Indholdsfortegnelse for June - July 2017 i Sound + Image

We have seen a number of new releases in recent times. Firstly Oppo have released their UDP-205 4K Blu-ray player. As expected this is an exceptional player, both for vision and audio. Priced at $2,199 the performance of this unit eclipses players costing multiples of this price. We believe that Oppo’s own press release sums up the features of this player beautifully – “The OPPO UDP-205 (offers) playback of 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, regular Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD, CD and many other formats; High Dynamic Range (HDR10) and firmware upgradable to Dolby Vision; dual HDMI outputs (HDMI 2.0 for UHD and HDMI 1.4 for audio), and an HDMI 2.0 input port for external streaming devices or set-top boxes. “The UDP-205 provides reference-level sound quality through the analog outputs,…

If you’re planning to add separate smarts to your system rather than considering one of the smart amplifiers reviewed this issue (see p67), Pioneer has a pair of new network audio players, the N-70AE ($2499) and N-50AE ($1699). Both feature playback via USB from computer, up to 32-bit/384 kHz for PCM and DSD up to 5.6MHz, as well as supporting high-res files on plugged-in USB drives and sticks, or from music shares on your home network. But there’s more, with Chromecast and Spotify Connect built in, allowing music from supported smartphone apps to be streamed to the player with album covers displayed on its 3.5-inch LCD. Music via Chromecast, Tidal and Deezer can all be accessed and controlled using the supplied physical remote, or using the Pioneer Remote App. The…

DALI has delivered several wireless speakers recently, from the little Katch to the Bluetoothequipped Zensor 1 AX reviewed last issue. But Munich High End saw the unveiling of the first fruit from a recently announced agreement with the wireless multiroom platform BluOS, which will see the technology from Canada’s Lenbrook Group extend its reach beyond Lenbrook’s own NAD and Bluesound brands into a new series by the Danish speaker company. Titled Callisto (the fourth moon of Jupiter, or the nymph/princess it’s named after), the range of DALI speakers will be active and use a separate hub to take analogue and digital inputs in addition to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi/Ethernet Bluesound networking, the hub then sending the signals to the wireless (except for mains power) speakers. “There is a growing list and…

The new MMF1.3 turntable brings Music Hall to a new competitive pricing level at $499, yet distributor Convoy International promises that those familiar with the brand will immediately recognise the Music Hall purist DNA in the new deck. The belt-drive manual turntable comes with an aluminium tonearm with precision bearings and removable headshell, fitted with a high-quality, pre-mounted Audio Technica cartridge. A solid MDF plinth construction promises “superb isolation and high quality components throughout”, it uses an aluminium platter and vibration-damping platter mat, while the DC motor maintains speed stability and has electronic three-speed control (that’s 33⅓, 45 and yes, 78 rpm). It also has a built-in phono stage so the MMF1.3 can play at line level into amplifiers that don’t have their own turntable input. The available finish is…

The recent IFA Global Press Conference included an introduction to The Frame, Samsung’s take on a TV which doubles as an art display. While some rivals have done this before, The Frame (top frame, left) was remarkable in its ability to appear more inconspicuous thanks to intelligent sensors which monitor the brightness and colour temperature of the room and then adjust the frame to match those levels exactly. The Frame will have three colours of user- changeable bezels, which are also paintable, and will come with more than 100 pieces of art at launch, as well as being able to display photos and personal art. Worried about power usage? You can set it to turn off when no one is in the room. More info: www.samsung.com.au…

Two slides shared with us by Paul Gray of IHS Markit combined to provide the interesting insight that sparked the TV comparison on these pages. The first is the colourful chart (left) that also appears in News with reference to a likely coming increase in TV retail prices. But there’s more. “The other interesting bit for me is the premium TV market”, Mr Gray explained to us at the recent Global Press conference in advance of IFA 2017 in Berlin. “What you see is that OLED prices in the premium part of the market are the same as a premium LCD TV about 10 inches bigger.” And which do people choose? The second chart shows that this depends where you are. In Japan and North America, the big screen wins…

