Exploring Billboard for Quadraphonic Information

[Old Quad Guy]

November 15, 1975

Don't Send Flowers; 'Q'
Alive & Kicking At AES

By STEPHEN TRAIMAN

NEW YORK-
Despite what seems at times a concerted effort within the industry to bury quad, the 4-channel scene at the AES conference here last week was far from a wake.
Among the highlights were the decision by RCA Records to go into production on its Quadulator interface for quad mastering/cutting, Sansui's import of QS LPs from Japan, Europe and elsewhere to broaden software availability, CBS Technology Center's push to manufacturers for its stereo enhancer and JVC's decision to bring out a consumer version of its professional broadcast CD4-1000 disk demodulator.
Only missing system at AES was the UD-4 (universal discrete 4-channel) collaboration of Nippon/Co-lumbia and Dr. Duane Cooper, who took the helm as society president for the coming year from John Eargle of J.M.E. Associates. Cooper reports that Dr. Takeo Shiga of N/C, his co-developer of the system, says UD-4 promotion is going ahead in "other areas" and will be demonstrated again at the spring AES in Zurich-but there are no definite plans for a U.S. introduction.
The RCA Quadulator was shown in a suite and demonstrated in test cutting at the nearby RCA studio.
The label's Joe Wells anticipates first Quadradisk product on the market from the Quadulator by year end, with test cuts by Stephen Michael Schwartz, David Gates and Carly Simon demonstrating markedly better reproduction. JVC confirmed that it will be getting two of the first production models, with at least two others going to RCA Nashville and Los Angeles studios.
The JVC Cutting Center was demonstrating the first LP cut on its new Mark III system, Graham Central Station's "Ain't No Bout-A-Doubt It" on WB. Also announced was a special fall season sale through December of single selections from its six three-disk CD-4 quad import packages that till now had been offered only at $19.95 through its dealers and direct mail.
Each of the 18 LPs, ranging from "spectacular" samplers to easy listening, movie themes, Latin, jazz and classics, is offered at $7 for one, $6 each for two, $5 each for three or more, and a seventh disk free with each disk purchased.
The new consumer demodulator, given the engineering prototype designation CD4-50, includes most of the circuitry in the $1,500 broadcast unit except the Vu-meter, according to JVC's Gene Ismamoto. It will be shown at the January Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago at an approximate list price of $300. with 25-30 dB signal-to-noise ratio separation and frequency response from 20 to 20,000 Hz.
At Sansui, announcement of QS import program to be launched early next year (Billboard, Nov. 8) got many favorable comments from exceptionally heavy suite traffic, according to both Jack Muroi and Jerry LeBow. One highlight in the first two dozen import candidates for dealer and direct mail packages is to Toshiba (EMI) LP from Japan featuring the electronic music of Jun Fukamachi. Also being demonstrated was another of the QS "quiet quads," the disco sound of Gloria Gaynor's "Experience," mixed at Media Sound studios here for MGM, with the "Do It Yourself” cut showing particularly vivid separation.
The SQ camp also is making itself "heard," with an effective demonstration of the advanced stereo enhancement circuit first shown at the January CES in Chicago. CBS Technology Center in Stamford, Conn., is building about 100 consumer prototypes of the SQL 200 Stereo Enhancer for circulation to its licensees worldwide and other manufacturers who might be interested in the unit's synthesizing qualities which were quite evident with a variety of music.
One of the biggest monthly SQ software releases is due next week, in simulrelease with the stereo versions, including “Chicago's Greatest Hits,” on Columbia; Michael Murphey's
"Swans Against The Sun" (Epic): "Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn" (Virgin): "MSFS Philadelphia Freedom," Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes’ "Wake Up Everybody" and The O'Jays' "Family Reunion," all on Philadelphia International.
The EMI Group, which recently announced a worldwide single inventory SQ release for most classical product, has been installing custom Rupert Neve mixer desks fully 4-channel equipped as it upgrades its global studio facilities, confirms Dave Browning, EMI technical services manager who visited AES. Eight of its 24 recording studios were quad-equipped this past year, but no decision has been made on further conversions due to the 30 percent quad cost differential, he emphasizes.

