LATEST ADDITIONS

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.ravisent.com">Ravisent Technologies</A> announced a technology partnership with <A HREF="http://www.oren.com">Oren Semiconductor</A>, which sells DSP-based digital television demodulator ICs to manufacturers such as Sony, Hughes, and Global Telemann Systems for use in TVs, VCRs, PC cards, and set-top boxes. Ravisent and Oren say they will jointly develop complete broadcast reception and playback solutions for delivering HDTV broadcasts to consumers using the current generation of personal computers.

Home Entertainment 2001 arrives at the Hilton Hotel & Towers in New York this week for three days, May 11-13. There will be more than 80 rooms stuffed with the latest high end audio and video gear, including dozens of brand new products. For more information about the show, go to the <A HREF="http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">HE 2001 website</A>.

From the time movies first emerged as a pastime, filmmakers and theater owners have tried to come up with ways to make the movie experience more and more realistic. The picture (other than size) couldn't change, so they tried other ways. Some, like the Smellorama, didn't work. Others, like multichannel sound, did. Moving from one channel to six or eight channels, most people would think, "I'm surrounded by sound. What else is there?" What all, or at least most, systems lack is the ability to touch you—to literally touch you. Clark Synthesis' line of transducers aims to change that with tactile sound.

I'll wager that, if you were to poll the attendees at January's Consumer Electronics Show as to which was the most intriguing audio demo at the expo this year, a large majority would respond with Tom Holman's 10.2-channel sonic roller-coaster ride over at Alexis Park. Sure, the high-resolution demos were purer, and I'll be damned if the two-channel rigs at that same venue didn't, on the whole, sound better than ever (two-channel ain't dead just yet, gang). Still, when it came down to pure entertainment value, Holman's demo undoubtedly stole the show.