News

Engineering facilities and a finished-goods warehouse at Altec Lansing Technologies' Milford, Pennsylvania, headquarters were damaged by fire late Sunday, May 31. The blaze was said to have been exacerbated by severe weather. No injuries were reported.

The practice of "Transshipping"---selling a product outside one's designated territory---is widespread in the audio industry. It's commonplace for dealers to sell not only to walk-in customers, but also over the telephone or Internet to customers in other dealers' territories, usually at discounted prices. While not problematic on a small scale, the practice favors large-volume dealers over smaller ones, and is almost always a violation of a dealer's agreement with a manufacturer.

Software giant Microsoft Corporation has entered the audio market with a satellite-and-subwoofer speaker system for use with personal computers. The Digital Sound System 80 made its debut at this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), held May 28-30 in Atlanta's World Congress Center. The system was designed in conjunction with Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands, one of the world's largest electronics companies.

On May 26, N2K's JazzCentralStation launched the first officially sanctioned Miles Davis StarSite, MilesDavis.com. An all-star musical and multimedia tribute was held that evening at New York City's Birdland, hosted by Dr. Billy Taylor and recorded by Phil Ramone and Michael Cuscuna for a September release on N2K Encoded Music. May 26 would have been Davis' 72nd birthday.

In an effort to make computers more useful as audio systems, MusicMatch and Xing Technology recently announced MusicMatch Jukebox, a digital audio management software program for the consumer market.

Hundreds of manufacturers will be demonstrating state-of-the-art audio products at HI-FI '98---some of which have never before been seen by the public. We are running several announcements each week leading up to the Show to give you a taste of what to expect. Here's the third assortment:

On May 18, 1998, James D. Dunning, Jr., Chairman and CEO of the Petersen Companies, Inc., announced an agreement to acquire Stereophile Magazine and Stereophile Guide to Home Theater---two of this country's leading high-end audio and home-theater publications---as well as HI-FI '98, The Home Theater & Specialty Audio Show.