The number of conflicting formats on the market is making life much too complicated for everyone — but what is the answer? Andrew Longhurst believes that we can learn a lot from Virtual Reality.

When I first started in the music business we had very few choices of format. Recording was usually onto 2-inch tape, mastering onto quarter-inch and the final product was released on either vinyl or cassette. Of course, there was Dolby and a choice of either 16- or 24-track, and even (God forgive us) picture discs. There were even brief forays into quadraphonic recordings, 8-track cartridge and flared trousers. But on the whole we all came to our senses and bought Levi 501's and stereo cassettes.

Then came the Walkman, F1, CD, 1630, half-inch, Dolby alphabet soup, DAT, digital tape (4-track, 8-track, 16-track, 24, 32 & 48!), hard disk, optical disk, CDI, DCC, MiniDisc — the list goes on.

Imagine what it's like for the record companies releasing a single for a new act. Which format do you pick? The only one you know will have any sort of predictable sale is the 12-inch vinyl dance mix — which has such a low return on investment in corporate terms as to make a nonsense of getting involved. From their point of view, it's far better to let the 'Indies' bear the burden of breaking new talent and grab it when established. Small wonder then, that the dance scene has become so all-pervasive in the industry.

The popular view of the business side of the industry is that it is populated by mindless jerks whose incompetence and inability to commit has left the industry in the state it is now in. Not (entirely) true. The major pro-audio and consumer audio manufacturers bear a rather large chunk of the blame. Let me explain.

In the past, each manufacturer had their own range of products which attracted different customers regardless of compatibility, because there really wasn't very much choice about how a project would be recorded. However, the advent of the synthesizer changed all that. All of a sudden the customer wanted these different bits of gear talking to each other, which eventually led to the introduction of MIDI — and the birth of MIDI has vastly improved the quality, usability and value of modern musical equipment. But the same cannot be said of other pro audio equipment. Take tapeless digital recording. Each of the many systems available is doing much the same thing and in much the same way — so why is it virtually impossible to take all of the edit information together with the raw audio from one system to another?

Undoubtedly, the technology exists to enable communication between formats, so the problems are mainly political, with each manufacturer trying to press their format forward as the standard. The same applies to tape systems, automated desks and to the plethora of consumer playback systems. If there is one thing MIDI has taught us, it is that a standardised system of communication between different products still allows manufacturers to specialise in areas of control specific to their product but largely within the framework of that system. The cost of incompatibility in terms of the bullshit, misinformation, format mismatching, transferring, lost time, overpricing, format redundancy and out-and-out snobbery involved in pro audio at the moment is enormous. With standardisation would come a huge unified push in the same direction, each advance being a rational step forward from the last. R&D costs would drop, investment would increase and markets would grow.

If this seems idyllic claptrap, look at the impact MIDI has had, spawning thousands of new products from hundreds of new companies worldwide. How many studios do you know that do not have some sampling, synth or MIDI capability, whether in audio, film or AV? So where does all this lead?

I think myself very lucky in that I am working with the future. My involvement with Virtual Reality has forced me to look at the whole area of art, communication and technology afresh. VR is an amalgam of all the technologies mentioned above, and for it to work well, each of the disciplines has to be able to communicate freely with the others. What, for me, is fascinating about VR is how the on-going development of systems by different companies within the VR community demands a conformity of communication. Not every company is using the same hardware or software, and not every system is able to communicate freely with another — yet. But the recognition is there that this must finally be so and the will to bring this about is both strong and determined. All in VR realise the benefits of communication, and I have never been involved in an environment that is more open to technical exchange.

I firmly believe that the lessons of the past are ignored at the peril of all in our industry, and that the only real hope for the future lies in the acknowledgement of our ability to communicate. Although it's still early days, there is an enormous opportunity for artists, manufacturers, record companies, TV companies, film companies, publishers and software houses to get involved in VR, as a medium, and to find new ways of exploiting their products. The advantage of a standardised communications format is that you are able to use time more creatively. At the moment, too much time is wasted making decisions about formats.

For the consumer, a VR system will be developed encompassing all that is familiar plus a host of new but transparent features. It could be accessed via a simple remote which would have an Audio button, VR button, Comms button, TV button — whatever. The centre of the system could be linked up to a display unit or TV, a stereo or surround sound system and a control keypad. It could also be interfaced with telephones and communications equipment, so sharing VR Worlds with other people will be an everyday occurrence. (3D gossip perhaps?) This may sound like science fiction but it's happening now, and anyone who dismisses it is likely to be permanently out of a job in the not too distant future. VR can be seen as a total system which will allow you to do everything you can do now and a whole heap more. It would be foolish to think that it is just another fad.