STEPHEN TRAIMAN

 

[Old Quad Guy]

 

[Old Quad Guy]

November 8, 1975

Sansui's Imports:
QS LPs

By STEPHEN TRAINAN

NEW YORK-
Sansi Electronics is taking another step to broaden the availability of guad software here with a decision to import the "best"
QS matrix disks available from Japan, Europe and South America.
At least four major distributors will handle the import disks, to be packaged by format similar to the relauvels successful CS-4 program instituted by the JVC Cutting Center in Las Angeles earlier this year, according to Sansui spokesman Jerry LeBow. Product is expected "in the pipeline" by early 1976.
The first two doven selections, of an anticipated 100 to 150 titles, were previewed for attendees at the Audio Engineering Society conference which wound up its four-dar run Monday (3) at the Waldorf Astoria here. Virtually all are English-language or instrumental versions.
Up to now only a limited number of QS imports were available, "not by choice but by circumstance,"
Says Ed Grossi of JEM Records, one of the major import firms. "Both the exchange rate and the shipping rate, particularly from Japan, were against us. There's definitely a market but we can't supply it at a reasonable price.”
As a result, most of the available quad imports have been SQ matrix versions from Europe, where shipping charges are less. or CD-4 packages, mostly from JVC which has mounted an aggressive campaign via its growing number of Quadracenters and other dealers.

LeBow hopes to bring in "every-thing that will appeal to the U.S. market from the 425-plus QS disks abroad, to complement the available titles here, which he says now mumber about 375.
Pricing will be determined by the makeup and size of the packages (three, four or five disks), but will
"certainly be competitive with existing product while offering both distributor and dealer a good margin."
The QS import program is not yet firmed up as to all details, but LeBow says it will work through the several thousand Sansui dealers. and could involve supplementary mail-order sales as well. "It will definitely he an ongoing program" he emphasizes, with a constant feed of new QS product from abroad."
First product for the packages, previewed at AES, includes:
• Japan: Apple EMI). John Lennon's
"Imagine.”
Toshiba (EMI).
Jun Fukamachi on Moog synthesizer: Crown. "Night Porter" soundtrack: Liberty (UA). the Ventures:
Audio Lah. "The World Of Kunihiko Sugano." and TAM.
• Europe: Odcon (EMI. France)
Pink Floyd: Pye (U.K.). Cyril Stapleton and Tony Hatch orchestras: MCD (France).
"Special
Tangos": Societe Francaise du Son (Decca). Los Machucambos: Classic Pick (Switzerland). Baroque Strings. and 4-Leaf Clover (Sweden). Lars Samuelson.
• South America: Soho Radio (Peru). "Black Sugar II."
• Taiwan: SMT, "Motion Picture
Gold."
Selections were played on high-end Sansui equipment at AES, particularly the "Definition series" ineluding the BA 3000 and BA 5000
power amps and OA 3000 preamp.
Also demonstrated were the different effects possible using the three QS encoding modes on the Automated Processes Inc. (API) console.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

November 8, 1975

RCA Quadulator Going On Market

By STEPHEN TRAIMAN

NEW YORK-
RCA Records is making its first move into the professional equipment field with its deci sion to put its Quadulator discrete 4-channel modulation system on the market at less than one third the cost of existing "interfaces" between 4-track tape machines and cutting heads.
Decision was announced by David Heneberry, division vice presi dent, music and operations services. with the unit on view at the 52nd Audio Engineering Society conference that wound up Monday (3) at the Waldorf-Astoria. Unit was demonstrated at the nearby RCA Studio, as it was this spring during the Los Angeles AES.
Initial reception there, from independent mastering labs. indie producers and studios. gave RCA the momentum to think about produc-tion. Heneberry notes,but the final green light came only recently with confirmed purchase orders to component suppliers. It will sell for $9.500, with the closest unit to it on the market now going for about $30,000.
A number of test cuts have been made at the RCA studio here over the past three weeks, with Larry Schnapf, national manager. recording operations, reporting "more than satisfactory operation." Cutting time remains at half-speed. He also confirms that the label's Los Angeles and Nashville studios will have Quadulators by early next year.
Put in simple terms by Schnapf, the unit's phase-lock-loop circuitry results in wider dynamic range and lower distortion than previous techniques, with far simpler construction and resulting reduction in size to take up only 12½ inches of vertical rack space.
"It's a much closer match to the original tape with marked improvement in A/B comparison,” he claims. "It minimizes greatly type one distortion—the pops and crackles caused by partial erasure of the carrier through excessive stylus motion, and makes it possible to handle more ‘level’ on the disk."
Another decisive advantage noted by Schnapf is that the Ouadulator can be hooked up to older equipment now widely used, such as the Neumann VMS 66 with the SX-68 cutter head and drive amplifier. It also may be used with the Ortofon DSS-731 head and GO-741 amps and the Neumann SX-74 or newer VMS 70 heads with the SAL-74 Logic system.
Joe Wells, manager, electronic and recording development, who was on hand for the initial demonstration this spring, reports the marketing department based in Indianapolis already has a number of firm leads, and confirms Heneberry's timetable for delivery of the first production models well within the next six months.
There is less encouraging quad hardware news from many of the major hi fi firms who were among the leading 4-channel proponents.
Both JVC and Panasonic. key forces in the discrete CD-4 group, have cut back extensively on their quad lines and neither has plans to add more units for 1976. Spokesmen for both firms disclaim any abandonment of quad, but acknowledge that their current emphasis is on stereo drop-ins.
Other major firms abandoning or cutting back on their quad lines include Harman/Kardon, which has its two existing high-rated 800 + and 900 + receivers in the closeout pipe-line: Sherwood, which is taking its onlv quad receiver off the market:
Fisher Radio, which has dropped two and maybe a third of its remaining four Studio Standard 4-channel recorders: U.S. Pioneer, which has been extensively "promoting" its two best-selling quad receivers and has no plans for any 1976 additions: and Radio Shack, closing out its entire quad line though retaining its Quatravox synthesizer circuitry (see separate story, this issue).
Only Sansui reports encouraging sales for its three QS receivers, due in part to the stereo-enhancing qualities of the Vario-Matrix. But even here there is no firm commitment for any additions to the line next year.
While there are definite cutbacks or total quad closeout by these companies, spokesmen for all acknowledge that they will be back in 4-channel or stand ready to expand their lines just as soon as the market indicates upward movement.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