Looks like a bucket, sounds like a bucket? We confess that to be our first thought when unpacking the Bose SoundLink Revolve+, which emerges looking somewhat uninspiring for a mono Bluetooth speaker costing $439, standing 17.5cm tall in ‘Lux grey’ (or, as it used to be called, silver); also available is ‘Triple Black’ (yes, TRIPLE black, THAT black; we can’t wait until TV manufacturers get hold of that concept). Of course we should know better than to prejudge such things from appearances. Within a few minutes of pairing it up, we were impressed. Equipment Look, it’s got a handle. There’s handy. It weighs about 0.9kg and it’s ready to move around with you once you charge it up for 16 hours of playback time (there’s an optional platform which charges…

Harbeth Loudspeakers For over 35 years Harbeth has refined the BBC loudspeaker legacy, creating loudspeakers (pictured above) in worldwide demand for their unbeatable clarity and resolution. At the heart of every speaker is Harbeth’s unique RADIAL cone technology, precision-made at Harbeth UK, and claimed to be the single biggest advance in loudspeaker technology for a generation – “nothing beats it for that really ‘being there’ experience”, says Audio Magic. Bauer Audio Bauer Audio is the home of the famous dps turntable, the brainchild of Mr. Willibald Bauer of Germany, conceived as a culmination of his long experience in using and setting up several other turntable brands with the view to reaching the ultimate turntable. Pictured above, the dps 3 in cherry. Lindemann musicbook: The famous musicbook: series includes USB DACs,…

First blood, as it were, went to the NAD C 338 (right) reviewed last issue — a classic style of NAD amplifier, but with Chromecast inside, turning a simple amplifier a streaming networking source. It’s an evolution that has been under way for several years — you might date it to the first Sonos ZP100 ‘ZonePlayer’ in 2005, and today the various wireless multiroom platforms each offer a similar just-add-speakers solution. But only recently have these platforms become established enough to spread their wireless wings to a wider range of product — like these amplifiers. And it’s happening at all levels. The four under review here include two around $1000, and two closer to $5000. Interestingly the differences are not so much in the smart stuff, which works much the…

“A quiet but versatile workhorse with the guts and quality to scale up for powerful hi-fi sound when desired...” Simaudio’s Moon brand is quite the high-ender, all still built in Canada as well as designed there, everything coming with 10-year warranties, and rising up to some very serious gear indeed. This Moon Neo ACE comes in at $4999, making it (just) the most expensive in our little group of smart amps this issue — but when you peer upwards at the likes of Moon’s Evolution 780D, which is over $20k and is just a DAC (well, not ‘just’, it’s a Sound+Image award-winning DAC for a start), you realise this little ‘ACE’ is offering a great deal of Moon goodness for the money, being an integrated amplifier with both an internal…

Both Onkyo and Pioneer (same company) now include the third-party FireConnect wireless multiroom platform on a wide range of product, along with Google’s Chromecast built-in, AirPlay and Bluetooth. Both FireConnect and Chromecast came to the S30 as a firmware update, so there’s nothing in the manual about activating them. First make sure you’ve done a firmware update, then go to the ‘NET’ input and exit until you can see the screen on your TV (above right) which allows you to access music services old-style using the remote control and TV interface. Activating Chromecast required a few T&C acceptances, and then we were able to, say, stream YouTube audio from a tab on our Chromebook (not video, this is Chromecast audio only) or music from any of the many Chromecast-ready mobile…

Here’s one of those products that does precisely what you’d hope, at just the price you’d hope to pay, but also offers some neat extras. Which is especially impressive from a company which offers as yet only two current headphone models from its base in Singapore, from where it proclaims its goals of “liberating high-quality audio from the constraints of cables and hardware”. The interesting innovations include a small rotating and pressable knob (see below) on the right ear of these aptX-equipped Bluetooth headphones — at first we thought this odd, even vulnerable, but we soon became accustomed to and enamoured with the ease of spinning up the volume with this knob, far better than usual blindly hunting for buttons. You can press it to take calls (there are full…

It’s 2:36am as I write this sentence, having just finished watching ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’. My review is due later today, but I’d put off watching it. I had watched a few scenes so I knew it was a technical masterpiece, but I’d been put off watching the whole thing as a movie. Six point three. I’ve long held that if you’re playing the odds on picking a movie to watch, the score of the general people, as encapsulated in the ‘User Rating’ on the Internet Movie Database, is a better bet than relying on any particular critic, including me. But in this case, either the general people, or perhaps it’s me, are mad. They’ve given it 6.3 on IMDB. I’ve just gone there and given it 10, joining…

