Castle Sound & Vision

More good food in Nottingham

2008-08-28T10:21:00.002Z

Nothing to do with audio or cinemas this time, just wanted to spread the word about a great now bar / restaurant that has opened in Nottingham. Called Vienna and located just off Old Market Square at the intersection of King and Queen streets.

Popped in a couple of evenings ago with a few friends after watching Chris Broad rip through the South african openers (still not seen the floodlights working!). General feeleing was that they should have been made to play a 20 20 straight afterwards as they had enough time! Bad luck award goes to my pal who due to work commitments sent his son along with his ticket until he could get there at six, by which time we were already on our way to a bar in town.

Anyway, the restaurant is in the building that used to be occupied by Hard Rock Cafe, and any of you that went there in its hard rock days will be stunned at how beautiful the original architecture is now it has been restored.

We all went for the scallop starter which was really good and then there was a split between those assembled between the lamb and beef main course. I can only speak for the beef, the fillet being extremely good, nicely cooked, and served with mash and a portion of braised oxtail which added a richness in its own right and in the sauce. Those eating the lamb seemed very satisfied as there was not a morsel left on any of the plates.

Service was excellent, the staff very friendly and happy to answer questons about how the food was prepared. A quick chat with the chef revealed that he has done his time with both Gordon Ramsey and Marco Pierre White, so no surprises that the food was good.

I am planning to go back very soon and try the lunch menu, which looks interesting and reasonably priced.

Anyway, a big well done to Dave Caddick (ex Living Room you may remember?)and all his staff for giving us another option for great food in Nottingham.

Jeff (I need to diet soon!)

Home Cinema - the reference standard.

2008-07-14T16:14:00.003Z

We have just got back from the CEDIA expo at Excel in London. We (Angela and I) spent most of the week on an advanced cinema design course. It was a great course but very demanding -m brain melt at the end of each day (and I have already done the HAA and ISF stuff!). Met some great people for the first time and renewed acquaintances with people we had met before. In particular it was great to meet Floyd Toole, who has done some brilliant work on sound reproduction in small rooms. If any of you out there are interested then get a copy of his book off the Internet -Just type in "Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers and Rooms" and his name and you will find it. It has to be the definitive work on how and what we hear when listening to music or movies in room the size we generally have at home.

Anyway, learnt loads and we now have a great opportunity to put it into practice as we have decided that the Midlands region needs a Reference Home Cinema where people can come and see and hear what the latest technologies can offer. So our summer project at the shop is going to be working with our suppliers to build, within our shop on Maid Marian Way, a cinema which meets the reference specifications.

I will try and blog as much of the build details as I can (time permitting) and the reasons for why we are doing certain things as we go so that those of you who are interested can comment / come and have a look, and use some of the stuff in your own projects.

Preliminary spec(which may be subject to change)is as follows.
- 3 chip DLP projector with sufficient light output to give us 16 ft lamberts across the screen.
- curved, acoustically transparent screen with constant projection height and side tabs for 2.4, 2.35, 1.78, and 1.33:1 aspect ratios.
- motorised anamorphic lens for aspect ratios 2.35:1 and above.
- scaler / deinterlacer to allow for multi format input sources
- blue ray DVD player
- DVD media server
- PS3
- X-Box
-Wii
and that is just the vision side - still to come the audio, the acoustic design and treatments and the decor! Loads to do.

We are all very excited about the project. Obviously both audio and video will be calibrated to HAA and ISF standards so it should sound as good as it looks. Whats more we will be able to show movies as the director intended them to be seen when they were edited in post production, as both the video and audio will be properly calibrated to the standards used in the studio.

There was a lot of stuff we learned recently about acoustics which I think will help us to get better sound from 2 channel stereo systems as well as cinema, but I have to put some thinking time into the implications on room resonant nodes of having 2 sub woofers in the room (effectively the situation if there are two full range front speakers). I will try and keep writing as we find out things that are useful.

The good news is that great sound is available from traditional stereo in a room (as all us audio nuts know). Unfortunately this has traditionally been in a single solitary prime listening position. What we are now trying to do is see how this prime listening position can be expanded to include more than one hot seat, while still maintaining the great stereo image of the prime position. It may not be possible but any improvement will be welcome!

Enough for now, got to go and design a cinema and a lighting plan for home so the electricians have something to work with on Thursday.

Jeff

Get your whites right!

2008-06-05T13:52:00.003Z

Spent the last two days at Sim2 learning how to use their new calibration software to set up the projectors. Always good to continue education.

It was very interesting and brought back a lot of the stuff I learned on the Imaging Sciences Foundation (ISF) course. It is always useful to have these things reinforced and one of the things that returned quite forcefully is the idea that if a projector or screen is not properly calibrated then how can we know that what we see is what the director intended? One of the best examples is the original Matrix movie which was given a green tint in post production - trying to get natural skin tones just by eye on that would have caused some fun!