 

[Old Quad Guy]

 

[Old Quad Guy]

 

[Old Quad Guy]

November 8, 1975

BIG AD $ PUSH

Radio Shack Aims At High End

By RADCLIFFE JOE

NEW YORK-
Radio Shack will utilize a sizable chunk of its projected $660 million advertising budget for 1976 to establish its name as a leader in the hi fi equipment field, according to S. Allen Selby, the firm's audio buyer.
At the same time the company has begun phasing out its 4-channel equipment lines which Selby had last August disclosed was "a poor performer” for the Radio Shack chain (Billboard. Aug. 23).
The advertising dollars will be used to push Radio Shack's new line of Realistic high end component products, which Selby claims can match any of the acknowledged market leaders available today.
The promotional push, which will include network TV, print ads and point-of-purchase displays, will zero in on Realistic's top-of-the-line products. Included among these are the Realistic STA-225, a 50-watt rms per channel receiver, the STA-90 at 44 watts per channel rms, and the STA-84, at 25 watts per channel rms. Also being pushed are a 20 watts per channel rms amplifier, model SA-1000. and a tuner, model TM-1000.
Prices on the line begin at $399.95 for the STA-225 and scale downward to $159.95 for both the amplifier and tuner. Selby feels that it is these prices, coupled with the impressive performance specifications of the line, that will make it an accepted product among audiophiles.
In addition, the entire hi fi line will be available at the more than
4.000 Radio Shack stores and authorized sales centers in the U.S.,
Canada, Europe and Australia.
"This," declares Selby, "gives the line access to a greater number of retail outlets than is enjoyed by many of the broadly accepted hi fi lines now on the market.
He concedes that the names Realistic and Radio Shack have never been associated with high-end audio equipment, but he assures that the company has already moved to change this through in-house educational programs geared to its sales personnel and customers. "In addition we have been receiving very gratifying reviews from respected audiophile magazines," says Selby.
In addition to its impressive specs the Realistic hi fi line features direct-coupled amplifiers for full power and low distortion over the entire audio band and phase-locked-loop
FM stereo demodulator to assure exact phasing between signals broadcast by FM stations. Also included are automatic FM muting, "Quatravox" for synthesized 4-channel effects, and glide path con-trols.
Selby takes issue with some industry reports that describes the lines as "mid fi." He stresses that Radio Shack's goal is the high-end market. and that the company does not intend to settle for less.
Meanwhile he confirms that his company has been virtually dumping its 4-channel equipment line, with more than 5,000 units sold off at about half their list price during September.
However, Selby emphasizes that his firm was not completely closing the door on the 4-channel market.
“We will maintain the synthesizer feature in our high-end component line, and if at some future date there is a change in consumer attitude to quadraphonic sound, then we will re-enter the market at that time," he says.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

July 23, 1983:

 

[Old Quad Guy]

August 22, 1981

Japan's Denon Label 10-Year
Digital Veteran

By ALAN PENCHANSKY

(Editor's Note: The Denon division of Japan's Nippon Columbia is playing a significant role in the history of digital recording. Alan Penchansky, Billboard's classical editor and audiophile authority, was recently at the firm's Tokyo headquarters. This is his report.)

