connections with other subjects like Math, Science, and English.  Today was mostly about teaching key signatures.  For some reason, my students hate learning about them.  I’m not sure why.  I don’t find them overly difficult, but they find the concept of key signatures to be an overtly difficult concept in my class.  I managed to get my students through this lesson and made it through my day.  I made a quick prayer around three o’clock and at around three-fifteen, I got a text from Heather.  She had failed her driving test.  CRAP!

I got home and was not in a good mood to begin with.  I was upset about Heather failing the test and she was upset at herself for failing.  I should probably have been more supportive, and I feel guilty that I didn’t do the “poor dear” routine with my wife, but in some ways, I think she needed a little bit of tough love.  I think in the long run she will appreciate it.  I asked her what she did wrong, and she was at least able to tell me which shows that she has learned from the experience.  We discussed the matter for a little bit, but didn’t have much time to talk.  We had Ruth’s parent/teacher night tonight and I had other things I wanted to do as well.  After talking to Heather, I went downstairs and started to work on a project that I needed to get done.

My Marantz receiver has not been functioning properly for quite some time now.  I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but the display would often dissappear, the processor would often stop functioning and the receiver would simply get suddenly loud out of the middle of nowhere with all sorts of weird noises.  So, I set out on my first task.  I decided that I should clean out the receiver.  I’ve never taken it in for a maintenance and never done one myself.  I took it apart and realized there was WAY too much dust on the inside.  So, I decided to get the dust out any way possible.  I started with compressed air.  That did some of the work.  Then I took a Shop Vac to parts of the unit and then finally used an old sock as a dust rag and finished off what I could.  The entire system seemed to be doing okay.  I was able to get it completely clean.  I then put it back in and hooked up one speaker and tested the system.  Sure enough, the display went out again after five minutes of use.  I was frustrated.  I took the unit apart and found out there was a fuse that was out in the unit.  So, Heather and I went to “Radio Shack” and tested it and found out that it was actually okay.  So, I left the unit apart and hooked it back up.  Same result.

I gave up for a little bit and went upstairs and ate dinner with the family.  As I was eating dinner it occurred to me that the problem may actually be with the front board of the unit and that I needed to look at it.  I finished up dinner pretty quick and went back downstairs and found out that is exactly what was wrong.  There was a board on the front of the unit that was supposed to be supported by four plastic clips that kept the board in place and in check.  So, I tried to fix it by glueing the board in place with the plastic using “Goop”.  That didn’t work.  So, the other option was to glue a piece of plastic to the current piece of plastic to wedge it in place.  Once I did that it seemed to fix the problem.  But, we didn’t have time to test it.  We scrambled to leave the house and get over to the school.

We went to the school and did our parent/teacher night.  We sat through a presentation from each department and then went around and checked out the classrooms.  I ran into a teacher I taught with at East, I ran into a teacher that worked with a teacher that I am currenlty working with, and I had a teacher that had a Smart Board in their classroom and had a discussion with him about the object.  All of these discussions made my wife rather exasperated with me for the night because she felt like I was making a connection with all the teachers and she wanted to be able to do that.  I think my wife has a hard time when I know what to expect (I AM a middle school teacher, by the way) and she doesn’t understand whatever it is I am talking to these teachers about.  We got done and came home.

