Tesco is expanding trial sales of vinyl albums for the holiday selling season, following its successful September test sales of the new triple-LP vinyl album by British rock group Iron Maiden (see 1508310007), the U.K. supermarket chain said in a Friday announcement. Tesco will expand its vinyl-LP range to 20 titles, including the new Coldplay release, A Head Full of Dreams and “all-time classics” like Sticky Fingers from the Rolling Stones, it said. “The move is significant as in the last few years the vinyl album revival has been gaining momentum, year on year with sales up by more than 50 per cent in 2014,” the chain said, citing British Phonographic Industry data. Tesco’s trial of Iron Maiden’s triple-LP vinyl album “was a real success with all our stock selling out and this really proved to us just how popular the vinyl album format is again with music fans,” the chain said. “Vinyl is definitely coming back with demand growing stronger year by year and we think there will be a big demand in the UK this Christmas as music fans look for trendy gifting options.” Vinyl albums “have bucked the downward sales trend” in physical music sales, it said, citing BPI 2014 data that music CD sales fell 6.5 percent and music downloads declined by nearly 9 percent. Besides vinyl LPs, streaming, which grew by 78 percent last year from a year earlier, is the “only other music format” experiencing sales growth in the U.K., Tesco said. To support the vinyl sales trend, Tesco began selling turntables last Christmas and “demand has been so strong that it now stocks 12 different models,” ranging in price from 40 to 140 pounds ($60 to $212), the chain said.
Two trademarks sought for registration by the Secure Content Storage Association were declared “abandoned” Monday at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, meaning SCSA let lapse the applications with no "statement of use" filings, agency records show. Last May, SCSA chose Vidity as the new “consumer-facing brand name” of its platform for the delivery and “locally stored playback” of Ultra HD, HD and standard-def movies for multiple devices (see 1505200049). But another SCSA application for the mark, “TROVE” (serial number 86343236), was declared dead at the PTO Monday, as was the plain-text version of the “VIDITY” mark (serial number 86343276), agency records show. “MUJU” (serial number 86343292), another mark that SCSA applied for, was declared abandoned May 12, its records show. The “design mark” of “VIDITY” spelled out with an inverted black triangle (serial number 86617595) remains SCSA’s only surviving mark on PTO’s books. SCSA representatives didn’t comment.
The Blu-ray Disc Association is supporting the expected early-2016 introduction of Ultra HD Blu-ray players and movies with the launch of an “interactive website demonstrating the features of the new format,” BDA said Wednesday. Ultra HD Blu-ray “will set a new standard in picture and audio quality, bringing a major upgrade in resolution, color, contrast and motion,” BDA said. The website, UHDBDinnumbers.com, simulates the differences that 4K resolution, high dynamic range and higher frame rates “will make to your favorite movies,” it said. Two sections of the website, one for higher resolution, the other for HDR, are headlined, “See the difference for yourself.” One invites the viewer to use a “slider” to view the differences in standard-definition resolution, HD and Ultra HD. The other enables comparisons between standard dynamic range and HDR. Both sections have the “disclaimer” that the comparative images are only “representative” of the enhancements available with Ultra HD Blu-ray. On wide color gamut, the website touts Ultra HD Blu-ray as capable of displaying 76 percent of the “visible color spectrum” available for viewing by the human eye, vs. 35 percent for the current HD system. Ultra HD Blu-ray movies will be available on 66-GB dual-layer and 100-GB triple-layer discs and can stream video at data transfer rates as high as 128 Mbps, it said, without making advantageous comparisons with less robust data rates available through over-the-top streaming.
The Blu-ray Disc Association's trademark registration application for “Ultra HD Blu-ray” survived its public comment period with no opposition, said a notice of allowance published Nov. 10 at the Patent and Trademark Office. Though the trademark hasn’t yet reached registration status, the notice clears its commercial use on all compliant Ultra HD Blu-ray players and movies, but requires the BDA to file a statement of use on the trademark by May 10 as the next step in the registration process or risk having it declared abandoned, the notice said. BDA applied April 9 for trademark registration on the Ultra Blu-ray logo (serial number 86591870), consisting of “the words ULTRA HD in a rectangle with rounded corners, above the word BLU-RAY,” PTO documents show. BDA applied for trademark status on the Ultra HD Blu-ray name itself on Dec. 31, PTO documents show, only days before releasing the name for the first time at the January CES (see 1501060038).
Barnes & Noble toughened up its latest Nook e-reader, making it waterproof and dustproof, the company said, bowing the Nook GlowLight Plus ($129) Wednesday. The e-reader also has an advanced E Ink display and a built-in light designed to make the screen readable in low light or bright sun, said Barnes & Noble. The 300-dpi display, with a glare-free screen, has twice as many pixels as Nook GlowLight, the company said. The GlowLight Plus adds Nook Profiles, a feature previously available only on Nook tablets, which allows family members to personalize the device with their own content and recommendations, said Barnes & Noble. Previously created Nook profiles will automatically transfer to new devices, it said. Battery life is said to be six weeks maximum on a single charge.