The human eye is easily deceived and only with proper calibration equipment can the display device be set up so that the white is the right white. Forget the Inuit having many names for snow, we need a plethora of names for the "colour" white that can be seen in TV shops. There is only one right white and that is known as D65. Or 6500 degrees kelvin. Or the colour of daylight. But even then not quite that simple. Daylight ranges from 5000k (direct sunlight at noon) to 7500k (overcast sky) so when seting up a display what is used is an X Y reference from the C.I.E. chromaticity diagram which gives the "colour of grey" as x = .313 y = .329. Set up a display to those values and you will see what the film director intended.

Displays tend to be set up with over saturated colours to allow them to stand out in shop environments - not the best viewing at home!

So, if the pitch looks too green, the snow looks grey, or the sky looks too blue then perhaps a spot of adjustment is called for! To do this properly takes expensive calibration equipment but you can have a good DIY stab at it by using one of the HDTV calibration discs available - happy tweaking.

jeff

A piano that really rocks.

2008-03-31T15:10:00.003Z

Just had a visit from Sarah Davenport, who you may have met if you have ever considerd having one of their fantastic Davenport kitchens installed ( http://www.davcab.co.uk/ ).

I had not seen her for quite some time (I think it must have been when Sat Bains was doing a cooking demonstration at their showrooms - just brilliant food, treat yourself and go to his restaurant) and there was a bit of catching up to do.

Seems that Sarah and her mum have been heavily involved with a great new initiative to promote design and design collaboration, centred on Nottingham. If you are interested in design check out http://www.inspirationunleashed.co.uk/ to see what its all about.

Also worth a look is Sarah's chichi the rocking piano - a piano that really rocks - have a look and see what I mean!

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/1/20028.html

In a world where mediocrity driven by dumbed down consumerism is the norm it is great to see people doing things for the joy and beauty of doing them well.

Keep on rocking!

jeff

Clean Queen is best.

2008-03-15T10:47:00.002Z

I am still shocked.

Tim has just been cleaning a few records for a customer in the demonstration room next to our design office. Trying a before and after test to see the difference, it was astonishing!

Anyway, one of the albums was Queen, A Kind of Magic and the title track was playing when our designer Angela says "I can't stand Queen". A few shocked moments later I spluttered "how can you not like Queen? Consistently brilliant writing and performance, classic status across the pond assured due to the Waynes World Bohemian Rhapsody and the poignant Those Were the Days of Our Lives from a dying Mercury……….genius” No reason was forthcoming.

Now she may be the only female CEDIA certified designer in Europe but that's not the point, admitting to not liking Queen is not acceptable; everyone likes Queen, there is nothing not to like.

All you Queen Fans out there will be pleased to know she has been suitably punished by being forced to watch Al Murray re-runs with him singing Queen numbers very badly. She will learn!

Anyway, if you have a collection of vinyl records that you want to get the best out of then you will be pleased to know that we are renting out our record cleaning machine for weekends / weekdays at very reasonable cost. All musical tastes welcome, you just need to love music.

jeff

More good news about sound quality!

2008-02-22T15:00:00.002Z

Bit of an epic day this Friday. Not only have I found a new way to get better sound at home from CD but while George from Linn was demonstrating the DS units we were chatting about the new turntable from Linn. Well not exactly a new turntable but a variation on the legendary Sondek LP12.

The Linn Sondek LP12 turntable was the vinyl spinner I lusted after when I was knee high to a grasshopper (sadly a long time ago) and was the product that revolutionized the UK hifi industry. Until Ivor Teifenbrun (the Linn Grand Fromage) took the LP12 to UK dealers and forced them to listen (often with threats and beatings if the tales are to be believed), then the perceived wisdom was that all turntables sounded the same. After Ivor did his stuff only someone with a whole bar of soap stuffed in each ear could fail to appreciate the difference between turntables.

Over 25 years later the LP12 has gone through many changes, upgrades, and improvements all in the search for better and better sound quality, until today in its latest incarnation with the Keel sub chassis, Ekos SE tonearm and Arkive cartridge it can lay claim to "The Best in the world". However, all this precision engineering comes at a price, and a fully loaded LP12 with power supply and phono stage costs about the same as a small car (Gives more pleasure, costs less to run, and is better for the environment) which can take it out of the reach of all but the most well healed or most dedicated vinyl enthusiast. Even the entry level table with the "budget" arm and starter cartridge was costing significant amount and this must have been preventing people from enjoying the delights of Linn LP12 ownership.

