Smyth Research Realiser A16

[sander99]

I don’t understand what a “test slot” is or what it’s significance might be.

I don't know if it is very usefull but I'll take a guess: The way I read it is that Dolby is not yet actively testing the A16, only reviewing Smyth's self-certification test results. And once they are happy with those results then they will plan the moment ("test slot"/"time slot"?) to perform the actual test themselves.

 

[VandyMan]

That’s major progress on two fronts. However, I don’t understand what a “test slot” is or what it’s significance might be.

"test slot" means that Dolby has a queue of stuff to test and the A-16 will be on that queue, waiting their turn, once their self-tests have been approved.

 

[musicday]

...

This is great news, come back and laugh in the summer if not delivered

 

[SergioPOE]

That is my fear. Brexit comes and I will have to pay taxes and customs for the A16.

That's my concern too, that even though I already paid VAT (not customs, since it's within the EU), they will now make me pay customs if it ships after Brexit. And try convincing the government that you don't owe customs because you already paid for this years ago!
What a mess that would be. Let's hope it doesn't get to that.

 

[raband]

Great news on the latest update.

Some actual progress on the Dolby Cert is what I've been waiting for for over a year now.

Hopefully the "couple of weeks" is no longer on a loop or copy/paste for every update and they can breeze through the certifications

To me, this is the first news of any real progress in a long time.

 

[wink]

..

 

[raband]

..

Nup, it's not.

If you look at my post history you'll see I've been as realistic as anyone else about the delays and lack of real info from Smyth though.

The news that something is actually going to Dolby though puts an end to a lot of the garbage/false info they've been feeding us when they decide to.

This update and an earlier one where they actually discussed some issues they were having have been the only ones that actually ring true and give us any idea of the real state of the A16.

Hopefully the next one is heavy on facts and dates as well, rather than "should be ready for sending to Dolby in a few weeks" etc.

 

[Fox1977]

That’s great news because it means that theoretically, the A16 is ready for commercial release (I didn’t say that it’s finished, since that will not come before at least a year or two)
Unless Dolby raises problems and refuses certification, I imagine it should be ready for shipping in February, maybe even January.
At least, February sounds realistic. Once they get a green light from Dolby, nothing should prevent shipping anymore.
January update may come with a release date.

 

[musicday]

Soon or later, we will get it. At this stage, few more months of waiting, don't matter anymore.

 

[esimms86]

That’s great news because it means that theoretically, the A16 is ready for commercial release (I didn’t say that it’s finished, since that will not come before at least a year or two)
Unless Dolby raises problems and refuses certification, I imagine it should be ready for shipping in February, maybe even January.
At least, February sounds realistic. Once they get a green light from Dolby, nothing should prevent shipping anymore.
January update may come with a release date.

While it's great that they've finalized the hardware interface, they still need to finalize the launch firmware. I expect that that checklist item is on hold at least until they hear back from Dolby.

Assuming that they've already assembled enough units to fulfill their obligation to the Kickstarter supporters, they would then do flash firmware updates, pack and ship. Otherwise, the only potential issue I could see holding things back would be completion of the Realiser Exchange(something that I am one of the lucky few who could live without at the time of initial release). TBH, mine is almost certainly a minority viewpoint shared only by others who, like me, have a Smyth A8 or A16 PRIR already "in the bank." And yes, I know that people without A8/A16 PRIRs will be VERY interested in having a functional Exchange at initial roll out. BTW, the fact that the Smyth website has an Exchange interface on line doesn't mean that the actual Exchange is ready to roll. On the positive side, Smyth could easily populate the Exchange with PRIRs that they've already produced at previous products demos like the ones done at the various CanJams.

 

[raband]

Smyth could easily populate the Exchange with PRIRs that they've already produced at previous products demos

I think the units ship with some already in it.

Making your own personalised base reading from the automated procedure should be enough for most people to use from the get go.

(or do you need the exchange website to modify the default setups to include personal settings?)

 

[musicday]

Happy Christmas to everybody.

 

[krismusic]

Happy Christmas to everybody.

And to you man.

 

[mrtim6]

Weren’t they talking about Dolby certification over 12 months ago?

Just saying...

Merry Christmas & May your dreams come true in 2019.

 

[Got the Shakes]

Weren’t they talking about Dolby certification over 12 months ago?

Just saying...

Merry Christmas & May your dreams come true in 2019.

They were talking about it in mid 2017 as the end of the roadmap. It was always what they pointed to as one of the last hurdles they’d need to clear to be able to start shipping units. They had so many other issues pop up that they were never really even close to doing the self tests let alone submitting for certification.