TOKYO -
Digital recording's commercial history can be traced back to 1970 in his prosperous and vital capital city. On Sept. 14th of that year, American saxophonist Steve Marcus and a group of Japanese rock musicians gathered at a session for Nipson Columbia. Japan's oldest record company. The pop/jazz/rock amalgam record, issued in Japan the following year, quietly disappeared but not before securing a place in the history books.
With that first album cut from a digital master tape, Nippon Columbia launched a digital recording program that formally celebrates its 10th anniversary in 1982. More than
350 Denon-label digital albums later, the company is continuing its heavy involvement in the new technology. This fall, Nippon Columbia will open a disc computer editing facility for digital audio and will be among the first Japanese companies bringing out Compact Disc digital audio hardware and software.
The changeover to digital is conceivably the biggest technological shift in record business history. At Nippon Columbia. which specializes in classical and jazz recordings rather than Western pop, the transition has come in a carefully researched series of distinct improvements made in audible quality, economy and simplicity of operation.
A change from tried and true business methods can be a difficult and vulnerable move, and a strong and committed individual is needed to lead the way. Nippon Columbia's pioneering digital development was spearheaded by recording engineer Takeaki Anazawa, who remains in charge of the Denon recording program's technical side.
As with other labels experimenting with sound quality, Denon's move to digital began with direct-disk activity.
Explains Anazawa. "In 1969 we made six direct-to-disk records. The result was very good. We were very satisfied but it was very difficult to make classical music because it was not possible to edit."
The experiments convinced Denon engineers that severe restrictions existed in analog equipment and the next year, in conjunction with NHK broadcasting, prototype digital recording machines took shape.
Quadraphonic sound was the fad during the period in which Denon's first 14-bit digital system was in embryo. According to Anazawa, dissatisfaction with quad software quality was a signpost pointing to digital.
"It was the time of quadraphony, but the sound was very poor. We knew this kind of direction was not the future."
The proper route to four-channel sound, Anazawa believes, is through the DAD, and virtually all Denon digital master tapes have been recorded with two extra channels of ambient sound.
"I have never given up on quad,"
Anazawa adds. "It's very easy to make quad for DAD or three-channel. The important thing is more information, as much as possible."
Original Denon digital equipment was bulky and required two-inch video recording machines for data storage. Continual refinements in the equipment have brought a new slim-line digital processor design in addition to use of ¾-inch videocassette data storage. Until Denon's new computer editing room is completed, however, tapes must be transferred to the large open reel video format and edited by razor blade splicing.
Denon's second digital album, featuring classical avant-garde percussionist Stomu Yamashta, was taped Jan. 11. 1971. It was issued within four months and also has been deleted. According to Denon, modifications to the experimental machine prevent either of the original digital albums to be remas-tered-making them rare collector's items.
Digital recorders manufactured by Denon first were used at sessions in March and April of 1972–a pop record followed by a live recording of the Smetana String Quartet in Tokyo. The latter is the earliest digital album still in the catalog.
Sales of digital machines are not being promoted by Nippon Columbia, says Anazawa, because of the high cost of the equipment. Anazawa also believes digital standardization is premature, as he expects improvements in information density capacity permitting greater tape economy. Through its professional audio division, however, Nippon Columbia has produced a two-track open reel digital recorder, made to specifications put forth by NHK.
The unit was shown at the Spring AES in L.A.
One reason for the open reel design is the discomfort of many audio engineers with video recorders, explains Anazawa.
"In my own opinion helican scan digital recording is better than stationary head,” the engineer says.
"But sound engineers don't like the helican scan."
Denon readily admits its digital recordings have undergone a marked change in quality since 1972; not all the early recordings are of fidelity comparable to what has been achieved more recently. Areas in which strides were made include improvement of high frequency reproduction, elimination of distortion at low signal levels, and removal of some "graininess" from the sound on early machines.
One critical refinement, notes
Anazawa, came when integrated circuits used in analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion, began to be carefully measured for audio quality. Anazawa claims more than 70% of these components, which are purchased from U.S. manufacturers, are rejected.
"The most important part of digital-to get good quality-is the interface between the analog stage and the digital stage,” says Anazawa.
"We have to take care of both fields, not only digital, to get good quality.
"Most recording companies now are only interested in the name digital. If they get the name they are happy, but it's not sufficient.
"We have to have good digital equipment, the name itself is not so important.
"Actually," Anazawa continues,
"I have not been satisfied entirely with digital equipment, even our own. It's very far from perfect and every day I have to spend time to close the gap.
"But I think within three or four years we can get good recording equipment easy," he adds.
In speaking with Japanese recording and electronics companies today
there is no need to translate the English terms "DAD" and "Compact Disc." This new all-digital playback technology is a development that promises the Japanese increased international leverage, and all levels of the industry are keen on its arrival.
Perhaps a dozen hardware companies, including Nippon Columbia's Denon high fidelity division, are expected to show DAD players at the big audio fair in Tokyo in October. Nippon Columbia also will have samples of the first Denon DAD records, both rock and classical, drawn from the large PCM master library.
Only a few companies around the world are likely to develop Compact Disc manufacture capability, says Anazawa. At Denon's manufacturing plant in Kawasaki, south of the capital, development of the manufacturing process is taking place under wraps.
"The DAD production plaat is very, very expensive," says Anazawa. "We have to spend a lot of money and there will be quite a few record companies who cannot spend that much. There will be 10, 12 or less than 15 companies that have DAD pressing plants in the world." Anazawa looks to DAD as a giant boost for Denon, which can release a flood of digital master recordings from the start.
We can use all the masters we have made, we can easily transfer them to DAD," he comments. "Al the time of starting DAD we can prepare 200 or 400 titles, even qudraphony."
The Kawasaki plant is one of three or four DAD test manufacture sites in Japan. "At the end of next year we will change from a test plant to a real plant. We have to be very careful about this matter because we have to see the market condition,” says Anazawa.
Manufacturing conditions similar to those found in production of large scale integrated circuits will exist,
Anazawa says.
“Quality control is exactly the same as in the integrated circuit manufacturing plant," he explains.
"We have to prepare the clean room, very, very clean, the same conditions as in Silicon Valley in California.
Anazawa says plating of the metal used in manufacture is the biggest technical challenge. "Pressing is easy, the plating is difficult for DAD; it takes a longer time," he explains.
Two methods are being explored.
In one a photo sensitive glass plate is etched by laser. Anazawa says laser etching directly onto metal also is a possibility.
He adds, "This plant is only for audio records so it's not possible for there to be many plants in the world.
Just a few companies will produce all the records.
With all Japanese companies supporting the Philips DAD system-in contrast to the compatibility wars in quad, video and pro digital gear-manufacturers are excited about market prospects. But at Denon the successor to the Philips disk is being thought of already.
According to Anazawa, the next generation DAD will eliminate all mechanical functions such as the Philips system's rotating turntable.
"Within less than 15 years there will be another DAD without the mechanical things," says the engineer. "It has to be.”

