THE BIG PICTURE

It is with profound sadness that I report the passing of Gary Altunian, a colleague and friend of many years. It looked as though he had won his long battle with cancer a few years ago, only to have it recently return with a vengeance. He finally succumbed on March 15, 2011, at the age of 59.

I first met Gary in the early 1990s when he was National Training Manager for Yamaha Electronics. I was just beginning my career as a journalist in consumer electronics (I had previously covered pro audio), and he helped me with my coverage of Yamaha CE products. We became friends and then colleagues when he left Yamaha in 2003 to pursue his own career as a freelance audio journalist. He was an excellent and conscientious writer, and I hired him whenever I could to contribute to whatever magazine or website I was working on at the time.

Michael Samson writes from the Philippines with some interesting questions about the PlayStation 3:

On Wednesday this week, I attended The BD-Live Experience, a press event hosted by Sony Pictures and Sony Electronics. It was held at Sony Pictures Studios' Stage 29, a cavernous soundstage in which, we were told, the "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" musical sequence was shot for <I>The Wizard of Oz</I> in 1939 when the studio was operated by MGM. Clearly, Sony was hoping to lead journalists on a similar path toward the Blu-ray City of Aahs.

As I'm sure most <I>UAV</I> readers know by now, analog-television broadcasting will cease on February 17, 2009, less than a year from now. On that date, all analog TVs receiving their signals via over-the-air antennas will display nothing but snow on every channel. Cable and satellite delivery to analog TVs will be unaffected&mdash;in fact, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated that cable companies continue to provide analog services until at least 2012. But that still leaves some 14 million US homes in the dark on that fateful day next year.

Last week, I asked readers to weigh in on whether they want more audio-product reviews without objective measurements or fewer reviews with measurements. I've gotten quite a few responses so far, for which I'm grateful, but I'm going to wait one more week before revealing the results and <I>UAV</I>'s policy in this regard. If you haven't voted yet, feel free to do so by adding a comment to <A href="http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/scottwilkinson/021008question/">last week's blog</A> or e-mailing me at <A HREF="mailto:scott.wilkinson@sourceinterlink.com">scott.wilkinson@sourceinterlink.com</A>

Whenever anyone starts proclaiming that plasma is a dying technology, I put my hands over my ears and start singing, "La, la, la, I can't hear you!" Sure, LCD TVs have come a long way in terms of black levels and motion detail thanks to LED illumination and frame interpolation, but these are work-arounds for problems that most plasmas never had in the first place—and they often come with their own odious artifacts, such as frame interpolation's "soap-opera effect." So it was with great glee that I read a report in This Week In Consumer Electronics about a study from market-research firm DisplaySearch, which found that shipments of plasma panels to TV manufacturers in 2010 were way up from the previous year.

This week, I'm in Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention. (It seems like only yesterday that I was here for CES, but it was actually three months ago!) Many have questioned my reasons for attending this trade show, which is aimed at broadcasting and content professionals rather than consumers. It's quite simple, really—I'm here to answer one basic question: How is the consumer experience impacted and improved by what is we see at NAB?