*TEAC ready to roll the TASCAM MX-2424

Teac Canada, the local arm of Japan-headquartered TEAC Corp., the digital and analog audio recording technologies manufacturer, has announced the arrival of the TASCAM MX-2424 24-track Digital hard disk recorder/editor. [tascam is the official brand name of all teac recording products designed specifically for musicians and recording studios.] Andrew Fong, field sales manager for TEAC Canada, introduced the MX-2424 to the Toronto broadcast/audio production community at the Rogers Communications Centre May 9.

Fong anticipates the MX-2424 will be available on the Canadian market by the end of May. The new model made a successful debut at the 2000 Musikmesse, one of the world’s largest trade shows for the professional audio industry, held last month in Frankfurt. A jury of 25 professional audio publications from around the world selected the product for the first-ever Musikmesse International Press Awards in the Recording Hardware category.

The MX-2424 is a random-access, hard-disk recording system allowing for near-instantaneous rewinding and edit point location. By the same token, hard-disk space can be saved when looping in TL Tapemode, where, as in analog recording, the recorder rewrites directly over existing tracks an infinite number of times until the desired result is achieved. The MX-2424 offers 45 minutes of recording time for 24 tracks at 24 bits, and more time with fewer tracks.

At no extra charge, the MX-2424 will be shipped with ViewNet mx software, a Java-based Graphical User Interface that allows for machine management and graphic audio editing.

tascam’s goal with this product is to provide quality audio recording and editing capabilities for professionals and semi-professionals alike. While it is aimed chiefly at recording studios, the MX-2424 does offer some post applications as well.

www.teac.com

www.tascam.com

*AAB partners with Cancom

Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting has chosen Cancom (Canadian Satellite Communications) to provide space segment, uplink facilities, and digital video compression for five of the company’s specialty network channels: Home and Garden Television, History Television, Life Network, Showcase Television East, and Showcase Television West.

Cancom’s Network Management Centre in Mississauga, Ont., provides custom technical solutions and complete satellite network management to programmers. They uplink and technically manage tv signals to improve signal quality and reduce transmission costs. Cancom picked up 18 new programmer clients on May 1, agreements which it says will generate $22 million in revenue over 5.3 years.

In a statement, aab vp operations and engineering Harvey Rogers says he foresees an expanding entrepreneurial relationship with Cancom as aab increases its specialty channel offering.

*Canadian New Media Awards winners

The Canadian New Media Awards announced their first-ever winners at the tail end of the newMedia2000 conference and trade show which was held May 15-18 at the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre. The awards show, presented by MultiMediator, an online guide to the Canadian new media industry, and Internet marketing company MultiMediator Strategy Group, was held at the John Bassett Theatre and hosted by Mark Schneider, producer/host of CTV Newsnet’s Digital Desk.

There were 53 finalists from across the country competing in 12 Pixel Award categories. Toronto’s ExtendMedia won three awards, including Company of the Year, Producer of the Year for Patrick Crowe, and Graduate of the Year for Andy Tipping.

Fredericton, n.b.’s Learnstream took home a pair of awards including Lifetime Achievement for founder and president Ken Reimer, and the Women in New Media’s Mentor of the Year for director Maureen Newman.

Bill Buxton, chief scientist at Toronto’s Alias|Wavefront, was awarded as New Media Visionary.

Other winners include:

Educator – Bill Wade (Ft. Smith, nwt); Industry Advocate – Steven Comeau (Halifax, n.s.); Most Promising New Company – Splashworks.com (Toronto); and Volunteer – Sharon Henhoeffer (Ottawa).

Canadian Women in New Media Awards went to Lib Gibson (Toronto) – Pioneer, and Natasha Kong (Toronto) – Young Woman of the Year.

Profiles and photos of the winners can be viewed at www.multimediator.com/cnma.

The awards show was taped by Virtuecast.com, which will host the webcast on its servers. Visitors will also be able to link to the webcast from the Canadian New Media Awards site. The awards show will have a three-month life on the Internet.

www.multimediator.com

www.VirtueCast.com