Audio Video News

Canadian high-tech startup Mass Fidelity has introduced its first product—the $199 Relay wireless hi-fi receiver.

The receiver streams music wirelessly from any Bluetooth-enabled device to any audio system and is said to deliver audiophile-grade performance thanks to proprietary topography and firmware and the use of premium components such as a Burr-Brown digital-to-audio converter.

The march of progress comes at a price to the environment. Old computer monitors and television sets often wind up in landfills, where they can leak lead, cadmium, mercury, and other toxic chemicals into the groundwater. The federally mandated changeover to digital television, projected to be complete within the next six years, may exacerbate the problem as millions of consumers consign their old displays to the trash.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.co.jp/global/top.html">Matsushita</A>, known to most consumers by its <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic</A> brand name, announced the establishment of the Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory in Universal City, CA. The company says that the new lab, a division of Panasonic Technologies, will conduct research and development on "next-generation digital video compression and technologies" for broadband distribution of video and other digital content.