In another especially strong sign of physical media's demise, Japan's Taiyo Yuden, which teamed with Philips and Sony in the 1980s to help pioneer commercialization of recordable CDs, was among a dozen companies to withdraw recently from the DVD Copy Control Association (CCA), the group told the FTC and Attorney General Loretta Lynch in Aug. 21 written notifications. So said a notice published in Monday’s Federal Register by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. Taiyo Yuden, in a June 11 announcement, said it would terminate sales of recordable optical discs by Dec. 31, citing “diminishing” market conditions for physical media amid the growing storage capacity of hard drives and the increasing use of cloud computing. According to the DOJ notice, besides Taiyo Yuden, the companies that withdrew recently from the DVD CCA include: Centurion Corp. and Eastern Asia Technology, both of Singapore; ETV Interactive of the U.K.; Guangdong Coagent Electronics S&T and Shenzhen Autone-Tronic Technology, both of China; Hyundai Media of South Korea; JRC and Kyoei Sangyo, both of Japan; Moser Baer India of India; Optical Experts Manufacturing of Charlotte, North Carolina; and Yusan Industries of Hong Kong. Three companies did sign on as new DVD CCA members through Aug. 21, including Dongguan Digital AV Technology of China, and Socionext and Taiwan Sanshin Electronics, both of Japan, the notice said. The DVD CCA runs licensing and administration of the DVD format’s Content Scrambling System copy protection platform. The change-of-membership notifications to the FTC and DOJ were required to extend antitrust protections to DVD CCA members under the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the notice said.
Silicon Labs bowed a sixth-generation version of its iWrap Bluetooth software stack for the Bluetooth 3.0 wireless audio accessory market. The stack, from Silicon Labs’ Bluegiga company, is designed to support the ST32i Bluetooth audio module, said Silicon Labs. Target applications include smart phone accessories, stereo and hands-free audio, cable replacement and Bluetooth HID (human interface device). The iWrap software covers a range of use cases: simple audio and data applications, complex use cases requiring interaction with several Bluetooth-enabled devices and multi-profile environments with simultaneous audio and data connections, said the company. Features include audio tone support allowing audio files to be stored in the module’s flash memory with playback support for stored files; audio tone mixing with A2DP or HFP audio output; simultaneous AVRCP controller and target profiles; enhanced user-configurable Bluetooth reconnection logic and application programming interfaces for the I2C interface, it said.
Intel joined Verizon's 5G Technology Forum, in which several companies are collaborating to develop and field test 5G services (see 1509080062), the companies said in a joint news release Wednesday. Intel will aid in the development of 5G standards and conduct testing to optimize end-to-end mobile broadband and IoT devices and network infrastructures, the companies said. Intel will begin working in Verizon's 5G sandbox environments in both San Francisco and Massachusetts, and is developing its own test beds in Oregon, California and other locations, the release said.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) said it will use the Dolby Vision mastering process for 4K Ultra HD titles by a “variety of home entertainment distribution partners.” In response to questions on rollout schedule and the number of titles slated for availability by year end, a SPHE spokeswoman would only repeat the company line given in the Thursday news release: “SPHE plans to release a growing slate of 4K Ultra HD titles with HDR in the coming months.” In response to our question on format compatibility, she said Sony Pictures is “format agnostic and will make our HDR content available in a variety of formats.” On whether format compatibility will expand over time, she said, “Our hope at SPHE is to make HDR content available for the consumer on the broadest set of services, devices and platforms.” Dolby Vision will enable Sony to “master our movies with the highest-quality visual experience for distribution to consumers’ homes,” said Richard Berger, SPHE senior vice president-worldwide digital strategy and advanced platforms, in a statement. Dolby Vision is an end-to-end solution that can be incorporated from content creation to distribution and playback and can help content creators deliver enhanced brightness, contrast and color via next-generation physical disc and digital distribution platforms, the companies said.
Tesco will become the first U.K. supermarket chain to “tap into the rapidly growing vinyl music market” this week when it begins selling the new album by British rock group Iron Maiden, the chain said in a Monday announcement. The triple-LP vinyl album, The Book of Souls, is Iron Maiden’s first studio recording in five years, and will be released Friday as a trial in 55 of the chain’s largest Tesco Extra stores in the U.K., the company said. The chain operates nearly 250 Tesco Extra stores in the U.K. If the trial is a success, the chain will consider selling more album titles on vinyl in time for the holiday selling season, it said. “The move is significant as in the last few years the vinyl album revival has been gaining momentum,” with 2014 sales having climbed more than 50 per cent from a year earlier to 1.5 million units, their largest volume since 1995, it said, citing British Phonographic Industry data. “Vinyl albums have bucked the downward sales trend,” it said, citing a 6.5 percent sales decline last year in music CDs and a 9 percent drop in digital downloads. “In the last year we began selling record decks in our largest stores and initial sales are very encouraging so giving our customers some new vinyl to play on those decks seems like the logical next step,” it said. Tesco also will sell The Book of Souls on a double-CD version in 850 of its U.K. stores and online at Tesco Direct, the chain said. The triple-LP vinyl version will cost 24 British pounds ($37), while the two-CD version will cost 9 pounds ($13.90), it said.