Sonic Studio Takes Over Philips ProTech DSD i SACD Products [HFR]

Sonic Studio has announced that they are taking over ownership of the ProTech line of recording studio DSD and SACD hardware and software tools from Philips. ProTech is a division of the Intellectual Property & Standards (IP&S) group at Philips operation in the Netherlands. Philips IP&S is the same group that is responsible for the licensing and standards of both the Compact Disc (CD) and the Super Audio CD (SACD) as well as other technologies developed or co-developed by Philips while Sonic Studio is the maker of a number of Digital Audio Workstation and Authoring products for recording studios and recording professionals including SACD.1, an SACD authoring system.

Philips Describes ProTech Products
High Fidelity Review readers will recall that the Philips ProTech group in the Netherlands developed and released a number of such tools for use on both the PC and Macintosh computer platforms over the past year. These included software tools that allowed transfer of Pro Tools files from the PC and Mac platforms to Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format.

Philips notes that the ProTech DSD and SACD products being transferred to Sonic Studio under this agreement “includes comprehensive Super Audio CD authoring tools along with encoding, transcoding, metering, disc image building and image validation utilities. In addition, the unique Super Audio Verifier module is the only product that provides desktop playback of replication–ready, losslessly encoded Direct Stream Transfer (DST) data. The Verifier package includes a single board PCI solution that offers real-time DST decoding followed by real–time DSD metering for audio level verification in accordance with the SACD Scarlet Book specification.”

Sonic Studio to Develop Future DSD and SACD Products for Recording Professionals Use
For its part, Sonic Studio has indicated that they plan to integrate the ProTech DSD and SACD authoring products into their recording professionals product line and develop these products further.

Sonic says that “Sonic Studio will invest in the cross–platform DSD technology, that ProTECH pioneered, as a strategic addition to its own production portfolio. Underwriting future development of DSD and SACD technologies, Sonic Studio will productize underdeveloped assets and further commercialize existing products. The company will also actively license their intellectual property to audio manufacturers looking for comprehensive production solutions.”

Jayson Tomlin, Vice President of Sales at Sonic Studio noted that ”Sonic Studio has always supported pioneering and sonically superior formats, and this acquisition will complete our unique range of DSD mastering and SACD authoring tools. With our global reach into all major markets, we are poised to aggressively promote the SACD format, especially in the pivotal North American region, while reducing the cost barrier to DSD production.”

Jon Reichbach, the President of Sonic Studio said that “This purchase strengthens our already trail blazing efforts in the DSD production space. We were the first group outside of the Sony/Philips family to bring a DSD DAW to the marketplace and now we’ve added Europe’s finest SACD knowledge to our product mix. Since we have been given the task of implementing version 2 of the Cutting Master Format, we will be reaching out to all professional audio manufacturers to collectively build consensus and raise consumer awareness.”