The S&V Interview

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The S&V Interview
Jesse Colin Young and S&V Get Together to Discuss the Core Elements and Key Sounds of Great Songwriting
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 10, 2024
The art of songwriting can sometimes be mysterious, frustrating, and even off-putting, to a certain degree—but when it’s done right, a songwriter can literally teach the world to sing. One such songwriter who has an inherent knack for consistently reaching the masses in a special way is Jesse Colin Young. During a recent Zoom call, Young and music editor Mike Mettler discussed the impetus behind The Perfect Stranger Songwriting Contest, how “Get Together” beat the odds to become an indelible hit, and why he feels “Darkness, Darkness” is among his best-loved—and most covered—songs. . .

Click here to enter The Perfect Stranger Songwriting Contest.

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CES 2024The S&V InterviewShows
Interview: Focal Aria Evo X Speakers
Mark Henninger  |  Jan 15, 2024
With over four decades of innovation, Focal has continually set the bar for sound fidelity and speaker design. Today, we're diving into their latest creation, the Aria Evo X, and exploring how Focal's approach to developing and marketing audio technology has evolved and led to this exciting new update to the popular, but decade-old Aria speaker line.

Joining me are Cedrick Boutonet—CEO of Vervent Audio Group, overseeing both Focal and Naim, and Arnaud Hendoux—managing director for Americas at Vervent Audio Group. We discuss the strategic importance of in-house speaker development and manufacturing, a cornerstone of Focal's identity and success.

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The S&V Interview
Displace Offers a New Take on TV
Bob Ankosko  |  Dec 14, 2023

15 Minutes with Balaji Krishnan, Displace Founder & CEO

Displace, the San Diego-based startup founded by serial entrepreneur Balaji Krishnan in 2022, has a bold vision for the future of TV. He envisions a world in which we are surrounded by a network of super smart TVs that integrate seamlessly into our daily lives. The kind of TV he has in mind was previewed almost a year ago at CES 2023 and is now close to being ready for prime time: It’s super lightweight, runs on batteries, and literally sticks to the wall with the ability to be easily moved from one spot to another. We reached out to Krishnan to get an update on where things stand with his remarkable TV. Here’s what we learned.

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The S&V InterviewAudio Video News
NEXTGEN TV Aims to Keep Over-the-Air TV Broadcasting Relevant
Bob Ankosko  |  Jul 20, 2023
ATSC’s Madeleine Noland and Pearl TV’s Anne Schelle provide an update on the ATSC 3.0 broadcast system rolling out across the country

Terrestrial television broadcasting may seem quaint in the age of streaming and artificial intelligence but the age-old practice of pulling TV signals out of thin air is alive and well in 2023 and continuing to make strides.

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The S&V Interview
Reviving a Classic: The Rebirth of KLH Audio
Bob Ankosko  |  Mar 16, 2023

15 Minutes with David P. Kelley, CEO of KLH Audio

The return of the KLH was big news at 2018 CES. Industry pundits and audio enthusiasts looked on with great interest and a little skepticism. Could the iconic brand cofounded by hi-fi pioneer Henry Kloss in 1957 be resurrected in a way that would pay homage to its founder? We recently caught up with David P. Kelley, who acquired the brand in 2017, to learn more about what the new KLH has accomplished since then and to get a preview of what’s on the horizon. Indeed, the future is bright as Kelley reveals plans for a new speaker built around the acoustic-suspension principles Henry Kloss made famous.

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The S&V Interview
David Crosby, The Tenor of Our Times
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 27, 2023

David Crosby spoke extensively with music editor Mike Mettler just a few months before he sadly passed away at age 81 on January 18. The voice of a generation, Croz discusses his knack for recognizing the chemistry he had with certain musicians, how the song “Compass” helped recalibrate his songwriting acumen, what album of his he’d like most to be listened to a half-century into the future, and much more.

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The S&V InterviewAudio Video News
Now Is a Great Time to Buy a New TV
Bob Ankosko  |  Nov 17, 2022

TV Prices Buck U.S. Inflation Trend

Consumer electronics in general but TVs in particular have a decades-long history of providing amazing value. Except for an unprecedented and short-lived Covid-driven spike in 2020-2021, retail TV prices have been relatively immune to inflation over the past four decades while the cost of almost everything crept up. (Lately, of course, inflationary pressures have caused the price of everything to spike up.) So if you’re thinking about updating your TV, now is a great time to do it. But don’t just take our word for it. We checked in with Robert (Bob) O’Brien, TV expert and co-founder of Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC), to get his take on TV pricing as we head into the holiday season.