 

[kfbkfb]

^^^
"I have never given up on quad,"
Anazawa adds. "It's very easy to make quad for DAD or three-channel. The important thing is more information, as much as possible."


Were any of these Denon surround sound recordings made available on DVD-V, DVD-A, MCH-SACD?


DAD - haven't read that abbrev. for many years, my original VP-1000 LaserDisc player has a PCM audio output:
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/855226/Pioneer-Vp-1000.html?page=4#manual

Kirk Bayne

 

[MidiMagic]

Actually, there are 2 flavors of Dolby Surround encoding - the original, with the 100Hz to 7kHz bandpass filter + the modified Dolby B NR and the downmix version without the bandpass filter and without the Dolby B NR.

(too bad they didn't use the later downmix version as the original - it's just the Hafler/DynaQuad system, which has a full bandwidth surround channel)


Kirk Bayne

It was originally developed for making Star Wars, not for a music surround system.

They did stop using the filter and Dolby B once PL-I was in user hands.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

August 7, 1976

Schwann Drops
Special Section
For 'Q' Product

NEW YORK-
The Schwann Catalog will eliminate its segregated quad section, beginning with the September issue, in view of the diminishing release rate by manufacturers of quad albums.
Records incorporating 4-channel capability will henceforth be consolidated in the main body of the catalog, and will be identified by a special symbol.
Schwann's view is that there are no longer enough new releases to justify a separate section. Evidence of manufacturers' low-key attitude toward quad is cited by a Schwann spokesman, who reports that no labels have registered any objections' to the new policy.
As a matter of fact, he notes that the new listing format will remove former objections by certain manufacturers of compatible matrix disks who had to choose between listings in regular or "Q" sections. It has been Schwann policy not to duplicate listings in both departments.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

