Mediatech Institute will be holding an open house event on August 21, 2008. All of the instructors will be there from 7-9, which is a great time ask questions, tour the studio facilities, and make some great industry connections. RSVP is requested to insure there is enough space for everyone. If interested in attending, you can RSVP by calling 866-498-1122.

You can also visit the Mediatech Institute site to download the school catalog which includes semester dates, course offerings, instructor bios, and financial aid assistance programs. Click here to watch a video about Mediatech’s open house events.

Mediatech Digital Film School
Dallas Film School
400 E. Royal Lane
Building 3, Suite 100
Irving, TX 75039
Click here for a map:Dallas Campus Map

Recording Arts Program
Austin Campus
200 Academy Drive
Suite A
Austin, TX 78704
Click here for a map: Austin Campus Map

Dallas Campus
400 E. Royal Lane
Building 3, Suite 100
Irving, TX 75039
Click here for a map:Dallas Campus Map

Houston Campus
3330 Walnut Bend
Houston, TX 77042
Click here for a map: Houston Campus Map

As a designer and engineer in the field of algorithmic image process development, Amit Zoran has played a hand in some of the most imaginative innovations in future product concepts. While his creativity has shaped concepts like night vision bicycle helmets and “icepresso” coffee cubes, his research with the Ambient Intelligence research group at MIT Media Labs has led to an exquisite re-design of sound cells for the acoustic guitar.

From Architectradure:

His works enables players to customize their own sound by assembling different sound cells, e.g physical parts of the instruments designed in CAD/CAM, instead of considering the instrument as one big sound box. Each string can have its own bridge and each bridge can be linked to different cells. By changing a cell’ size, material or structure, one can create customizable sounds.

His innovative take mainly consists of printing, using a 3D printer, cells drawn into a vectorial software. These cells, made of 30cm radius, have a variety of materials strong enough to carry the pressure of the strings and handle resonance.
People can download recommended sound cells from the internet in order to change or manipulate their guitar sounds.

Harmonic Technology has introduced Inex Innovation’s Photon Amplicable at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The powered, photo fiber optic cable system acts as an all-in-one interconnect cable, amplification system, and speaker cable. Yes, indeedy… a fiber optic connection between your source and your speakers without the need for a conventional amplifier.

For the skinny on the technical details, Positive-Feedback.com’s Robert Levi has authored a detailed review of the Photon Amplicable.

Levi writes:

Here’s how it hooks up. There is a 5-meter single-ended Cyberlight cable for each output on your preamp. These are powered by their own cable battery—the Inex 4000, which stays powered up full time by being plugged into the wall. The two Cyberlights plug into individual “Amplifier Modules” 8 inches from each speaker. These modules are only the size of a single cigarette package, but are newly designed and miniature class AB solid-state amps. Also, connected to each Amplifier Module is an Amplifier Module Power Supply, this being the largest component in the system. Each is 8 x 4 x 2 inches in size and beautifully finished in thick aluminum [weighing 1.8kg.] These plug into the sides of the little amps and then plug into the wall. I’m told these are linear power supplies. The amps connect to each speaker by the supplied 8-inch long Magic speaker cables. Numerous terminations are available to fit any speaker in the world. Everything is included, even the power cords. The whole bundle arrives in a single aluminum aircraft case …very slick.

Priced between $6,000 and $12,000, depending on your speaker type, the Photon Amplicable will likely find its suitors among more high-end audiophiles. Regardless of price, its still a beautiful innovation in the use of fiber optic technologies for the music and recording arts community.

Jesse Flores, a March 2009 graduate and lab technician at Mediatech, has been performing with the indie-rock outfit The Goods for the last two years. After Flores and the band released their self-produced album Makin the Sound, the group went on to perform along side The Toadies at The Northgate Music Festival and as openers for And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead and Zechs Marquise, a side-project from the Rodriguez-Lopez brothers of The Mars Volta.

Signed to the independent label Mia Kat Empire, The Goods are putting the finishing touches on a six-song E.P. and plan to tour the Southwest United States in 2009. Their music is available via Mia Kat Empire’s website, as well as through local Houston stores Cactus Music, Sound Exchange, and Sigs Lagoon.