Analog Coalition Restructures

Last week, the Analog Option Coalition, a loose-knit umbrella group that sponsored forums on analog recording during the 1997 and 1998 AES conventions, annouced that it has restructured as Analog Options Consulting, a division of Wavelength Communications.

"The success of our events in New York and San Francisco emphasized the need for an independent entity to serve the interests of everybody involved in professional analog recording," says AOC coordinator Bruce Borgerson. "But at the same time we found little enthusiasm for forming yet another membership-based organization."

Borgerson cites the emergence of MPGA and MEGA alongside SPARS, AES, and other groups as the primary reason for not trying to press forward with any remotely similar structure. "Instead of setting up yet another formal association, Analog Options Consulting will enlist the support of various companies and constituencies on a project-by-project basis to achieve a specific set of goals."

Analog Options Consulting will address several core issues surrounding analog recording, including hardware availability, maintenance and upgrade services, new analog formats, analog's relationship to new "high resolution" digital formats, tape-media availability and costs, maintenance tech training, and accurate media portrayal of analog's continuing role in the industry.

The Analog Option Coalition was first created as an umbrella group to sponsor the Analog Reality Check, a forum on the status of professional analog recording that was held in September 1997 during the AES in New York. The Analog Reality Check panel included mastering engineer Bob Ludwig, producer/engineer/studio owner Allen Sides, and producer/engineer Ed Cherney, along with representatives from Studer, BASF/Emtec, Quantegy, JRF Magnetic Sciences, and ATR Service Company. The following year, coinciding with the AES in San Francisco, the AOC sponsored a Town Hall Meeting on the Future of Analog (see previous report). Panelists for that forum included producer Joe Chiccarelli and mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, along with Sides, Ludwig, and supplier-company representatives.

Anyone concerned with the future of professional analog recording is invited to contact Bruce Borgerson at Wavelength Communications: telephone 541-488-5542, fax 541-488-5720, or e-mail bbwave@compuserve.com.

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