Sony Finalizing 4K Ultra HD sales for 2013 – Sony is playing up the superior 4K up-scaling engine in its UHD sets plus a new font-firing, side-mounted magnetic fluid speaker system in select models. Their 84-inch 4K TV is up against LG’s 84-inch set. Sony will have 65-inch and 55-inch 4K models in April or May. Sony says they will launch this summer one of the industry’s first online native 4K programming services to support its 4K sets. They have also launched a new flagship X05 on-ear headphone model at $200. It features 40mm drivers and a built-in mic, with a tightly-sealed acoustic design offering passive noise cancellation and improved bass.
AudioXperts Luxury-Audio Startup – Launched last summer, AudioXperts produces tabletop audio products, TV-audio platforms with swiveling base, and lifestyle-oriented component speakers. The company focuses on the underserved luxury-audio market.
100 Years of Indian Cinema Celebrated Via Ten Short Films – Muse Movies celebrates 100 years of Indian Cinema with an integrated cultural movement which will create ten benchmark short films now being made, which will eventually be part of one feature film. They will talk about the Cinema for Children as well as for the Blind; the symbiosis between cinema, politics and media; the business of film criticism, the cold war between makers and audiences; and other subjects covering the past, present and future of Indian Cinema.
Van Cliburn Dies – The internationally-celebrated pianist whose triumph at the 1958 piano competition in Moscow helped thaw the Cold War and started a spectacular career, died at his home at age 78 after a fight with bone cancer. The NYC ticker-tape parade he had on his return to America was the first ever for a classical musician, and he was on the cover of Time.
Conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch Dies – German conductor Sawallisch died last month at age 89. He had been music director of the Bavarian State Opera for 20 years. In 1993 he had succeeded Riccardo Muti as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where it was said he reshaped the ensemble with more personnel changes than anyone since Leopold Stokowski.
William Bennett Dies – The principal oboist of the San Francisco Symphony died on Feb. 28, of a brain hemorrhage. He was 56 and had been named principal in 1987. He premiered John Harbison’s Oboe Concerto, which was also recorded on London.