I got home and as I watched our T.V. shows, I hooked back up the speakers to the sound system and the receive works great now!  So, I was able to grade some papers and watch “How I Met Your Mother”, “Accidentally on Purpose”, “Two and a Half Men”, “Big Bang Theory”, and “C.S.I. Miami” before going to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 3 of “Star Wars – Medstart I:  Battle Surgeons, A Clone Wars Novel” by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry……Chapter 3 (Part 3):  Den Dhur walked into the cantina.  The Sullustan walked in with a swagger and none of the patrons stopped or even noticed his entrance.  He noted that the cantina was loud and poorly lit.  Imagine that!  His sensitive ears couldn’t handle the sound of the music and the loud talking of the patrons.  But, he was a reporter and this was the place to get the stories.  He went to the bar and waived over the bartender and the Ortolan came over.  He ordered a “Bantha Blaster” and the bartender made the drink and put the price on his tab.  He took a sip, the first drink always tasted the best and he scanned the room noting that this cantina was set up to serve the troops.  As a storm brewed outside, the regulars in the bar moved since they knew where the roof leaks were.  Not soon after, the rain started falling and the water started streaming through the leaks in the roof.  Some of the newbies got wet and the regulars laughed.  All Den could think about was the fact that he was out here yet again to be stuck in dives like this to bring the stories back to the people.  Then the door opened and Den knew by the smell alone that a Hutt had entered the room…..

A common question people have these days, is “What size tv should I buy?”  As I sit here at my sister’s house preparing myself for Hockey Night in Canada (I miss my 50″ plasma), I’m thinking about a conversation we just had about her needing to replace her old, dying 32″ tube tv.  When I suggested a 42″ plasma, her eyes lit up a little bit with a look of “Are you crazy?!?!”

TV’s used to have a size ratio of 4:3 which means for every 4 inches wide the screen is 3 inches tall.  New “widescreen” tv’s have a ratio of 16:9.  A 32″ 4:3 screen (measured diagonally) will look SIGNIFICANTLY larger than a 32″ 16:9 screen.

When replacing an old television and going to widescreen (you don’t have a choice, 16:9 is the new standard)  go bigger.  A 42″ plasma is roughly the same height as an old 32″ tube tv.

Go big people.  It’s worth it and it matters.

this ipod age is interesting. I love the fact I can get really good quality sound at the click of a button. I can also buy music over my new phone now so there is never reason to be without the beloved muse. I remember the mornings before school when I would play my few (and often cheap) CDs over and over. It was some time out before the onset or onslaught of the daily grind. To think now that at any time of day I could have any music I want in my pocket and also played by the best orchestras or performed by the best artists. It is science fiction compared with the old way.

What is tricky about ipods is that to connect them to an amplifier rather than use your computer, you need a device that joins the two. I just got an ipod dock today. This doesn’t have speakers, it is purely a connector device. It set me back 50 euro but it means I now have a remote for the ipod and it is plugged in and so fully charged all the time. If I need to go out and want my ipod at least the battery is in order. I can leave it in the dock and by connecting it to the computer then conveniently sync too. Nifty. The little remote is working nicely also. It is so important to have a remote! It is also so important not to have a dead ipod. prior to this I had a a usb mains adapter connecting my ipod to the mains but no remote and no place for my friend to sit.

The new amp I have, the Marantz 6003 works well although I do want better speakers which I can’t afford right now. Otherwise I am fairly well set up. I play music on the laptop during the day often but in the evening the ipod is best since it is quiet and now easy to control from the bed. Luxury!

I know, I know.  No one wants to fall for this one.  “200 dollars for a remote control?!?!  Are you crazy?!?!”

I used to be of this same frame of mind.  Seemed like a ridiculous expense, how could anyone justify spending this kind of money?

Let me try to put it in perspective.  You go out, spend thousands of dollars on a new home entertainment system and really want to “wow” your friends.  You invite everyone over, get them seated, the popcorn is popped and the lights are dimmed.  You pick up your Denon remote and try to power up the surround receiver.  A tiny light comes on the dvd player.  Whoops, wrong remote.  No problem!  Grab the next one.  The amp fires up no problem.  Now, for the tv.  Hmmmm….where did that remote go?  After getting all your friends to jam their hands into the couch cushions, you realize it was right in front of you, right next to the satellite remote, vcr remote, your keys, your blackberry, the tiny remote for your iMac.

