August 2014

Video: CE Week Conference
Making High Resolution Audio Accessible

  CE Week held a conference called Making High Resolution Audio Accessible that was moderated by Mark Finer, Senior Director of the Digital Entertainment Group held a conference called Making High Resolution Audio Accessible that was moderated by Mark Finer, Senior Director of the Digital Entertainment Group. This concerns how the major record labels will mark/logo and promote high resolution audio in the near future. In attendance were industry association representatives including the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), The Recording Academy and major record labels such as Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Electronics, etc. They seek to reached a consensus on a formal definition for high-resolution audio, including descriptors for what exactly are Master Quality Recordings. They want to better clarify for consumers what exactly is high-resolution audio content and how it was produced.

The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), an organization that provides a bridge from content providers and device makers to help evolve distribution of content through education and marketing, has finally agreed on exactly what is, and is not, a high-resolution audio file. DEG says that "lossless audio that is capable of reproducing the full range of sound from recordings that have been mastered from better than CD-quality music sources." DEG wants to ensure consumers know what they are buying and a way to define high-resolution music from lossy MP3. DEG says that the music needs to be from a PCM master source that is 20-bit/48kHz or higher or from an analog master source then mastered to higher than CD specifications. The problem is that they are also including a CD master source of 16-bit/44.1kHz that has been upsampled to higher resolution. Of course DSD/DSF master source are part of the high resolution specification. DEG worked with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing (RIAA), Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. Of note is that they still have no logo, as proposed over a year ago by Enjoy the Music.com's Editor and Creative Director Steven R. Rochlin. You can read Steven's article on this topic from his Memo To The Industry published over a year ago. Steven R. Rochlin says, "It deeply saddens me to see the high-end audio industry lose an opportunity to create and form proper logos and to properly define what is true high resolution audio. The DEG should not include upsampled music from a CD or 16-bit/44.1kHz source. The industry has lost the opportunity to earn millions of dollars via logo licensing, since high-end audio generally relies upon the latest technology in high resolution music and high-end audio equipment." Here are the new specifications they are proposing:

MQ-A: From an analog master source.

MQ-C: From a CD master source (44.1kHz/16-bit) in which legacy CD masters are employed as source material and upsampled.

MQ-P: From a PCM master source that is 48kHz/20-bit or higher. 

MQ-D: From a DSD/DSF master source.

Below is the video from their late June 2014 conference. Ask yourself this: "Why is there no high-end audio organizations, or an appropriate representative, within this conference?"

If you can't see the video above, click here.