a. The good news from major labels in the US is that given reasonable budgets nearly everything is recorded with the resources (mics and tracks) sufficient to at least eventually re-mix for surround. I'd like to be able to tell you that Multichannel Audio is a given for classical music releases but, unfortunately, efforts are mixed.

b. At Telarc over 75% of releases go out SACD with both Stereo & Multichannel streams.

c. Clearly Philips is very actively supporting core classical and is doing so in SACD Multichannel. They have recorded over 50 titles in surround.

d. On the other hand, most of the majors, including BMG & Warner's worldwide, have abandoned core classical music almost completely, save for reissues or "special projects". Even at Sony core classical is much more likely to be released in 2- channel stereo; only perhaps 5-10 of their 100 or so releases in a given year have Multichannel streams.

e. It's hard to ignore that the purely classical music business in any format is still struggling in the marketplace, although music on the margins of classical - world music, Jazz, avant-garde, contemporary- are faring much better.

f. As you look further down the scale to the independent labels, and to more mid-level classical productions, increasingly one is likely to find them recording only in stereo, even when the added expense is modest. I've heard more than once that there is no confidence in the current implementations of the center channel and there's quite a bit of work being done in 4.0. And, at the bottom of these mid-level budgets, there are more than a few projects recorded to 16-bit DAT.

g. Nonetheless, multichannel classical music presentations make the most impressive demonstrations. The best of these are often utilized in high-end audio sales rooms to invoke "the John Eargle effect", which states that the better the demonstration is, the faster checkbooks will fly out of your pockets.

a. The success of multichannel in the Western world (now thought to include India as well as Europe) is in the range of 56 to 58,000 screens. Of those about 35,000 are in the states. Both Dolby and DTS have penetration in the 90% range. THX has about 1,000 of these screens, mostly on the West Coast.

b. Film scores are for the most part being produced multichannel. The music mixers that I've spoken to in Hollywood are recording and delivering ALL of their scores in 5.1 or in a few cases, 7.1. In most cases the final mix makes use of that Multichannel score for the final theatrical release. Multichannel in cinemas is growing, US and worldwide.

c. With the release of the Star Wars Episode 1, Dolby EX (acting on an initiative from Lucasfilm) provided an additional array in the rear. I'll ask us to make a note here that what was desired is a more defined localization in the rear, especially for pinpoint sources at or near the center rear. It's still desired.

d. Here's a hopeful note: if a film deal is made for pop music and multichannel stems are provided, it generally finds its way into the theater in 5.1.

e. Unfortunately, it is not clear that there is any support on the horizon for extended resolution or bandwidth, although there is always room for more speakers (more about this later). And when the music and effects mixers that I spoke to were asked what they'd most like to see in the future in cinemas, their first response was, "Make all of the speakers the same as the full-range speakers in the front."

f. Theater owners, a stressed market segment if there ever was one, will no doubt weigh the investment in any new technology, be it direct digital delivery or full-range rear speakers, only against increased popcorn sales.

a. The success of DVD-V is well documented and I won't go into it here except to say that it was last year's success story and there's no doubt that it will continue to grow.

b. There are somewhere between (as few as) 45 million and as many as 125 million DVD-V equipped players out there in the world, depending on who you ask. It's extremely hard to tell how many home theater systems are actually set up and playing multichannel, but conservative estimates are less than a million.

c. It's been confirmed with several houses that remix for DVD-V, that these releases almost always use the original Multichannel stems, including the 5.1 underscore as well as Multichannel dialog and effects. Also, if somewhat rarely and only if the budget supports it, new 5.1 content is implemented.

d. Also, successes abound in music on DVD-V. Let me give you some figures for Canada alone:

i. Norah Jones live DVD at 30,000

ii. Diana Krall "Live in Paris" DVD-V 50,000.

iii. Paul McCartney DVD is over 50,000; interestingly, sales of the CD of that concert are only 71,000.

e. I found it difficult to get exact sales figures for the Eagles DVD-V of their "Hell Freezes Over" live tour recording, but rumors are that it's significant.

a. In February our associates at Swedish Radio, who are represented here, announced that they would begin Digital Video Broadcasting on Sirius 2 satellite, available to the Nordic and European regions, broadcasting DVB along with 96Khz 24bit audio in DTS format. The trials were to end in April and we're anxious to find out what they've learned.

b. Secondly, they are offering a free 5.1 demonstration download in DTS format, both 44.1 and 96k from their website. I downloaded (legally) a sample, burned a DTS format CD-R, and had myself a quick and easy Multichannel demo. In 9 months they reportedly saw 800,000 downloads, 80% of these to users outside Sweden.

c. Broadcast television in the US is a different story. The 2002/2003 television season marks the fourth consecutive year that CBS broadcast the majority of its primetime schedule in HD, and the second season that it has offered all of its scripted entertainment series in the HD digital format. By the end of 2002, CBS expected to be transmitting digital programming across more than 100 owned and affiliated stations, reaching over 83 percent of the country.

d. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, until this year's Grammy presentation CBS had never presented anything in 5.1 and HD; Phil Ramone and his team basically had to direct a seminal installation.

e. The future is a bit more promising: the US government has mandated benchmarks for the implementation of HD television over the next decade. And the government is quietly driving resources to PBS stations to fund Multichannel production and broadcast. There are plans for some shows, such as "Live from Lincoln Center", to go out this fall in HD & 5.1. "Austin City Limits" is reportedly generating material, and is almost ready to do 5.1 broadcasts.