No harm!  No foul!  I’ll just turn it on now.  The plasma fires up.  Everyone is very impressed by your enormous screen which is bright blue and has Y/pB/pR written in the corner.  Oh that’s right!  I have to change the input!  You grab the Denon remote and change it to DVD.  A fanfare of horns erupt and you recognize it as the sound of the 20th Century Fox startup screen!  Now…where’s that tv remote again?  You finally find it and change it to HDMI 1.  The screen lights up with a glorious picture!!!  Unfortunately it’s not the movie you are trying to watch, it’s “The Big Comfy Couch”  All your friends start laughing and one guy yells out, “Hey, don’t you know how to use this stuff?”  You’re sweating, embarrassed and extremely flustered and you are starting to panic.  Any second now you are going to start pulling wires out of the tv and try to plug them in blindly until something works.

How stupid does that universal remote sound now?  If only you’d budgeted for a decent remote, you could have pushed the big glowing button labelled, “Watch a Movie” and the remote would have set everything up for you.  All the correct inputs, put the volume at a decent and impressive level, even dimmed the lights for a dazzling effect!

I admit it, these things cost a little bit of money, but “oh Boy!” are they ever worth it.  After all, you just bought all this stuff and the remote is the only thing you are ever going to touch!

Whether it’s just an upgrade from an aging home theater or if you are starting fresh, there are some important things to consider when it comes to audio.

Consider this, you buy a brand new 50 inch plasma, with all the bells and whistles and don’t account for a new audio system in your budget.  You hook it up and the picture looks fantastic! You sit down to watch a movie and it becomes glaringly obvious that there is a giant discrepancy between picture and sound.  The people and action on screen are certainly larger than life, but they sure don’t sound like it.

When budgeting for a new home theater, you are well advised to include an audio upgrade.  A new surround sound receiver will increase your television experience ten-fold, and will even help with the remote juggling, that drives so many people crazy.

If surround sound isn’t your thing, there are many options available to increase the fidelity of your sound, without having to pull wires everywhere and won’t break the bank.  Just ask a trusted home theater dealer what options are available.

Ever wonder why some stores can sell a product cheaper than others?  Many “big box” stores will order a batch of electronics with a few “modifications” made.  In other words, cheaper parts for a bigger profit margin.

At face value, it will seem like the exact same product you have been researching and drooling over for several months.  Whether it’s cheaper capacitors, cheaper labour causing cold solder joints, it isn’t the product you were looking at and it isn’t the product you want.

Rule of thumb is, if it seems way cheaper than it should be, that’s because it is!

The best way to avoid buying a “modified” product is to check the model number of the unit on the manufacturers website.  If it shows up as slightly different (even by one number) or not at all, don’t buy it!

At Marcus T. Solutions, I use only legitimate products.  The most current, and the most reliable, all the time.

Finalmente ONLINE il nostro sito di e-commerce

WWW.ELECTOMANIA.IT

SPESE DI SPEDIZIONE FISSE A 6,00 EURO

CON CORRIERE ESPRESSO UPS

Marantz.com 800.00 Speaker, television,ipod and DVD player will run through this system.

It is a whole new experience, taking sound seriously.  For years I have been mostly concerned about visual elements in a photograph.  The corporate video that I shot did not offer much in the way of creative latitude so it is only now, when I am transitioning from still photojournalism to documentary video, that the impact of sound is being realized.

I was in New Orleans, a few weeks ago, and left my hotel in the heart of the French Quarter, taking with me only a handheld field recorder, the Marantz PMD620.  I didn’t even take a camera with me.  This was going to be a sound-gathering experience!

As the evening progressed, the decibel level rose.  One bar after another announced live bands, or opportunities for corporate revellers to play “American Idol” with the help of a karaoke machine.   As I walked up and down Bourbon Street, headphones on, a small Audio Technica condenser mic plugged in to the PMD620, I started to mentally edit the multimedia production I would put together, based on the sounds being recorded.  The murmur of an excited, inebriated audience followed by the opening bars of an old favorite rock song – a great fit for opening titles and intro.  An African-American man in a long-tailed jacket, flat cap, vest, cord pants, and crocodile skin boots, encouraging groups of giggling guys to come and sample his selection of scantily clad women, many of which were parading around on balconies.  Two men standing with a cross in the middle of Bourbon Street, praying for everybody’s salvation and trying to hand out leaflets about The Lord.  As I listened, I began to piece together the flow of the photographs I had taken beforehand, layering sound and commentary to a 3 – 4 minute review of a still-recovering New Orleans.

