On 2 Apr 2012, at 20:53, newme...@aol.com wrote: > But, in the context of this list and this thread, these "larger forces" > must also be taken into account -- which, ultimately, lead to the perfectly > understandable reasons why Ambisonics could never and should never become a > "mass-market" technology.
I tend to disagree, because there is a difference between technology and content. I totally agree that content mass-market is ever less dominant, because the digital age allows for efficient internetworking of sub-cultures, and therefore their ability of carving out niches that collectively eat away at once dominant mass-culture. However, just as much as MP3 and ripping of audio destroyed the mass-market of LP/CD sales, the massmarket of MP3 players and MP3 files still was created. Ambisonics would have the role of MP3, not the role of prerecorded music sales from record stores. The key thing would be to get a major player to include Ambisonics in their line up, and that isn't happening as long as the purists bitch and whine about how at least 2nd, better 3rd order Ambisonics is a must, because the complexities and channel count just don't justify the effort given that there is no proven demand. Something like UHJ, except for being tied to CDs, and G-Format (with an ability to extract B-Format for transcoding into different speaker layouts, but en inherent 5.1 compatibility) are the only meaningful choices when attempting to popularize Ambisonics, but both of these are sneered at by the very experts that would have to be cooperating with industry heavyweights to get things off the ground. For these reasons, snobbery and academic purity, Ambisonics won't go anywhere in the next three decades, unless there's a major shift in attitude. Some people still don't understand that one doesn't feed a baby with a steak. Get things going, and when there's a certain amount of market penetration and people start noticing limitations THEN you can tell them about 2nd and 3rd order, because by then the concept has sunk in and people say: I want the better version of what I already have. Did Apple wait until they can ship a universal LTE Retina-Display iPhone and iPad? No, we're on the fifth generation iPhone, and still not there. But some people here are not interested in any solution unless it's a perfect solution, and that unrealistic thinking is the biggest roadblock to progress. And then, of course, another problem with Ambisonics is, that it's British... ...and the entertainment industry is US-American, and consumer electronics (aside from Apple) is Japanese-Korean, made in China/Vietnam. Ronald _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