Clearly the chaps at Linn were thinking along the same lines and being smart fellows they have done something about it. Enter stage right the new LP12. A lower cost power supply, pick up arm, and the entry level cartridge have taken the cost of LP12 ownership to just under £2000. Clearly not cheap but quality never is. But the best part is that this turntable is upgradeable in stages to the full top of the range specification. BRILLIANT!

You can start with this unit and with birthdays and Xmas presents soon get up to the top model. Never again will your other half be stuck for what to get you. Never again will you have to do the insincere "darling it’s lovely" when opening the present. You know it makes sense.

jeff

Music downloads to increase music quality - whatever next?

2008-02-22T13:02:00.003Z

I have just had an ear opening experience which has made me happier about the possibilities for music in the home than I have been in a long time. Before I explain all about this let me give you a bit of background.

I have been worrying lately about where the trend for music downloads and MP3 players is taking us in the longer term. I know there are more important things to worry about like third world debt, economic recession, famine, plague, and who will win master-chef, but for as long as I can remember I have loved music, so consequently I worry about quality.

Let’s face it the I-pod and its derivatives are great for listening to music on the go, shutting out the noise of fellow passengers on public transport, or for learning a foreign language in the odd spare moment. BUT THEY ARE NOT HIFI. Let me try and explain.

U cn prbly rd ths prtcly wth mob tels getg us usd to chopped words and abbreviations but I suspect that you would not find it particularly relaxing or enjoyable if your favorite newspaper decided to adopt this form of communication to save space; worse still imagine trying to read a whole book written like this. This is what MP3 compression is doing to the music, it chops bits out. I am not saying that it looses notes or turns a B flat into an A, but it certainly looses a lot of the ambiance and delicate musical clues that allow the emotion in a performance to be communicated. And this is not just classical music, this applies as much to rock, pop, jazz etc in fact any type of music where the performer is trying to communicate with the listener.

So to summarize, combine an MP3 download with the lo-fi speaker systems attached to most computer systems and the sound is enough to bring tears (of pain) to the eyes of any music lover.

But the mistake would be to look at the trend for downloaded music and assume this means the death of quality, or HiFi as it used to be known. And a big mistake this would be. Let’s think this through together: Downloaded music means.

1. Instant access to the music you want to listen to.
2. The availability of music from artists who do not have record deals.
3. The ability to listen to music that is not constrained by the quality limits of the CD format.

Yes, you spotted it, number three is the key to this somewhat rambling blog. Download quality does not have to be worse than CD it can be better!!!!! Hurrah, hooray, yippee etc etc etc.

CDs are recorded in 16 bit resolution at a sample rate of 44.1k/second Studios will usually record in a minimum standard of 24 bit resolution and a sample rate of 96k or 192k/second. This results in a sound quality sooooooo much better than CD, which unfortunately most people would have never got to hear, unless someone is playing music from a master tape at a hifi show for example.

But now we can in theory download music at these higher resolutions for playback at home as long as the record companies, artists et al publish them on the web for download. Suddenly downloads can are better than CD, better than hifi, they are true-fi, just as it came off the mixing desk. Which brings me neatly back to my ear opening experience today.

Those brilliant chaps at Linn products have obviously been giving the matter some thought and rather than try either to keep improving the sound of their CD players (which they do as a matter of course anyway) or accept that downloads will inevitably downgrade music quality, they came up with a product (well 2 actually, the Ackurate DS and the Klimax DS) that are designed to get the very best from downloaded material. What is really intriguing is that in doing this they have changed the way that I will listen to CD at home. I am going to record the CD on to a hard drive and not only do I get the benefits of convenience (I can find the album I want to listen to immediately) but I get better sound quality.

If you really want to change the way you listen to music for the better then have a look at the Linn web site ( http://www.linn.co.uk/ ) for details of these two products rather than me clutter up this blog any more. I've got music to rip and listening to do! Long live downloads!

Jeff

The Nottingham Eye - 8 Feb 2008

2008-02-08T15:53:00.000Z

Looking out of my window on Maid Marian Way I can see some (the section from about 12 o'clock to 4 oclock) of the Nottingham Eye in the Old Market Square. It looks great in the bit of sunshine we are getting this afternoon - can't wait to see it at night. A works outing is planned for next week so we can all go for an aerial view of Nottingham. May have to go for refreshment afterwards!

One slightly worrying thought - I notice there is lots of publicity for the city council all over the eye. I hope the structure is self financing and we (the taxpayers) have not ended up footing the bill for another bit of city council self aggrandisment!

Jeff

Remote controls

2008-02-06T09:31:00.000Z

Have you ever wanted to watch a DVD and found your self picking up every remote except the one for your DVD player? I know I Have! However, as technology in the home becomes more centralised, the need for multiple remote controls could become a thing of the past.

