Stacey Sujishi, Namco Hometek senior mktg. mgr., promoted to mktg. dir., replacing Mike Fischer, who joined Sega of America… Cang Tran, ex-Hitachi Semiconductor of America, joins Oak Technology as vp-ASIC technology, Optical Storage Group… Timothy Donahue, Nextel pres.-CEO, elected to Kodak board… Former PolyGram Pres. Alain Levy joins EMI Group in London as CEO of its recorded music operations and is elected an EMI dir… AOL Time Warner Co-COO Robert Pittman to give CES keynote Jan. 10, 8:30 a.m., Las Vegas Hilton Theater.
Two new DualCam digital cameras will ship from Logitech in U.S., Canada and Europe next month. ClickSmart 310 at $79.95 and 510 at $149.95 combine functionality of digital still cameras and Internet video cameras and can be used attached to or detached from PC. Swiss peripheral maker said ClickSmart 510 featured 640x480 VGA sensor that allowed for still image resolution up to 1.3 megapixels. It comes with automatic strobe flash, built-in microphone, 8 MB SmartMedia memory card, self-timer, SmartMedia port. Card can store up to 480 still images or 90 sec. of video, Logitech said. ClickSmart 310 features CIF 352x288 sensor that company said also allowed for still image resolution up to 640x480. It can store up to 160 still images and 15 sec. of video captured away from PC. Included are protective lens cap and self-timer. When attached to PC, each model can be used in conjunction with Logitech’s Web camera software. Each of cameras runs on 4 standard AAA batteries.
“Spatializer PCE” (for phase-correction equalization) is name of new Spatializer Audio Labs technology being licensed to CE companies that’s said to enhance quality of spoken-word audio and music through ordinary set of TV, home theater or PC speakers. PCE algorithm is available on Texas Instruments C55x DSP chips and analog implementation is under development, Spatializer said. Company said algorithm had low processing requirements so it could be “readily run” on most existing DSPs or RISC processors.
“System-on-chip” device that adds PVR capability to set- top boxes was announced in sample quantities by STMicroelectronics as part of its Omega line of decoders. Company said new capabilities of its STi5514 device allow for low-cost implementation of PVR hard-disc recording in set-top boxes and other “convergence” components. It said new device was backward-compatible with predecessor ST-5512, of which more than 8 million have been shipped.