above: Obata with the prototype Compact Disc System.
Technics by Panasonic's Japanese parent company, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., showed a prototype of a digital audio disc using the Philips-Sony Compact Disc system during a special press seminar in Osaka, Japan, on Friday, March 13th. While company representatives stressed that the unit shown was "only a prototype," they also said that actual production units could easily look very much like the sample displayed. Asked about their earlier commitment to the JVC Audio High Density (AHD) digital disc system, the representatives replied that they were exploring a variety of approaches in the field and that they were still firm in their commitment to the JVC AHD system.
The first player designed for the Compact Disc system was shown in 1979 by Philips, while Sony had their unit on display at the Japan Audio Fair in Tokyo last fall. Both these firms have said that their units will reach the marketplace sometime in 1982, while Matsushita indicated that they would have a Technics Compact Disc player ready within the next year. Software would come from CBS/Sony and Polygram.
above: Technics Compact Disc
The Compact Disc system uses a 4 3/4-inch disc which is scanned by laser optics and has a capability of 60 minutes on each side. While Matsushita representatives felt that it was too early to set a firm price on their unit, such a player will probably cost between $400 and $600.
Matsushita looks for a long period of coexistence for standard analog and dig ital discs and stressed the fact that there is a large consumer as well as manufacturer investment in the present analog system. The reason they are moving toward a digital audio disc, they say, is because "music is a universal language," which is to say that there is a viable, i.e. worldwide, market for the musically programmed digital disc.
Videodiscs, on the other hand, present special problems to marketing managers who attempt to sell such programming on a worldwide basis since, obviously, shows in Japanese would find no substantial audience in North America and shows popular in one culture would not necessarily be popular in another.
Matsushita officials were also wary about the rapid changes in technology of the digital systems for both video and audio, saying that while careful and extensive research is necessary, software will apparently play a key role in overall system success.
Matsushita also gave the press a first look at the Technics SV-P100 digital audio cassette recorder, a fairly compact unit in a vertical format using VHS video cassettes. No price was announced but it is expected to be in the $4,000 to $5,000 range; availability was similarly unannounced.
above: Technics SV-P100.
The SV-P100 uses as a signal format the standard NTSC television signal with coding to the Electronic Industries Assn. of Japan STC-007 standard, 14-bit linear quantizing and 44.056-kHz sampling rate. The unit uses a rotary head and essentially has a built-in VHS mechanism in contrast to the Technics professional-grade digital audio recorder that has a stationary head.
The major advances of the SV-P100, compact design and low price, were made possible by Matsushita's development of three large-scale integration semiconductors for PCM digital signal processing and A/D, D/A converter accessory circuitry. While PCM adapters have been shown by several Japanese companies, they have been adapter-only units without the record function so that a video recorder was required additionally. Such adapters were placed in the $4,000 to $6,000 price range, plus $800 to $1,200 for the video recorder.
Other interesting features of the SV-P100 include electronic editing facilities so that undesired portions can be "jumped" using electronic marks. The same marks can also be used to find a reference point in a "search" mode, while the "locate" function finds a tape location by reference to the tape counter. For digital dubbing, there are digital in and out terminals on the rear panel.
-----------
(Adapted from: Audio magazine, Jun. 1981)
= = = =