>
> Linuxaudio.org enjoyed a very successful three days at the Sounds Expo
> trade show in London last week. The organisation was represented by
> Chris Cannam and Richard Bown of Fervent Software, Free Ekanayaka and
> Tim Hall from AGNULA/DeMuDi and myself. Here's a summary of what
> happened:
>
> 1. AMD sponsorship
> Despite a considerable discount from the organisers of Sounds Expo
> because we were running a not-for-profit stand, our participation was
> only made possible due to generous and significant sponsorship from
> AMD. Per Bahr from AMD joined us on the stand, where we gave out
> promotional material featuring AMD's artist sponsorship programme and
> the Opteron architecture, as well as pens, keyrings and so on. I
> demonstrated a prototype of the '64 Studio' distribution running
> natively on an Athlon 64 laptop, featuring JACK and Ardour.
>
> 2. Stand visitors
> There was an obvious increase from last year in the number of stand
> visitors who said they were already running Linux, if mostly for
> non-audio tasks such as web development. For many of these users, the
> questions were "why should I use a customised distribution?" and
> "which applications do you reccomend?" rather than "what is Linux?".
> However, there were still a great number of show visitors who had not
> seen Linux before, even though most of them had heard of it.
>
> 3. Education
> A number of stand visitors were from UK educational institutions who
> were actively considering replacing Windows and Mac OS with Linux for
> music and multimedia courses. These institutions need both software
> and consultancy services, so if Linuxaudio.org members are interested
> in following up with these contacts, please let me know.
>
> 4. FireWire support
> Due to the immature state of FireWire audio interface support on
> Linux, we paid special attention to this area when speaking to
> exhibitors in other booths. We now have new contacts with Focusrite,
> M-Audio, RME and Yamaha in order to follow this up. We also enquired
> about the fine print of mLAN licensing, and whether there is a way we
> can get control node specifications for Linux audio developers. If
> members are interested in forming a specialist FireWire group within
> Linuxaudio.org, please let me know.
>
> 5. Behringer
> One of the most positive exhibitors regarding support for Linux
> developers was Behringer, which has offered to help make sure that
> Linux works well with its products - particularly its range of
> control surfaces. These already work with Linux applications to a
> certain extent, but the interaction could benefit from some polish.
> If you need a contact within the company, please let me know.
>
> 6. Emission
> This company makes a dedicated hardware controller for DJs:
>
>
http://www.emissionuk.com/prod_dac.asp
>
> They are interested in getting Linux support for it, and we suggested
> that they consider working with the developer community to
> JACK-enable it, possibly based around the jackEQ software mixer. If
> you are interested in this project, just let me know and I will put
> you in touch with the company.
>
> 7. Embedded devices
> There were several Linux-based products on other stands, with the Korg
> Oasys perhaps the star of the show. Although these embedded systems
> usually run a proprietary application on top of a Linux distribution,
> they seem to be rasing the profile of Linux in the audio industry. I
> believe instruments like the Oasys had a noticeable effect on the
> other exhibitors at Sounds Expo, particularly on the issue of
> hardware support for Linux.
>
> 8. Linux presentation
> At short notice, I prepared and delivered a presentation in the Sound
> on Sound theatre entitled 'Linux in the recording studio - myths and
> realities". This covers the history of free and proprietary software,
> leading up to a brief discussion and demonstration of Linux audio
> applications. If anyone would like the slides or speaker notes from
> this presentation for reuse, please ask.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Daniel James
> Director
>
http://linuxaudio.org
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