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Spatial Audio FileThe S&V Interview
Here, There and Spatially Everywhere
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 28, 2022

The Beatles’ Revolver further solidified the creative validity of the rock album format when it was released in August 1966. Seeing how Revolver’s Super Deluxe Edition multidisc LP/CD box set incarnations have been officially released via Apple/UMG today, October 28—not to mention the inherently excellent Revolver Atmos mix by producer Giles Martin concurrently being made available digitally—I had to find out why I needed to get that Atmos mix into my listening life. Therefore, Martin and I got on Zoom together recently to discuss exactly that. He also shared with me what his late father, original Beatles producer George Martin, thought of his multichannel mixing skills. These are all perfect topics for this month’s Spatial Audio File (he said he said), so read on, read on. . .

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The S&V Interview
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Re-Energizing a Sci-Fi Classic
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 06, 2022
Ambitious, original, yet largely underappreciated, the first Star Trek film stands alone. Rushed into theaters in December 1979 with unfinished special effects and a studio-mandated runtime of only 130 minutes, it was not the version director Robert Wise intended.
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The S&V Interview
High Dynamic Range, HDR10+ Style
Bob Ankosko  |  May 19, 2022
15 Minutes with Bill Mandel, Co-Manager at HDR10+ Technologies, LLC

Sound & Vision talks high dynamic range and the evolution of HDR10+ with Bill Mandel, head of the Visual Solutions Lab at Samsung Research America and co-manager of HDR10+ Technologies, LLC.

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The S&V Interview
Which of the New TV Technologies Will Prevail?
Bob Ankosko  |  Mar 24, 2022

15 Minutes with Robert (Bob) O’Brien, Co-Founder, Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC)

Advances in TV technology are coming fast and from many directions these days, giving consumers — and home theater enthusiasts, in particular — more reasons than ever to consider upgrading to a new set. Whether we’re talking Mini-LED, MicroLED, or QD-OLED, a new take on OLED technology, there’s a lot to keep up with. We tracked down industry insider Robert (Bob) O’Brien to get his take on what has become a very dynamic space.

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Music and Soundtrack FeaturesThe S&V Interview
Carlos Santana on Blessings, Miracles, and Full Musical Immersion
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 22, 2022
"I'm just very grateful we're allowed to, by grace, manifest some really, really high-standard, quality music. We do not have to be victims of static."

That's rock legend Carlos Santana, succinctly summarizing two things at once: a) the fine art of making music worth listening to, and b) being able to hear that music as clearly as the artist intended. (To that end, Carlos and I wound up switching phone lines during the front end of our conversation in order to hear each other with a much better-sounding connection, but that's another story.)

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The S&V InterviewAudio Video News
8K Update: What’s Next for the Budding TV System?
Bob Ankosko  |  Feb 10, 2022
When the original NTSC broadcast system gave way to high-definition television at the end of the 20th century it was the first major upgrade in almost 50 years, so it was a huge deal. A dozen or so years later, TV makers rolled out the first 4K Ultra HDTVs, which accounted for three-quarters of the 45 million TVs shipped in the U.S. last year, and, now, 8K beckons. But when will the next-gen TV format actually start to take off? To get a handle on how things are progressing in the world of 8K, we decided to check in with Chris Chinnock, executive director of the 8K Association (8KA).
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The S&V Interview
Ian Anderson on the Zealous Nature of Jethro Tull's Past, Present, and Future
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 04, 2022
Ian Anderson has never taken his foot off the creative gas when it comes to both producing new music and harvesting the wealth of catalog material from Jethro Tull, the groundbreaking prog/folk hybrid band he co-founded in 1967.

That said, considering just how active an artist Anderson has been over the past six-plus decades, it might surprise you to learn the stalwart British collective's latest release, The Zealot Gene (InsideOut Music) is in fact the first new Tull studio album in more than 19 years.
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The S&V InterviewAudio Video News
Audyssey’s Acoustic Odyssey
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 20, 2022
A conversation with Jeff Clark, Director of Software Engineering, Audyssey Laboratories

Dealing with the effects of room acoustics is one of the biggest challenges in getting a movie or music system to sound “right.” Even the best speakers can sound awful — muted and boomy or bright and anemic — in an acoustically difficult environment. For the past 18 years, Audyssey Labs has shown a relentless dedication to delivering and continually refining technology that improves sound quality without the listener having to intervene. We sat down with Jeff Clark, director of software engineering, to discuss Audyssey’s past and present efforts to “push any listening scenario as close to a reference listening experience as possible.”

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