Among all the wonders of streaming smart amplifiers and LED projectors and OLED TVs this issue, there was one small but intriguing demonstration of the subtle but insidious effect that low bit-rate signal transmission can have on music. Many of us have come to live with Bluetooth in one situation or another. All four of the smart amplifiers here include it so you can easily throw tunes wirelessly from your phone or tablet straight into your hi-fi. Little Bluetooth speakers are ubiquitous, and of course Bluetooth headphones are taking over the market last year was the first time their value exceeded that of wired headphones in some places; the trend is clear. We know that Bluetooth is not CD quality. It never has been, and even now that Bluetooth 5…

There will be two Panasonic OLED Series for Australia — the EZ1000 (above), described at the Sydney launch by Panasonic Australia’s Senior Product Manager for Imaging Doug Campbell as “the flagship ‘Master OLED’, the absolute best”, but also the EZ950 Series, “a great balance of picture quality and design”. The 65-inch EZ1000 launches in July at $8899, with a 77-inch giant to follow in November, price not yet determined. The EZ950 OLEDs will be in 65 and 55-inch models at $4999 and $7199 respectively, both available in July. The 2017 campaign will run under the banner of ‘Extraordinary perfected’. Campbell noted Panasonic’s imaging heritage in explaining why the company will be able to make the best of OLED technology (the panels, as with all large-screen OLEDs we’re aware of, are…

Sony Australia has released its latest native 4K HDR Ultra Short Throw home theatre projector, the VPL-VZ1000ES, which not only fires 4K up from the floor but does it with, mmm, lasers. Able to be positioned as little as six inches away from the wall yet deliver a 100-inch image (around 120 inches is its maximum), the VZ1000ES comes approximately 40% smaller than the previous-gen Sony VPLGTZ1, yet as the team admitted at the Sydney launch, it’s still not exactly dinky at 925 × 494 × 219mm, and weighing in at about 35kg. It does, however, deliver the goods in many situations where a ceiling-mounted projector would not be possible, especially given the size of native 4K projectors at this time. The VZ1000ES could easily be incorporated into cabinetry below…

The extraordinary design below is Boulder’s new flagship 3010 preamplifier, three years in development, and with its curious appearance partly due to having four independent chassis — one for the left channel signals, one for the right channel, one for the logic/user interface signals, and one for the power supply. These fit together into a unit which looks integrated, but isn’t. That enormous top display is a full-colour 38cm LCD display to show all controls, settings, and audio paths, including three balanced outputs which can be operated independently for multiple zones or together for bi- or tri-amplification. There’s an Ethernet connection which provides OpenHome compatibility, online access to future software updates and also browser control of all preamplifier function, including preferences and input naming. Boulder is distributed in Australia by…

We have been watching TVs getting bigger for so long that we’ve come to assume it’s the way of the world. But is there an end-stop beyond which TVs won’t grow? Paul Gray from IHS Markit thinks there may be. “From an industry point of view — from the manufacturing and logistics and engineering points of view — we’ve now got to a break point where TVs just don’t scale any more,” he told us as the recent IFA Global Press Conference. “When you make a TV bigger than 65-inch, suddenly you have to do things about the rigidity of it. This is two sheets of glass less than a millimetre thick — and the plastic cabinet at that stage cannot provide the rigidity for something that large. “So you…

SUMMARY BenQ X12000 AV projector Price: $9999 + Ultra HD resolution! + Strong colour performance + Super-duper long life lamp - Poor support for 24p and 50i/p signals It has only been a few months since we looked into BenQ’s W11000 Ultra HD front projector, and now there’s a competitor... also from BenQ. The X12000 Ultra HD projector. So what differs? What’s the same. Is the W11000 still available? Why does this one start with an X? Equipment Yes, the W11000 and the X12000 are both available. They are parallel models, with the W11000, at $7999, for the more budget-constrained purchaser. What are the differences? What are the similarities? There’s an enormous amount of overlap. In practice, everything is the same on both models except the light source or lamp.…