Undoubtedly, houses of the future will become more integrated with the technology contained within them and the home owner will not want to be hunting around for one remote that shuts the blinds and another that controls the TV. It makes much more sense to combine the control for these devices into one solution.

Just recently I attended a course all about a little device called a NevoSL. It is essentially an infrared remote control with a handy touch screen and can be seen as a cost effective but practical replacement for a lounge-full of remotes. With the ability to learn IR codes and a fully customisable screen, the NevoSL is the perfect lounge companion for your audio & video needs.

Joe

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, the battle continues?

2008-01-24T15:12:00.000Z

Or does it? There have been some significant developments over the last few days in the high definition disc format wars. It was announced at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that Warner Bros, one of Hollywood’s largest studios has decided to back Blu-Ray for future high definition releases. Warner’s investment in Blu-Ray means that around 75 percent of all HD releases will be exclusive to Blu-Ray in the US.

The decision from Warner has proved to be critical and has influenced many other companies within the industry and around the world to follow suite. Paramount are now also backing Blu-Ray, who hedged their bets initially and offered exclusivity to HD-DVD providing they could reverse the decision if Warner Bros were to back Blu-Ray. It appears that the major US film studio’s backing of Blu-Ray will dramatically influence the take up of the new format around the globe.

So what does this all mean, we know that Blu-Ray is the superior format with more than 3 times the storage capability than HD-DVD and that it would seem that Blu-Ray has won a large majority of future HD releases in the US. It certainly sounds like HD-DVD s days are numbered.

Tim

Let there be lights

2007-12-05T09:57:00.000Z

Christmas is almost upon us – but you wouldn’t know it if you drove up Maid Marian Way where we are located.

Back in the summer the road was praised by The Commission for Architect and the Built Environment as a leading example of how to transform “a soulless highway into a lively city street.” And yet the City Council has not put up one single Christmas decoration along the road.

Surely a main arterial route in the city that reportedly has 33,000 vehicles driving up it each day, let alone the large numbers of pedestrians that walk along it, merits some festive treatment.

Dianne

Back to Black

2007-10-05T08:13:00.000Z

Who said vinyl was dead? Definitely not us. In fact sales of LPs are on the up, as are those of turntables, and we’d like to see the trend continuing.

There's much more feeling and emotion with music from an LP compared to the clinical sound that you get from a CD. There’s also something quite magical about an LP cover – a CD case just isn’t the same, as most record collectors will tell you.

So why don’t you go up into your loft and dig out all those LPs that you just couldn’t bear to part with, blow off the dust and give them a go? Maybe – and here’s the plug – bring them into us for a really good clean – we’ve now got a special record cleaning unit and for just £4 per album we can make give them a deep clean. You could even treat yourself to a new turntable – there’s quite a range to choose from at different prices.

Dianne

High definition v Full High definition for better or worse.

2007-08-13T09:00:00.001Z

I started writing this ages ago, it was going to be the first blog on the site but time has moved on and I just found the draft and thought it was time to finish it.

First of all, there is nothing wrong with trying to get higher resolution screens as a general principle, but it seems to me that this can be distracting from the key objective of getting a better picture. Let’s not forget about all the other good things that make for a good picture such as properly set brightness and contrast, not to mention good black levels, properly adjusted grey-scale, and accurate colour. So many images I see, particularly in display screens in shops have (as musicians would say) all the dials turned to 11. This may make the set stand out in the shop but it is hardly what you want to watch at home.

I would venture to suggest that unless you are planning to view static images such as still photographs on the screen then the above factors combined with good video processing is far more important than having a screen with a gazillion pixels of resolution.

Don’t get me wrong about this; a high quality, properly set up and calibrated full definition screen (1080p) will always look better than a lower definition screen of the same quality that has also been properly set up.

From a personal viewpoint, I find that sufficient resolution is when you cannot see the pixel structure and this is going to be a function of screen size and viewing distance. If I am viewing a small TV let’s say 23" and I am more than about 6 foot away from it then a screen that resolves 720p is completely sufficient. If I am in a cinema room with a 2.35:1 projection screen of about 12 foot then I want the best picture possible for the maximum number of people, front row as well as back row so bring on those pixels, the more the merrier!

One last thought, more pixels means that more video processing power is required to scale anything that is not in the native resolution of the chipset being used, or anything that does not refresh at the same frame rate as the original source material. Quality video processing does not come cheap and I wonder how many cheap "full definition" screens and projectors are going to suffer from poor image quality because of poor video processing. Now there's one to ponder.

jeff

Welcome

2007-05-18T10:23:00.002Z

Welcome to Castle Sound & Vision's brand new blog. Check back regularly for all the latest industry news, views and ideas.

Castle Team