► vCreative, the radio industry’s leading cloud-based workflow software company and Efficio Solutions, the broadcast industry’s leading provider of CRM and Yield Management software have a new system integration designed to make the job of the sales executive more efficient and effective. For clients engaging both software systems, users can see and track production, spots on-air, and spots expiring in the account summary of Efficio from the production suite for that same account in vCreative. Jinny Laderer, President of vCreative states that, “These are changing times in radio. Our clients need solutions that are fast, reliable and enable them to do what they do best. This integration will be a time-saver for Account Executives. We are so proud to join with Efficio to help create more efficiencies that move our industry forward.” David Einstein, Co-President of Efficio states, “We are very excited about the integration between Efficio CRM and vCreative. Jinny and John Laderer’s vision of simplifying production workflow by providing easy-to-use and efficient solutions mirror our goals for our CRM and yield management systems. One of the most important things we do is listen to our clients. Desire for integration with vCreative is something that we began to hear consistently and we are excited to work with John and Jinny to bring that incremental value to the table” If you are interested in learning more about how this integration can be of benefit to your sales team or to arrange a demo of either product, please contact Chris Crawford of Efficio at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Melissa Rapp of vCreative at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. www.vcreativeinc.com. Listeners can hear a difference between standard audio and better-than-CD quality, known as high-resolution audio, according to a new study published recently in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (JAES) by Dr. Joshua Reiss of the Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The meta-study compared data from 18 studies involving 450 participants listening to samples of music in different formats. In total, the studies involved over 12,000 different trials where participants were asked to discriminate between formats. Overall, listeners could distinguish between the formats, especially if they had been trained to hear a difference. This is the first time that formal meta-analysis techniques have been applied to audio engineering research. In addition to training, the research suggested that careful selection of stimuli, including use of long duration samples, may play an important role in the ability to discriminate. Studies that did not show an ability to discriminate were generally more prone to biases or flaws in their design. Reiss concluded that “the perceived fidelity of an audio recording and playback chain is affected by operating at a resolution higher than the CD standard. Audio purists and industry should welcome these findings,” said Reiss. “Our study finds high-resolution audio has a small but important advantage in its quality of reproduction over standard audio content. Trained listeners could distinguish between the two formats around sixty percent of the time.” Dr. Reiss explained, “One motivation for this research was that people in the audio community endlessly discuss whether the use of high-resolution formats and equipment really makes a difference. Conventional wisdom states that CD quality should be sufficient to capture everything we hear, yet anecdotes abound where individuals claim that hi-res content sounds crisper, or more intense. And people often cherry-pick their favorite study to support whichever side they’re on.” He continued, “We gathered 80 publications in the field, and analyzed all available data, even asking authors of earlier studies for their original reports from old filing cabinets. We subjected the data to many forms of analysis. The effect was clear, and there were some indicators as to what conditions demonstrate it most effectively. Hopefully, we can now move forward towards identifying how and why we perceive these differences, and better experimental design.” When asked about the type of content for which high-resolution recording and playback most made a difference, Dr. Reiss responded, “The jury is still out. The studies that most showed an effect mainly used jazz and classical music, but this wasn’t exclusive. We looked at lots of factors like choice of content and equipment. Results suggested that listeners often needed to listen to each sample for more than 30 seconds, but possible factors were mostly overshadowed by training test subjects in critical listening skills specific to the test, and in general, good experimental design.” As an Open Access document, Dr. Reiss’ research can be freely downloaded here.
► Atomica Music announced the release of Signal, a new catalog designed exclusively for radio. The initial offering includes over 240 tracks of unobtrusive beds for traffic, news, sports, weather, and more. Evolving themes with subtle changes keep things consistent without being redundant. The Atomica Music catalog consists of 12 catalogs, over 560 albums, and over 35,000 tracks. www.atomicamusiclibrary.com. ► DaySequerra, a provider of audio solutions for radio, TV and internet broadcasters, has entered into an agreement to purchase Orban from its parent CRL Inc. Orban will be reorganized into a new DaySequerra subsidiary, Orban Labs Incorporated, and will be located at the DaySequerra facility in New Jersey. All current Orban administration, marketing, sales and product development functions will be transferred to DaySequerra over the next 90 days. www.daysequerra.com. ►