August 21, 1976

Shadybrook CD-4
$ To Distributors

LOS ANGELES-
Shadybrook Records is going to cut its distributors in on its plan to market CD-4 discrete albums direct to dealers, according to label president Joe Sutlon.
"Our distributors are great and are tremendously loyal to us. We want to do some special marketing in CD-4 quad product in order to provide dealers with something they can't ordinarily get now through regular channels.
“While we might drop shop CD-4 records directly, all billing will come through the local distributor and he'll be paid his share. In other cases, and this will be the normal rule, the product will be shipped through the distributor as if it were a regular order.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

August 28, 1976

FCC SETS TESTS

CBS, Sansui In
Own 'Q' Action

By MILDRED HALI

WASHINGTON-
CBS has petitioned the FCC for a rule making change that would, in etfeet, standardize the CBS SQ matrix 4-channel broadcasting system. A similar move is anticipated from Sansui Electronies on behalf of its competing QS quad system.
Both the CBS petition, filed Aug. 11 and officially published in the
FCC docket Monday (16) and the projected Sansui countermoves are linked to new FCC listener tests in prospect for comparison of diserele and matrix quadraphonic sound systems for broadcasting.
The tests could be a fairly significant factor in an final decision on authorizing discrete broadcasting.

They could mean tighter specifications for matrix broadcasting. which is presently permitted on the air, using standard FM stereo channels to carry the four coded audio signals.
The tests are being put together at the FCC's laboratory in Guilford.
Md., under direction of engineer Lawrence C. Middlekamp, chief of the research branch.
The tests try to establish just how much the FM listener gains in sound enhancement by the 4-channel discrete systems, as compared with matrix-and how both types of 4-channel audio input compare with the present 2-channel stereo FM service.
Middlekamp explains that the laboratory listener tests will be conducted on speakers, closed-circuit style-not over the air. Technical findings will tie in with other major questions that must be answered by the full commission.

The primary engineering question is whether discrete 4-channel sound is an efficient use of spectrum space.
These svstems require use of FM subcarrier channels.
Discrete broadcasting, contrary to some common misconceptions, does not involve any dislocation of present allocation or frequencies in the present FM service, Middlekamp points out. But there is an interference potential, and bandspace available for FM subcarriers for storecasting would be reduced.
The commission must decide whether the gain in sound enhancement by authorizing discrete broadcasting will be enough to offset increased costs to consumers, the industry and broadcasters. Is there enough demand by the public? And would broadcasters, manufacturers and media do their part to create and strengthen demand?

Middlekamp says one of the reasons for the additional listener tests at the FCC laboratory is that the first matrix tests, conducted over the air by the ElA's special quadraphonic committee (NORC), used very simple systems.
Middlekamp savs NQRC was fair in acknowledging that newer CBS and Sansui systems are more sophisticated, and produce better sound enhancement. The FCC test will use the newer types to compare with discrete-type equipment for broadcasting 4-channel sound.
This emphasis on improved equipment is just one of the points emphasized in the CBS petition, which also calls attention to "the proliferation of a multiplicity of 4-2-4 (matrix) encoding techniques with various degrees of broadcast conpatibility.
"The existing lack of appropriate standards causes confusion and a burden of added equipment cost to the consumer," the petition continues. “This is, and will continue to be, a seriously impeding factor in the further growth of quadraphony.
"Under such circumstances, CBS believes that it is now appropriate, and in the public interest, to delineate stereo-quadraphonic transmission as a distinet broadcast mode and to promulgate rules and regulations pertaining thereto."
CBS then proposed specific rules and regulations for consideration by the FCC which would have the effect of standardizing on the company's SQ system."

"We (Sansui) are very glad to hear of the renewed interest in standardization of 4-channel," responds Jerrv LeBow of 201 Communications, Sansui's U.S. consultant.
“We believe that this will help all the industries involved move forward.
"We plan appropriate actions in line with our continuous education and support program of the Sansui QS 4-channel system," he concludes, with more definitive moves to be announced shortly.
The original petition for rulemaking to authorize discrete FM broadcasting asks for exclusion of the matrix type from the air. The petition has been waiting for FCC action since August 1971. Its author is James Gabbert of Pacific FM. Inc., owner of K101 San Francisco, which carried over-the-air tests of the Lou Dorren Ouadracast svstem.
If the FCC should lean to matrix broadcasting as easier to deal with - or continue to put off the discrete decision-the matrix systems might face more exacting specifications.
Also, the FCC "could" decide to set a single standard for matrix quadraphonic sound systems in use over the air, as CBS has petitioned.

