"Ronald C.F. Antony" <r...@cubiculum.com> wrote: > On 12 Apr 2012, at 19:57, Martin Leese <martin.le...@stanfordalumni.org> > wrote: ... >> The UK Government, through the >> National Research Development Corporation, >> strongly supported the development of >> Ambisonics; they paid for it. While the NRDC >> had strange ideas on how to market >> Ambisonics, there were no legal restrictions on >> them doing so. > > I heard that there were some effects of Thatcher era privatization efforts > that directly or indirectly hurt Ambisonics... > ...can't remember the details, though, except that the research had some bad > luck with timing, i.e. it was ready to be marketed when the conditions for > government funded research were the worst. Maybe someone can elaborate on > that?
Somebody who was involved at the time (which I was not) would be better able to answer this. Thatcher came to power in 1979. In 1981, the NRDC was merged into the British Technology Group. It is true that development and promotion of Ambisonics was the sort of thing that the Thatcher government felt should be left to industry. However, the marketing plan for Ambisonics being pursued by the NRDC/BTG was so at odds with how the audio industry actually worked that failure was certain. Much as I would delight in blaming Thatcher for the failure of Ambisonics (she is the reason I emigrated to Canada), I don't believe she was significant. Regards, Martin -- Martin J Leese E-mail: martin.leese stanfordalumni.org Web: http://members.tripod.com/martin_leese/ _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