f. Something to think about: at the most recent NAB show, surround music packages for station ID tags started to became available.

a. Quite a few record companies are ordering 5.1 pop mixes along with 2-channel work even when their immediate plans only call for 2-channel music releases. Most often, 5.1 mixes are initially used in DVD-V's. Occasionally, there's a simultaneous multichannel release.

b. Notable among multichannel record companies are…

i. DTS Entertainment, represented here, one of the first to make a concerted effort to merchandize Multichannel and now providing both DTS and DVD-A formats

ii. Sony, with arguably the Multichannel hit of the year in "Dark Side of the Moon", among many other releases in SACD.

iii. Telarc (which produces not only core classical but pop, jazz & blues as well). Telarc releases in SACD

iv. WEA, who is aggressively repurposing it's deep pop catalog for Multichannel as well as doing new releases, exclusively in DVD-A.

v. Universal, who is currently releasing both SACD and DVD-A.

vi. EMI Music/Canada, represented here, pursuing an enhanced package to include DVD-A and DVD-V and Red Book when this technology is feasible.

c. I'm going to say as little as possible about formats save this: DTS & AC-3 decoders are available in the majority of existing one hundred million DVD-V players. As far as SACD & DVD-A capable players are concerned, there are far fewer units, and the numbers for truly universal players like the Denon and the Pioneer are even farther below that. It's hard to know what the unit numbers really are between SACD & DVD-A; both manufacturing camps make claims of between 4 and 5 million units, and outside estimates range from just below 2 million units. I'm just going to move on.

d. Popular music is perhaps one area where we've been over-anxious for results, using traditional Pop CD sales numbers as reference points. For instance, currently the top sales bracket for a multichannel release seems to be in the range of 50,000 - 100, 000 disks, compared to where we try to focus on a pop hit, which is more around 1-3 million units, depending on the format. And caveats abound. For instance, "Dark Side Of The Moon" has sold as many as 100,000 disks, but it's also a hybrid release with a remastered Red Book layer accompanying the 5.1 and 2-channel SACD streams. By contrast, the Queen DVD-A that Elliot Scheiner remixed last year has sold around 45,000 copies. Right now this seems to be the average number for a modest Multichannel success.

a. Digital audio workstations are more and more multi-channel capable.

b. Since Elmau several high-end Multichannel production tools have become available including reverbs from TC Electronic, Lexicon, Sony, and effects processors from Eventide among others.

c. Unfortunately, new development seems to have slowed down considerably. I've been told that sales of certain of these tools have been less than encouraging, and there's a rumor that the 777 has been discontinued.

a. For some time now the mantra of Multichannel, such as it is, has been, "We will see the breakthrough when Multichannel systems get into cars." I'm sure many of us remember hearing the Harman demonstration system in Elmau, and since then several models have become available with surround sound systems, notably the Volvo, and this year, even a Lincoln with a THX sound system. Speaking for a group of music engineers currently very active in 5.1 Multichannel mixing I'd like to say that we're more than a little unhappy that so many current offerings aren't discrete 5.1. We are told that it is because the design cycle was begun before discrete hardware was available, but one wonders why, when other major manufacturing industries can turn around completely new designs in 2 years or less, automobile manufacturers, another deeply challenged industry, can't do better.

b. We are thrilled that Banff has a number of promising car demos this year. We're anxious to hear them.

c. But the automobile has turned out to be a very special case; there are significant challenges to delivering great audio in the car, SUV or van, notably how to do deliver the best "Surround Experience" to all of the passenger positions. There has been considerable serious work by many in this area. And speaking for that same group of 5.1 mix engineers I'd further like to add that we take offense at the notion that automotive sound designers insist that they are more qualified to judge what constitutes an effective "Surround Experience" than we are, especially as it ignores or corrupts the musical intention.

d. I'm told that most automotive manufactures are loathe to implement a matched, full-range center speaker; we're told that there's no room for it. We're told that automobile manufacturers simply won't give a millimeter of dashboard space or volume. I say we get them together with Don Henley, or Graham Nash, or Sheryl Crow or whoever their most venerated artist is to shame them into what they should be doing.

e. Beyond that, the question is: whether we as mixers should support or avoid that weak center speaker in our mixes. The thinking I hear most often is that special cases should be accommodated by special processing at the delivery end, and that we shouldn't lower our standards.

a. From the largest manufacturer of software in the US, I can tell you that there is considerable progress in Multichannel, but I must inform you of the following:

a. In video games, picture is everything. The audio stream gets, on average, 5 to 6% of the player's bitstream capacity. Anything that disturbs the video performance gets knocked back. One Electonic Arts game, SSX Tricky, a motorcycle game, used up to 10% of the bandwidth for sound, and was widely panned for a "slow picture".

b. Nevertheless, many game boxes have Multichannel capabilities. The X-Box can utilize Dolby AC-3 and ProLogic. The PlayStation II does ProLogic and more recently DTS. Most often 4.0 is implemented, sometimes 5.0.

c. Some PC native games implement 5 channel surround for sound cards, notably the Creative Labs Soundblaster.

d. Most games utilize surround for dramatic effects. For the recent "Lord Of The Rings" game, Electronic Arts were given the 5.1 Music stems, but these were truncated to stereo. Nevertheless, a few Playstation games have music going into surrounds.

e. Finally, most often the sound channel is implemented as 22.05k, with compression of around 3.5:1.