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Shane Abrahams

Philips, Universal and Sony team up to promote SA-CD against backdrop of tough competition from rival high-end  systems

Three of the biggest names in home entertainment may be facing an uphill battle in their efforts to promote the Super Audio CD (SA-CD)  format in Hong Kong.

Last month, Philips Electronics Hong Kong,  Universal Music  and Sony Hong Kong  announced they were teaming up to promote SA-CD to Hong Kong consumers.

SA-CD offers music lovers better sound quality through an improved surround sound system. However, in order to enjoy it, audiophiles must invest in a compatible CD player and surround sound system.

Furthermore, despite a number of SA-CD compatible systems already widely available in Hong Kong, the format is having trouble competing with other high-end audio formats such as high-definition CD (HDCD) and DVD-Audio.

The HDCD format,  owned by Microsoft, has become very popular among mainland audio buyers.

Johnny Leung, owner of Johnny's Photo and Video Supply in the Admiralty Centre, said he had had a few customers asking about SA-CD systems.

'Some customers ask for SA-CD because they think the sound is much better than a regular CD,' he said, but added many were put off by the high prices of SA-CD discs.

When the South China Morning Post visited Mr Leung's store, he did not have any SA-CD players on display, only an HDCD player. Many of his customers were overseas visitors and many were looking for SA-CD compatible equipment, he said.

SA-CD has already taken off in Europe and the United States. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, 1.3 million SA-CD albums were shipped in the US last year, and 12 million discs have been sold since the format's launch in 1999. To date, the best-selling SA-CD title has been the Rolling Stones' Remastered series, which has sold more than 2.2 million copies. Other well-known artists to have released SA-CD titles include Sting, Ronan Keating and Elton John.

The first Cantonese-language title was released last month by Canto-pop singer Chris Wong.  However, SA-CD titles have been on sale locally for some time. Naxos, one of the world's leading classical music record companies, has been releasing SA-CD titles in Hong Kong for the past 18 months.

Frankie Chung, general manager of Naxos International (Far East),  said the company  had about 20 titles available in the format. However,  despite the availability of SA-CD titles and players across the region, Mr Chung did not think the format had achieved widespread penetration in Asia yet.

He said the situation might improve if equipment makers such as Philips and Sony increased their promotion of the format.

The demographics of the local music industry could be another factor in the slow take-up of SA-CD in Hong Kong.  Local popular music label Avex Asia  did not  see local music fans rushing out to upgrade their home stereos just to listen to SA-CD.

The company said it did not think Cantopop fans would find a strong enough reason to invest more money to get improved sound quality. Avex Asia had no plan at present to support SA-CD, a spokesman said.

If other independent labels choose to take the same approach, it could deal a blow to efforts to popularise SA-CD in Asia.

In Europe, independent labels are big supporters of the format.

'We are seeing very fast growth in the release of SA-CD titles by independents,' said David Walstra, director of Sony's SA-CD Business Centre Europe.

He said the format had meant an increase in business for many of these smaller labels.

However, an  Avex Asia spokeswoman said: 'Independent European labels are usually genre-specific, and there is no doubt that some may want more sophisticated, high-quality CDs for their recordings.'

But Hong Kong  was different, she said.

It was dominated by the major labels and local independent labels were more pop-orientated. They might not be interested in using SA-CD for the release of albums by Canto-pop idols, she said.



Top audio format a hard sell in Hong Kong