Middlekamp savs another approach would be to let the marketplace competition decide which of the present matrix systems would prevail. He is sympathetic to the amount of research and money that CBS and Sansui have invested in their systems-but feels the public is too confused as to which equipment to buy.
The listener tests could be ready in about two months-if the FC can spare a little more help and equipment, and if it were up to the laboratory engineers.
_____
Assistance with this story by Stephen Traiman in New York.
_____

But the FCCs priorities right now are fixed on the overwhelming problem of CB radio. Priorities at the commission are set by pressure, and Middlekamp regretfully admits that quadraphonic broadcasting has had a "very low priority" at the commission thus far.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

[Note: Could not find the very end of article because of the condition of magazine. It’s either still there, or perhaps a misprint]

December 25, 1976

Sansui Charges CBS
Exceeds FCC Rules

By STEPHEN TRAIMAN

NEW YORK -
The matrix quadraphonic broadcast battle continues to heat up, with Sansui charging that the CBS SQ system violates existing FCC rules on allowable modulation limits of FM stations, while putting limits on both the artist and producer's ability to use the 4-channel medium.
The Sansui reply to comments on the petition orginally submitted by
CBS to the FCC for rule-making that would in effect standardize its own SQ system for 4-channel matrix FM broadcasting (Billboard, Aug.28), was filed in Washington, D.C. Nov, 30.
Sansui emphasizes that a majority of points in the CBS petition, and in the other reply comments, address quad as used in recording studios and not the effect that matrix 4-channel broadcasting would have on the existing FM stereo transmission system.
It analyzes the three transmitted elements of standard stereo transmission -the mono main channel, the stereo channel and the summation of these two channels (the main channel and subchannel)-which form the composite modulation of the FM broadcasting station.
"By FCC rules and regulations," Sansui says, "this amount of modulation may never exceed 100% which is equal to +75 kHz (kilohertz) deviation from the FM carrier frequency.
"It is essential to measure the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio which is the determining factor on how far an FM signal can be received with reasonable clarity. The greater the S/N ratio, or the more energy leaving the antenna transmission system, the better will be the reception of the FM signal at greater distances."
Sansui notes that the major differences among the matrix systems -the CBS SQ, its own QS and the new BBCHI system from the U.K.-lies in the particular emphasis they place on the various parameters of stercophonic, monophonic and quadraphonic transmission and capability.
"Quardraphonically, any system should be capable of transmitting a
360-degree sound field," Sansui maintains, "as well as the informaton within that sound field. Stercophonically, any matrix system should also be capable of good stereo reproduction with at least as wide a sound field as exists in conventional stercophony.”
The Sansui reply claims that while both the OS and BBCHI proposals present reasonable compromises of all three modes of transmission, the
CBS SQ forward-oriented proposal puts extreme emphasis on mono level and stereo separation, and compromises the transmission of a quadraphonic sound field."
It is charged that in the CBS proposal, only a 270-degree arc is transmitted, and all the information around the center-back area is contained exactly the same as the center-front, and that SQ transmission is defined only at the four corners.
"In considering other points in the sound field, such as center-left, and center-right, the basic SQ system exhibits extreme asymmetry, causing very uneven modulation of the stereo and mono channels."
In attempting to meet this prob-

Sansui Heats Up
Matrix ‘Q’ Battle

lem, Sansui says that CBS proposed the SQF or SQ forward-oriented encoding scheme, defined in its petition with an encoding parameter "as the left-front, right-front, left-back, right -back, center-front and center-back," but completely failed to desenbe it at center-left and center-right.
Sansui submits that "a quad system for broadcasting or record production which puts severe limits on an artist and a producer's ability to use the medium is simply unacceptable. The SQF mode limits a producer from effective use of signals on the center-left or center-right positions... or even in the back half of the sound field. As a consequence, the SQ quad technique does not furnish a useful tool with which to transmit a quadraphonic sound field.
Noting that CBS prescribes the left-front and right-front as the reference for 100% modulation, Sansui claims that its analysis of the SQF scheme "establishes that the SQ system results in severe overmodulation in excess of 120% when signals are positioned at center-left and center-right. This clearly violates FCC rules and regulations regarding total channel occupancy of _+75 kHz being 100% modulation.
Sansui points out that to transmit quadraphony with the SQF technique consistent with FCC rules, the overall level of a broadcast station “would be reduced by approximately 20% so that overmodulation would not occur at center-left and center-right.
Indeed, the total signal level or S/N ratio would be severely reduced in comparison to either QS or BBC encoding."
A detailed analysis by Sansui engincers was submitted as part of the reply, which the firm claims "demonstrates that the CBS SQ system is deficient in a number of basic respects, and is unacceptable as a basis for a quadraphonic broadcast standard."
On a comparative basis, Sansui also believes the CBS SQ technique is substantially inferior its own QS system, "which should be adopted by the commission as the governing standard.”
Sansui fully endorses comparative tests by the FCC of existing quadraphonic systems, which it understands are in process of being undertaken by the commission engineering stalf, and it intends to participate as fully as possible in all such procedures.
And while Sansui feels the FCC should institute a rule-making proceeding with the aim of adopting a

(Continued on page 53)

[Note: Could not find anything there.]

