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Last week, Peavey Electronics and Digital Harmony announced a licensing agreement that they say aims to revolutionize audio production, music publishing, and distribution. By licensing Digital Harmony Pro technology, Peavey says it plans to create the pro-audio industry's first non-proprietary 1394-equipped digital audio products and systems.

Digital Harmony and audio integrated-circuit manufacturer Cirrus Logic also recently announced plans to deliver a Digital Harmony-compliant system-on-chip (SOC) product for the IEEE 1394 protocol. (See related story.) Under Cirrus Logic's Crystal Audio brand, the new SOC will include Digital Harmony Pro firmware for the IEEE 1394 audio/video protocol stack and provide what the companies describe as an "elegant hardware/software solution" for manufacturers who want a quick and cost-effective way to add the 1394 high-bandwidth interface to their products.

According to Digital Harmony Technologies CTO Bob Moses, "What MIDI did for composing and arranging, Digital Harmony Pro does for audio production, music publishing, and distribution. We expect the combination of Digital Harmony Pro firmware, the Crystal SOC technology, and Peavey's product-design team will result in products and systems that link hundreds of channels of audio to low-cost PCs and outboard processors. Users will be able to record, play back, mix, and master hundreds of audio and video tracks without worrying about jitter or synchronization issues. Then they can distribute their content on the Internet, without even getting out of their comfortable chairs. Digital Harmony Pro will help launch the home-based record companies of the future."

Digital Harmony Technologies' president and CEO Greg Bartlett adds, "Peavey represents a major manufacturer and strategic early adopter that will help launch Digital Harmony Pro to the masses in 2000. We already have licensing agreements with many of the leading makers of audio-visual equipment in the US, Europe, and Japan." Peavey says it expects to bring 1394-capable audio products and systems to the market beginning in 2000.