The Marantz PMD620, which I purchased from B&H Photovideo, is a very easy to use piece of professional equipment.  With an easy to read display, user-configurable presets, recording to SD cards, AA battery power, built-in stereo mics, and a very easy to navigate menu, I learned to use the PMD620 very quickly and was soon experimenting with different recording settings, recording via a wireless lav mic, and appreciating its fast start-up time.

The price of this unit has already come down from when I bought it, possibly a sign that Marantz is about to release a new model.  Marantz is a well known brand in the recording industry and their products can be trusted for their build quality and performance.  As of today, you can buy one for $322 from B&H.

It used to be that I never went anywhere without a set of camera gear.  Now I never go anywhere without my small video camera and Marantz PMD620.

Jaha, efter cirka 1 vecka i sjuksängen, så är jag nu på benen igen. Helt deckad under en längre tid, vilket var otroligt längesedan. Antar att det är så det blir om man är sjuk så sällan, som jag brukar vara.
Nu känns det dock rätt okej, fortfarande ganska förskyld, vilket inte är alls kul, men med Otrivin Menthol så rensar man i princip allt som finns inombords. Det svider, bränner och jag känner hur jag “frustar” som en oxe varje gång. Effektivt? – Otroligt bra!

Så vad gör man då när man är sjuk? Ja, ingenting och åter ingenting. Det är så otroligt trist att bara “ligga” där, och stirra, sova, äta lite och sova lite till, samtidigt som rummet fylls av “snytpapper”, bakterier och “basilusker”.
Om jag hade varit en “reader” så hade jag kunnat plöja bok efter bok om intressanta “världsämnen”, men nej, det går inte alls. Efter några sidor så är jag i en annan värld, där fantasin har sprungit iväg till någon annan “rolig sak”, som är mycket mer stimulerande för mig.
Istället så blev det en hel del film, bland annat “The Bourne Trilogy” och “Body of Lies” i Full-HD. Inte alls dumt faktiskt, till och med riktigt underhållande.
Ännu en gång så fick mina “trogna vänner” Marantz, Mirage och Popcorn Hour visa sina bästa sidor.

En annan god vän, som fick vara med en hel del timmar, var den “gamle, gode” Xboxen! Även denna apparat levererar när det som mest behövs, i form av lättsam och relativt ofokuserad underhållning. Det blev COD 4, Bad Company, NHL 09, FIFA 09, Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5 med flera.

Det kan tyckas löjligt att en “vuxen människa” leker, men ack så underhållande det är, alla kategorier, och framförallt när man ligger i sjuksoffan!

Nu är det sista (och första) arbetsdagen denna veckan och helgen står knackandes på vår port. Det verkar inte bringas något direkt väder, och med förskylning så får nog golfen stanna hemma denna helgen, vem vet, vi får se!

Väl mött!

I finally got down to doing something that I’ve been wanting to try – pairing my ESW10 with David Garrett’s Encore album, and my Ordance DAC-1 so that I can bypass the internal soundcard and gosh oh gosh – it is uberly good! 

With all the nonsense that has been going on in my life now, I have hardly found time to sit down and play with my audio toys. YX sent his tips over for me to try with my Atrios and I have actually yet to sit down and try on the different tips. I’ve been saying I wanted to try my ESW10 with David Garrett and I only got down to it like today because I needed something to sooth the nerves, aside from just binging on chocolate and watching my restaurant work its way around. Wsatia’s Jays tips should be coming soon too. Sometimes I feel so guilty, because I’ve got such wonderful audio friends who are more than willing to share their knowledge and ideas with me, and what I can give in return is so minimal and insignificant. 