 

[Old Quad Guy]

 

[kfbkfb]

One issue with matrix encoded FM stereo - many times severe audio processing was/is used to keep the music loud all the time and, IMHO, could have confused the matrix decoder logic system.

Once, in 1974, when I was listening to the song Bennie and the Jets on KBEQ -FM, I heard the audio level of the midrange and treble drop suddenly on each bass note.

I haven't read about anyone listening to the SQ encoded King Biscuit Flower Hour (for example) with an SQ decoder and reporting that FM stereo station audio processing distorted the directionality though.


Kirk Bayne

 

[Old Quad Guy]

 

[Old Quad Guy]

August 7, 1976

'Q' PRODUCT TOO

Reel Society Sells
Mail-Order Tapes

CHICAGO.
The Reel Society, a mail-order catalog of prerecorded open reel tapes, dispatches its inaugural mailing this month Iron Arlington Heights, Ill. Dolby-encoded and 7½ i.p.s. exclusively, the new catalog, including quad tapes, is being launched with recent material licensed from London, Warner Bros., and RCA.
"We'll be going after all the major lines with the goal of becoming a clearinghouse for open reel tape, explains Russ Fields, the society's originator.
Until its demise in May, Fields managed Ampex's open reel mail-order service, the Ampex Tape Society.
"Like the tape society this will not be a club," Fields points out. "No membership fees, no commitments, no long-term obligation."
List price for single play tapes is $8.95, with a 15% or 20% discount to be offered, Fields says.
According to Fields, disbandment of the Ampex Society left the open reel consumer with virtually no place to turn for product. "A lot of people who bought from Ampex didn't care for Columbia tape product because it was predominantly 3¾ i.p.s. and they preferred the faster speed," he says.
Fields says he began looking around for another manufacturer and found Stereotape, the Magtech division that under Jerry Stone is licensing for the new catalog. Duplicating will be done by Cas-Tech, that recently acquired the Magtech tape duplicating assets (Billboard. July 31).
Initial pop offerings from the society include the Doobie Brothers' "Stampede," "The Best Of Jethro Tull," "Seals and Crofts Greatest Hits," "Best of The Beach Boys," and material from Rod Stewart, Deep Purple, Roger Williams, Black Sabbath and the Four Seasons, among others.
Complete operas by Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Donizetti, Verdi and Dallapiccola, number among the London classical tapes being offered, as well as the Solti/Chicago Symphony integral Beethoven Symphonies and Wagner's "Ring" cycle, conducted by Solti, in its first Dolbyized open reel appearance.
Among 11 quad tapes being listed initially are "Eat A Peach," the Allman Brothers’ "I'II Play For You," Seals and Croft's "Hearts," America and Gordon Lightfoot's "Cold On The Shoulder."
Three John Denver albums, and Tomita's "Snowflakes Are Dancing," possibly in quad, arrive from RCA.
"Though it has not generated great sales interest in the past, we will be trying country product too," Fields explains.
While noting that the open reel consumer is extremely difficult to locate, Fields is certain of the demand for prerecorded product in the format, a fact that open reel hardware manufacturers have disputed with him, he says.
Before leaving Ampex, Fields surveyed 20,000 open reel buyers. He says the survey yielded these results: Less than 5% of respondents said they prefer not to buy prerecorded tape. More than ⅔ of respondents said prerecorded tapes comprise more than half of their tape library: of those with a majority of homemade tapes, 80% indicated that they recorded through necessity, because prerecorded product was unavailable.
Fields says he and Stone of Stereotape, went over the questionnaire's results and have incorporated what most open reel buyers want in the new service.
"We made everything Dolby, even quad. Nothing is 3¼. People said they'd like a Dolby calibration tone and we gave it to them at the beginning of every tape. They wanted complete program information, liner notes, we gave it to them.
They wanted a wider spectrum of music, so we're going after everybody, people who haven't been on reel for several years."
Address for the Reel Society is:
PO Box 651. Arlington Heights, Ill 60006.