European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 4, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Bojoh Swenson United press International 0ver the past few years the Audi electronics consumer has witnessed the debut of a bewildering array of new format for information storage and playback systems. The tidal wave of new ways to listen to and even watch your favorite musicians at Home is the result of a fundamental change in How the american recording Industry Sells its products. The change is this the Era of the Long playing record is Over. Twenty years ago is brought the record business from a level where distribution was done out of the trunks of cars to an Industry giant that figures prominently in the world financial Market. But cassette tapes and now cd have finished off the album despite the objections of retailers and Consumers Loyal to the format that brought Rock n Roll into the mainstream. In 1987,706.8 million recordings were shipped last year reports the recording Industry association of America. Of the units shipped 410 million were cassettes compared to 107 million is. Even More significant however is the rapid expansion of the compact disc. Cd which first appeared in 1983 Selling less than a million copies sold 53 million copies in 1986 compared to 125.2 million is. Manufacturer shipments of cd soared 64 percent to 70.4 million units in the first six months of 1988, up from 43 million units in the first half of 1987. Up deliveries on the other hand declined 22.4 percent to 43.5 million units from the 56 million shipped in 1987 s first six months. The figures dramatically underline the steadily sagging demand for los. With the cassette format the undisputed mainstay of the recording Industry and compact disc the heir apparent a whole new generation of playback systems has arrived. It takes a while for the Public to catch up to All the technology however so the audio electronics Industry in 1988 is not As wildly speculative As in recent years. The emphasis on this year s models seems to be on refining existing systems particularly with compact disc players to make them More accessible to first time buyers and More attractive to audiophiles. Cd clubs Are now linking membership with the Purchase of a cd player. Sony is wasting no time Matching its status As the Best known manufacturer of playback systems to its newly acquired ownership of the extensive material in the lbs records Catalon. Associated press he television of the future will be a High definition system with the clarity of movie film and the sound of compact discs say representatives of broadcast and electronics industries in the United states. The Federal communications commission recently endorsed the advanced television systems declaring them in the Public interest and approving some preliminary rules for bringing them into american Homes. But the commission said Many technical and procedural problems still must be ironed out and the systems probably will not be available from the . Broadcast Industry before 1993. The broadcasters Are concerned that . Research efforts to develop an Industry transmission Standard for High definition to May not be moving fast enough to head off a probable japanese invasion of the new technology. The japanese have been working on an advanced system for two decades and expect to introduce High definition to to Homes in their country in 1990. The picture on a Standard television set in the United states is produced by a signal that scans More than 200,000 dots on 525 lines. The japanese system has 1,125 scanning lines. Michael Rau National association of broadcasters vice president for science and technology said the acc made a Strong commitment to bring advanced to to the Public. They seemed to reaffirm support for free Over the air broadcasting. But the commission must solve the difficulties of delivering the system Page 16 the stars and stripes Over broadcast  in a series of preliminary rulings the acc said existing broadcasters and stations Are Best equipped to bring the new system to viewers. Advanced television programs must be received on existing television sets so viewers won t have to replace their equipment. If additional frequency space is needed it should be found within existing vhf and uhf television bands. The acc found that looking for frequencies outside those bands would delay the service and noted that bands now suitable for the systems Are in use for other purposes. Saturday february 4,1989 from sept. 1 to Jan. 31, Sony is offering this Premium to customers in the United states Send in a copy of your receipt for a Sony cd player along with $12.98 and pick five cd from Avist of 25 titles. One third of the titles Are lbs artists and the consumer is also enrolled in the lbs cd club. Cassettes Are the dominant format in both audio and video but cd seem the wave of the future in both areas. No sooner did the Ems video cassette format win its Battle Over Beta than a new More formidable Challenge appeared in Cdv. Laser discs have been around for a while but were limited mostly to films and have not proven to be that popular in the United states although the japanese Market has been brisk. Now Sony is marketing a Cdv players that play video discs and compact discs. It can use the old analog software As easily As the new digital recordings and plays audio cd As Well As videos. The Multi disc player machines Mdp-200 and map 700, Are pricey around $1,000 and $1,200 respectively but the Appeal is easy to understand. Not Only does map provide the advantages of digitally recorded and stored sound it gives an equally High Quality picture to go along with it. As one of the newest formats Cdv will take some time to catch on As both software and hardware Are developed and marketed. As of now there Are about 2,700 Cdv software titles less than 1,000 of which Are digital recordings. There will be More. At least one major record Label poly ram has initiated an ambitious release of Cdv software. This fall poly ram w ill release More than 100 titles in its Cata logs As Cdv ranging from pop titles under the Mercury and poly ram labels to classical titles from Deutsche gramophone Philips classics and London. Poly ram plans to release the Cdv in three different lengths the 5-Inch single the 8-Inch extended play and the 12-Inch Long play size. Compact disc audio has created Broad awareness among Consumers of the benefits of laser optical disc technology said poly ram executive vice president Bob Jamieson. At the same time a new generation of High Resolution television products is increasing the Public s video sophistication. We see these forces converging to create the perfect Opportunity for a High Quality medium such As compact disc