Sigh. 

Am dabbling with thoughts of getting a CDP, because I find myself getting more and more CDs, surprisingly – and playing them straight out from a CD player just sounds entirely different from playing them through the computer using digital audio. For some odd reason, after I came back from 天冷, I bought a 梁文福’s 新遙CD and I brought it out to the living room to try it on the really old set of Hi-Fi. It sounded astoundingly different and I was amazed by the difference. Astoundingly surprised, that would be the right phrase to use. 

So, I’ve started looking at CD players, pure simple CD players like Marantz, NAD and Cambridge Audio.. that would also mean that I’ve to invest in a good pair of speakers, perhaps the Audioengine ones or the nEar ones – simply because I’ve never been one who would use headphones at home. 

NAD C525

Marantaz CD6002

Cambridge Audio 340C

ESI nEar 04

ESI nEar 05

Audioengine A5

Imagine pairing the Marantz CD6002 with the Audioengine A5 – white sleekness! 

The plan now is to create a simple home theatre system in my room so I’ll continue to look around. The CDPs I’m looking at are going for a budget of slightly less than 600SGD, have to check around abit more for the speakers. 

Oh wells, in the meantime I can continue to swoon at these lovelies, and allow pop classical to sooth the frayed nerves that I’m feeling. 

Marantz PMD 620

It’s time for me to upgrade my audio recorder and I’ve been doing some research on what’s out there. I thought you might find what I’ve discovered of some value  if you’re planning on getting a new recorder.  This week I’m concentrating  on solid state field recorders which range in price from about $600 US to $300 US.  Next week I’ll tell you what I found in the under $300 price range.

Solid state recorders contain no moving parts and record audio directly to memory cards. The advantage of these machines is that there are no moving parts to wear out or jam. The recorders I’ve listed here all produce high quality sound, ideally suited for creating legacy quality audio memoirs. I’ve used one of my favorite sites, Transom.org to do my research. You can find out more information by clicking on each recoder listed.  Next week I’ll tell you what machine is right for me.

Marantz PMD 661 : About $600 US. “There are new, smaller, less-expensive recorders from Zoom and Tascam that feature XLR inputs and phantom power, but the sound quality and ergonomics of the 661 set a high bar to leap over. If the size is not a problem, and the approximately $600 pricetag is affordable, the PMD 661 is worth considering.”  Transom.org

Sony PCM-D50 : About$500 US. “Overall, the Sony PCM-D50 is a very well-built recorder, … The internal mics sound great, and most impressively, external mics do as well. It comes with 4 gigs of built-in memory, which will provide a lot of record time, even without buying any removable Memory Sticks… among all the small handheld flash recorders, the Sony D50 certainly is near the front of the pack. It does most things right, with only a few minor problems, and no tragic flaws.” Transom.org

Marantz PMD 620 : About $400 US. “With its small size, easy operation, and relatively clean sound with popular reporters’ microphones, the PMD 620 is almost an ideal choice.”  Transom.org

Olympus LS-10 : About $400 US. ” For simplicity, size, and ease of use, the Olympus LS10 is near the head of the pack of recent flash media recorders. Its small size, quiet mic preamps, compatibility with external mics and long battery life make it very attractive to reporters and field recordists.”  Transom.org

Zoom H4 Digital Recorder : About $300 US. “The Zoom H4 is an extremely versatile machine, perhaps a little over-complicated, but if left in stereo recording mode, can be easily operated without too much menu navigation. The excellent built-in mics and combo XLR/1/4″ jacks for external inputs make it able to work in many circumstances.” Transom.org

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Marantz PMD 620 en Madrid HIFI

El grabador de campo PMD620 de Marantz cabe en una mano o en el bolsillo, pero ofrece características avanzadas: grabación directa a MP3 y en formato WAV 44.1/48 kHz a 16 o 24 bits, USB 2.0, dos micrófonos de condensador incorporados, entrada de linea y micro externo, y salida de micro. Está basado en memoria flash SD, y acepta tarjetas de alta capacidad -hasta 2 terabytes-.

