Monitor manufacturer PMC is collaborating with Capitol Studios and Universal Music Group at NAMM 2018 to promote Hi-Res Audio.

The demo room on PMC’s NAMM booth (16117) will be used to play back audio created in this format. There will also be presentations from high profile producers and engineers who will discuss the benefits of Hi-Res Audio and the impact it will have on consumers who can now access a premium listening experience and enjoy music as its creators intended it to be heard.

The main technology driver behind Hi-Res Audio is MQA (Master Quality Authenticated), which claims to bring higher quality sound to consumers without sacrificing portability and ease of streaming.

Universal Music Group recently announced a collaboration with MQA to advance the cause of hi-res on-demand streaming and is now making part of its massive catalogue of master recordings available in the Hi-Res format.

Warner Music Group and Sony Music are also supporting MQA, as are the Recording Industry Association of America and music platforms such as Pandora, Napster and HD Tracks.

Maurice Patist, PMC USA’s president of sales and marketing, said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with Universal Music to promote Hi-Res Audio – a format that will help move studio quality sound into the mainstream. PMC’s award-winning MB3S-XBD-A monitors and new result6 monitors in a 5.1 configuration will be used for the demonstrations to highlight the exceptional audio quality delivered by Hi-Res Audio, especially when it is played back through professional recording studio loudspeakers that are renowned for their clarity, transparency, unparalleled bass and sheer power across the entire frequency range.”

 Art Kelm (pictured), VP and chief engineer at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, added: “We create Hi-Res Audio using PMC monitors on a daily basis at Capitol Studios and this is a great opportunity for us to showcase the format using professional monitors that can truly deliver the sound quality we want to promote. At the recent CES show in Las Vegas, we showed the public the quality difference between Hi-Res Audio and the lower sample rate formats. At NAMM we hope to convince music creators to join us in adopting the Hi-Res Audio format by letting them hear the difference on PMC monitors. These loudspeakers are already used by many of the world’s top recording facilities, artists and producers who create content for Universal Music Group’s catalogue and we are thrilled to have this opportunity to work with the company.”

 At NAMM, PMC is also partnering with the Producer & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy, which has created Technical Guidelines and a white paper dealing with the production of Hi-Res Audio, which can be found here.

Alongside its Hi-Res Audio demonstrations, PMC will also be hosting on-booth presentations from internationally acclaimed producers including Al Schmitt, who has won 22 GRAMMY® Awards – most recently in 2012 for Paul McCartney’s Kisses on the Bottom.

At 2pm on Saturday January 27, Schmitt and his longtime partner Steve Genewick will deliver a talk about The Art of Recording A Big Band, an educational and inspirational behind-the-scenes film that was shot at Capitol Studios over two days during a recording session by Al Schmitt featuring Chris Walden’s Grammy Awards-nominated 18-piece jazz big band.

To highlight its recently introduced result6 compact nearfield reference monitor, PMC, in conjunction with its sales partner RSPE Audio Solutions, will be setting up the ‘ideal project studio’ on its booth. This will feature result6 monitors and show them working in collaboration with other equipment that is best suited to the project studio environment.