Yonkers, NY. Voyetra Technologies announced today that Sony Electronics will bundle customized versions of Voyetra’s audio sequencing and editing software on Sony personal computers. Voyetra recently announced that it is expanding its activity in the OEM software arena, and more licensing deals are expected in the next few weeks.

“Sony is synonymous with the consumer A/V business, so we were looking for a company in the PC business who could provide high-quality software befitting Sony’s requirements,” said Tac Sugiyama, Director of PC Marketing for Sony Information Technologies of America. “Voyetra was the natural choice. It’s the industry’s leading provider of integrated, user-friendly software, which is easily customized to fit the specific needs of Sony.”

New York, NY. At the Interactive Multimedia Association’s IMA Expo’96 this week, Zoran Corp. and Dolby Labs have been demonstrating a DVD-enabled multimedia PC with Dolby Digital AC-3 surround sound.

The demonstration PC uses Zoran’s new DVD4PC reference design board, with Zoran’s ZR38521 single-chip, two-channel AC-3 audio decoder on board. The availability of the ZR38000 family of decoders in volume, as well as Zoran’s DVD4PC reference design, will enable many OEM and PC manufacturers to significantly shorten time-to-market for their DVD products.

Zoran is the leading supplier of Dolby AC-3 decoder chips and parts. “Virtually all existing Dolby Digital consumer products use Zoran devices,” comments Roger Dressler, Technical Director of Dolby Labs. “These decoders can be used in a wide range of applications, including professional studio audio equipment, PC-based and standalone DVD players, and the new consumer audio products of the future.”

Zoran’s DVD4PC reference design board includes a PCI multimedia controller, Windows 95/Windows 3.1 software drivers, and MPEG-2 video decoder, in addition to the AC-3 decoder, on a single PCI card. The AC-3 decoder can be either the ZR38521 for two-channel sound, or the ZR38500 for full six-channel Dolby Digital surround and Dolby Pro Logic. The reference board is available immediately, priced at $1995 (US), and the AC-3 decoders are all in volume production now.

New York, NY. The parade of key interactive audio software announcements continues at IMA Expo’96 in New York. Today, the attention grabber is Progressive Networks, with its introduction of RealAudio System 3.0.

This is the first version of RealAudio to deliver stereo. The new release also features more reliable audio delivery via improved transmission protocols. A beta version is available immediately from the Progressive Networks web site.

“We’re excited by the many new applications now available to our customers through the introduction of broadcast-quality sound on the Internet,” stated Rob Glaser, Chairman and CEO of Progressive Networks. “This breakthrough marks the beginning of the next era in Internet multimedia broadcasting.”

RealAudio 3.0 is also the first Internet product to ship using DolbyNet™ technology from Dolby Labs. This technology uses new audio codecs created jointly by Progressive and Dolby. The new codecs produce increased frequency response and error mitigation, with reduced levels of audio artifacts. Producers and developers can also select from various encoding options to optimize for different bandwidths and tuning options such as pop, instrumental and voice.

“RealAudio 3.0 truly delivers stereo sound at 28.8 and near-CD quality at ISDN bandwidths,” added Mike Homer, Senior V-P of Marketing at Netscape Communications. “We expect to see many new Internet applications based on this new broadcast-quality audio.”

More than 40 providers have announced plans to launch content utilizing the stereo sound featured in RealAudio 3.0. Early adopters include music labels Sony, Warner, Polygram, BMG and MCA; web music sites including AudioNet, SonicNet and ENSO/Muzak; radio networks Evergreen and Infinity; and national broadcasting companies including CBS Radio, NBC, ABC and the CBC.

“I can’t believe how far RealAudio has come in just 18 months,” said Kathryn Dillon, V-P, Production and Technology, ABC Multimedia Group. “The broadcast community will really stand up and take notice of RealAudio 3.0 stereo quality and plan new broadcast applications. ABC intends to announce new services and programming using RealAudio 3.0.”

In a demonstration of the audio quality possible with the new system, Seattle classical music station KING-FM aired three selections directly from a RealAudio player in their studio. The audio was delivered via ISDN from a server at Progressive Networks’ head office. The player output was patched directly into the KING-FM station feed and sent out to the transmission tower.

“The result of the test confirms in my mind that RealAudio 3.0 truly delivers broadcast-quality audio over the Internet,” said KING-FM GM and Program Director Peter Newman. “Our audience consists mainly of experienced classical music listeners who demand the best in audio quality. Our listeners couldn’t tell the difference!”

Another innovation in RealAudio 3.0 is the capability of serving small audio files from regular web servers, without a dedicated RealAudio server. This “pseudo-streaming” feature will be included as an option with the RealAudio 3.0 Encoder, available now from the RealAudio web site.

Hong Kong. The Xinhua news agency is reporting that Hong Kong Customs seized pirated CD’s with an estimated street value of $90,000 (US) in weekend raids. Customs officers raided 12 shops and confiscated a total of 14,000 pirated discs, including CD-ROM’s and Video CD’s.

Sixteen men aged between 16 and 41 were arrested in the latest anti-piracy action, which was the sixth in a series of raids this year aimed at curbing vigorour Asian trade in pirated software.

Government sources in Hong Kong said that these operations demonstrate the governments full commitment to eradicating piracy activities in Hong Kong and protecting the rights of copyright owners.

Mukilteo, WA. Rane Corporation has announced a new professional-grade outboard unit to convert consumer level -10 dBV RCA outputs to balanced +4 dBu operation and vice-versa.

The Rane BB 44X Balance Buddy is a handy tool that provides two channels of conversion each way. It converts one pair from -10 dBV to +4 dBu and another pair from +4 dBu to -10 dBV simultaneously, and it has two female and two male XLR-type connectors, as well as four RCA jacks on board. This makes it easy to run balanced lines to and from a consumer device such as a stereo tape deck.

The the BB 44X preserves good signal-to-noise performance through the use of high-quality nickel core (“80” Ni) passive transformers to convert signal levels. Rane says that these transformers guarantee low distortion, wide bandwidth and high signal level handling capability.