Las Vegas, NV. Every year at COMDEX, BYTE Magazine distributes its “Best of Show” awards. These recognize new products and technologies that are innovative and will have a large impact on the industry. The awards are co-sponsored by SOFTBANK, the COMDEX hosting organization.

For this year’s round, with COMDEX wrapping up in Las Vegas today, the prestigious Best Technology award went to an audio processing technology. The Lexicus Division of Motorola, won the award for the Mandarin Chinese version of its speech recognition algorithms.

Lexicus edged out a couple of very high-profile runners-up: Microsoft’s Windows CE operating system (for handheld computers), and Digital Versatile Disc (Toshiba, Sony, Philips, Pioneer et.al.), the fast-rising star of mass multimedia storage for consumer applications.

The Lexicus software runs on several DSP platforms, including Motorola’s own 56000 DSP series and Motorola MemOS, ARM microprocessors, Windows ’95, and Microware. It delivers continuous voice dictation for people speaking Mandarin. Motorola positions the technology for applications such as car phones home portable phones and answering machines, low cost toys and video games.

New York, NY. In a press conference Monday, Michael Greene, President of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) announced that the music and audio industry’s premiere annual awards ceremony has outgrown its traditional venues.

The 1997 Grammy’s will be presented at New York’s 12,000-capacity Madison Square Garden. For the last twenty years, the show alternated between the 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan and the 6,300-seat Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

In addition to doubling attendance, the larger venue will also mean more music and less “mindless jibber-jabber” from musicians, Greene said. “Madison Square Garden is the perfect venue for us to try out this new concept.” In spite of the increased capacity, Greene said he would still expect to see mostly music business insiders to be in the audience, though some tickets will be available to the public.

The last time the Grammy’s were in New York was 1994. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani attended the conference, and Greene presented a special custom Gibson Yankee pinstriped guitar to him as a thank you for welcoming the show back to New York City.

The 1997 show takes place on February 26. It will be hosted for the second straight year by comedian Ellen DeGeneres, star of the ABC sitcom “Ellen.” The press conference gave her yet another opportunity to quip about her show’s cliffhanger question, whether her character will reveal her lesbian self. “I will be coming out. . . to New York to host the Grammys,” she said in a pre-taped message.

NARAS also announced the renewal of its contract with CBS as exclusive broadcast outlet for the Grammy’s. CBS has been carrying the awards live annually since 1973. The new five-year contract is a feather in the cap for CBS, which has been taking a beating in audience ratings until recently. Greene said that if CBS hadn’t turned things around, the Grammy’s would have moved to another network.

CBS President Leslie Moonves, the engineer of the network’s rejuvenation, was on hand for the announcement. He would not disclose terms of the deal, but he commented that “it’s going to be the best concert of the season.” The telecast is watched by 1.5 billion viewers worldwide.

Warsaw, Poland. The Polish radio industry’s major annual gathering opens its doors tomorrow in Warsaw. The event is organized by the European radio industry magazine Media & Music (based in The Netherlands).

This year’s Media & Music Radio Conference runs for two days, Oct.22-23. It’s expected to attract more than 350 audio and radio industry professionals from across Poland, representing the nation’s 130 public and private radio stations, as well as exhibitors and presenters from France, the U.K., and U.S.A. They will be treated to an extensive program of technical and radio management presentations, as well as an active exhibit floor.

Highlights on opening day, Tuesday, include technical sessions on Digital Audio Broadcast in Poland, ISDN codecs (presented by Polish pro audio distributor ZEP), Radio and the Internet (Richard Ducey of the National Association of Broadcasters U.S.), and a presentation on wireless mics for reporters (AKG). AKG will also host the presentation of the AKG Golden Microphone Award (co-sponsored with Polish pro audio distributor Audiofan) to one of Poland’s top radio personalities.

On Wednesday, the show offers technical sessions on radio station automation (RCS Europe), MPEG audio compression (Telos), the Sky Radio satellite delivery network, and a presentation by Sony Broadcast & Professional on “Present and Future Technologies in Radio Broadcasting.”

The show will wrap up on Wednesday evening with more awards. Sony Broadcast & Professional presents the Sound of the Station Award, an interesting competition in which all Polish radio stations are invited to create a 90-second spot containing the essence of the station. Spots from eight finalists will be played during lunch on Wednesday, and all in attendance are entitled to vote. Last year, Radio Plus of Gdansk won the aware.

The Best Product Award is also a participation event. The exhibitor winning the most votes from attendees receives the award, sponsored by Polskie Radio Program 3, NAB and Dragan Produkties. And one lucky voter will win a draw prize of a trip to the NAB Seminar in Rome in November.