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Fairlight’s XYNERGI Media Production Centre. 

Readers with an interest in popular music might recall that in the eighties an Australian company, Fairlight Instruments, developed the first commercial digital musical instrument capable of sampling sounds. (See “A little bit of History” below)

Fairlight is in the news again this month, having just released a digital audio workstation which continues the Fairlight tradition of “disruptive” innovations.

The new product is called Xynergi, and you can download a brochure here. To call it a digital audio workstation is an understatement, to say the least. It is, as Fairlight puts it, “The world’s first unified media production centre”.

Its key specs are:

• 230 Hi Resolution audio channels
• 8 bands of EQ on every channel
• 3 stages dynamics on every channel
• 12 auxiliary sends per channel
• 72 user definable mix busses
• Audio bridge to VST and Rewire
• Up to 220 physical I/Os per card
• Comprehensive monitor system
• Integrated Pyxis Track Video
• Less than 0.5ms processing latency

Xynergi utilisies two new technologies which are world firsts.

The most obvious innovation is the control surface which looks a bit like a QWERTY keyboard with some extra knobs and displays. But its simple look betrays an incredible chameleon-like ability to completely change its function and re-label its keys from moment to moment. Take a minute to view this short video.

Unlike some keyboards which use expensive and power-hungry LED matrix displays in each keycap, the Xynergi keyboard uses a clever optical system to project full-graphic images onto the keycaps.

Less obvious but even more impressive is the audio processing hardware at the heart of the Xynergi. Judging by the audio specs listed above, you’d expect to have a rack full of DSP chips and another rack of I/O. You’d expect power consumption of a kilowatt or more, and there’d be a row of noisy fans to cool it. And you’d be paying maybe $50,000 for it.

But the whole Xynergi kit comes in a box you can carry under one arm, and you get change from $25,000.

The secret? Fairlight’s new Crystal Core audio processor card. Here it is, in all its glory.

One tiny PCIe card with enough horsepower to deliver 230 channels of beyond-studio-quality audio processing. It plugs into a standard PC and consumes only 8 watts. No fans!

After an absence of about 20 years, I was delighted to be asked by Fairlight to help them with some market research and business planning early this year. I got to see the Crystal Core and Xynergi keyboard at prototype stage. It was hard to believe what I was seeing and hearing. I kept looking under the desk for the DSP rack..

Fairlight will be releasing the Xynergi at the AES convention in New York from Oct 5-8. I predict it will be the hit of the show.

Some of our clients will have been surprised to receive communication from us in July apologising that we could not carry out projects for them due to”legal questions” awaiting resolution. This was not related to the Channel Nine lawsuit, but a different matter which found us in court again. This blog gives some background to this situation.

Followers of this blog will know that Duncan Ross and I were laid off by IceTV in October 2006 and have no association with IceTV any more, other than being minor shareholders.

Duncan and I decided to form the consultancy company Vogel Ross Pty Ltd, in particular to take advantage of our expertise in the “new media” field.

Our client base has included IceTV themselves, to whom we consulted through the Nine Network Hearing. One of our main clients was Mobilesoft Australia Pty Ltd. Mobilesoft had developed a movie rental system using a digital set-top-box.

Mobilesoft had completed this system to trial stage before we left IceTV and they contracted me and Duncan to evaluate the system prior to launch, scheduled for later this year.

As the STB has PVR capabilities (ability to receive and record TV) we urged Mobilesoft to use IceTV’s EPG with it.

In February Duncan, on behalf of Mobilesoft, contacted IceTV to discuss the opportunity.

A few days later, Duncan and I received a letter from IceTV’s lawyers reminding us of our employment contracts, which they say prevented us from competing with IceTV for 12 months. The letter noted that we had “provided services to Mobilesoft Limited with respect to a set-top-box for [brand deleted] which would utilise IceTV secret know how and processes and would be in direct competition to the products and services provided by IceTV”. The letter also included other allegations.

We advised IceTV that their fears were misplaced and that far from competing, we were in fact bringing potential business to IceTV.

Subsequent letters and meetings failed to resolve the matter and on 3rd July 2007, the Supreme Court of NSW granted IceTV’s request for a temporary injunction preventing me or Duncan from “until 4 October 2007, carrying on or otherwise being engaged or involved in any business similar to or competitive with the business of the plaintiff carried on during the twelve month period prior to 4 October 2006, including the development and/or pursuit of the commercial opportunity of media content provision to set-top-boxes, Personal Video Recorders or similar devices” as well several other provisions.

That is why we had to abruptly terminate our work in the media or set-top-box field. On 28th September we took the matter back to Court and in light of further evidence we presented, IceTV was ordered to provide security for our potential costs and the injunction was dissolved.

The 12 months from our termination at IceTV has now passed and we are now free to undertake projects in any field. We will of course continue to observe our ongoing confidentiality obligation to IceTV.

We greatly appreciate our clients’ patience and moral support during this difficult time. We are now ready to get back to work and are actively seeking new projects.