W7: Audio for Information Appliances

Chair:
Bob Moses, Island Digital Media Group, LLC, Vashon, WA, USA
Panelists:

Information appliances are popping up everywhere, such as in personal digital assistants, kitchen web terminals, cellular phones, and wristwatches. The killer application on these devices is audio. Indeed, the music industry is just beginning to adjust to the renaissance brought by advances in audio compression, storage, and global distribution via the Internet. Recording engineers and artists are wondering how to maintain quality and control over their art once it enters the digital domain, and businesses are trying to figure out how to profit from this technology. Has the convergence of computing, compression, and communications technologies made a mess out of audio or opened the door to an exciting new era?