El PMD620 dispone de grabación activada por un solo toque, pulsando un botón retroiluminado en rojo. Incluye controles de transporte y una rueda de scroll que se maneja con el pulgar. El display OLED de fondo negro, y configurable con dos tamaños de letra distintos, necesita poca energía para funcionar, ampliando la vida de la bateria (el PMD620 se alimenta de dos pilas AA).

También dispone de capacidades de edición como “Copy Segment”, un sistema de cortar y pegar no destructivo que permite crear un nuevo archivo de audio que puede ser cargado o descargado usando el puerto USB 2.0. La función “Skip Back” permite a los transcriptores retroceder de 1 a 60 segundos en el audio.

Los LEDs “Level” y “Peak” indican el estado de la señal de entrada, y puedes rotar entre cuatro pantallas que muestran el tiempo que falta, el tiempo transcurrido y otros datos importantes.

Kenwood has released its Higher End Compact Hi-Fi to the market in black and silver colors. This Kenwood U-K323 series is compact with Hi-Fi at 2 x 20watts and it is capable to play play MP3, WMA or AAC music files either stored on a CD or a USB stick.

Click to know about world’s first DTS surround CD player from Kenwood

Moreover, with this device, you can have an FM/AM radio Tuner, DTS compatible and you can plug this device to your TV via its Digital Audio In.

[ More ]

They say multimedia journalism is the way forward; hell, it is the way forward. But sitting on a moving helicopter, flying over the rooftops of Baghdad, camera in hand trying to get a shot out the side, while also checking your audio recorder is working, with your seatbelt barely fastened….well it’s not easy.

That was the challenge I faced during my week with the First Batallion the Yorkshire Regiment in Iraq. On assignment for my employer – a radio station – I was also armed with a DV Camera and digital camera, hoping, desperately to come back with high quality video, audio and pictures.

Juggling kit

Now the obvious question, looking at the picture (right) is why didn’t I just use the audio from my video pictures? A good question, but I felt seeing as my primary reason for going out to Iraq was for radio, I needed to make good rich quality audio my priority. I just didn’t trust the quality from my DV Cam. I think though, in future projects, perhaps not just for radio, I will use onboard audio.

Juggling content

But juggling equipment isn’t the only problem for a multimedia shooter, I learned. The big challenge is juggling content.

It might be easy to say ‘just take a camera out and use the on board mic for sound and freezeframes for images’ but that ignores the fact that all three mediums – audio, video, pictures – have their own methods and priorities. Your video demands clean white balanced shots and considered visual sequences of something happening. Your audio demands to have clear sounds of that something happening. And your pictures want to be well framed and capture a split second, not a moving image.

Voice overs or pieces to camera have to be written differently for video than audio as they demand different styles. The former is written as a slave to pictures, while the latter must cope without any pictures at all.

So, in short, it’s a bit of a mindfuck.

But then if it’s not worth having, it’s not easy to get, right?

So how should the journalist approach multimedia stories?

01. with a good knowledge of each medium

02. with a plan of what the final products will be

03. with a variety of treatments: do some stories in just video, do others in just audio, rather than repeating the same content in different mediums

04. with a good bag which can carry all your equipment, and a notebook for logging everything and planning the final product

05. with a small digital camera- take a photo of everyone you interview in audio, for audio slide shows

06. smaller and lighter is better

07. when you arrive somewhere new, think over your video first of all, as getting the right shots is more complicated than getting the right audio or stills

08. and don’t just think in terms of audio, video or still images..what about interactive timelines, potted histories and discussion boards? If your final platform is online then all these are options  you can bear in mind.

All I will say is it was a lot more challenging than I had anticipated-if anyone has any other practical tips then please, add them below!

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