Welcome to the Marantz SR7011, the company’s current top-of-the-line integrated AV receiver. Integrated? We don’t see that word used so much in home theatre, but it is analogous to stereo because Marantz also offers separate pre and power home cinema amps. But it’s also ‘integrated’ now in the sense that it works with multiroom audio, supporting the HEOS platform which began life under the Denon brand, which is sister company to Marantz under D+M Group. HEOS is appearing on extended equipment from both brands, though Marantz wears the logo with more subtlety than Denon’s own gear. It’s a great addition, adding both multiroom and smart streaming, like the smart amplifiers elsewhere in this issue. And happily we had a couple of HEOS speakers to hand, so we could check out…

WIN 1MORE E1001 Triple Driver In-Ear’ phones! Winner of dozens of awards worldwide including the coveted iF Design Award, CanJam EU 2016’s Best Portable Headphone and several ‘best of’ awards from the likes of Home Theatre Review, Hifi+ and more, the 1MORE Triple Driver’s hybrid combo of 2 BA drivers and a dynamic driver for only $189 AUD has made it one of the most exciting underdogs in in-ear technology, delivering clarity, depth and ergonomic design outside of anything its class. For your chance to win, enter the Lucky Draw with Jaben Audio in Room 2101…

“These smart abilities are built on high quality amplification, and plenty of it. The smart stuff doesn’t detract from Cyrus’s amp expertise at all...” “Pure sound” and “audio luxury” are two key phrases used by Cyrus to introduce the Lyric, yet unusually here also “convenience” — not usually a bedfellow of the first two traits. That’s because the Lyric aims to deliver pretty much all you need for a system except speakers, and to bring the traditional amplifier up to date with wireless streaming, app control, even slotting in a CD player to cater for those declining digital discs a few years longer, and radio too, with FM, DAB+, digital and internet radio built in. Yet all still supported by those fundamentals of solidly engineered amplification on which Cyrus built…

You get your ACE networked using its front panel menus, then as soon as you fire up the free MiND app, the ACE appears on your iPad screen. Don’t read the manual, which leads you on a merry dance (see main article), just tap it and start playing. An ‘input’ icon brings a pop-up screen (right). Choose ‘Network’ (you may get a significant firmware update that this point), and press ‘Libraries’ to show what’s available (below right). There is internet radio via vTuner or TuneIn, there is Tidal and Deezer (and Qobuz, not yet available in Australia). You can access the music on your device (though not any playlists, so playing via Bluetooth may be more convenient). Below these music sources you see any DLNA/UPnP network shares, with excellent codec…

Among the greatest achievements of this Yamaha smart amplifier is that you would never guess its price. Under $800 it is, and while you might note that it’s light when you lift it, or that the front panel doesn’t have quite the gravitas of the company’s higher-end units, once on the shelf it looks solid and serious, clearly part of Yamaha’s world. It’s not entirely serious, though — in fact it’s rather fun. Equipment The fun smart stuff comes largely from the inclusion of Yamaha’s MusicCast wireless multiroom system, and all the abilities this brings — app control of networking, Bluetooth (with AAC but not aptX), AirPlay and online music sources. But there’s a reasonable spread of standard amplifier fare also. In addition to the choice of Wi-Fi or Ethernet…

“ Soundand space become one”, announced Dr Andreas Sennheiser at the Global Press Conference for IFA 2017 in Berlin. “If the brain can’t differentiate between reality and reproduction, we are there.” He was talking about AMBEO, Sennheiser’s “3D audio experience on headphones or loudspeakers”. The company has been putting increasing emphasis recently on AMBEO, but for what purpose, exactly? It’s clearly evolved since we first reported on it, when AMBEO was presented as a variation of multichannel audio, more for music than movies, and replayed on a 9.1-channel loudspeaker system. Sennheiser’s ‘tonmeister’ and sound engineer Gregor Zielinsky was pioneering such music recordings in 9.1, and he spent several years demoing and advocating this recording technique at expert meetings and (pro) audio conventions, culminating with open demonstrations at CES 2016 in…

Headphones So many headphones on the market — how to choose? Our award-winners are a good place to start, all judged to perform ahead of the competition at their price. Note we no longer review in-ear models, with vary rare exceptions, so aside from a few legacy survivors, all here are on-ear or over-ear. AV receivers Today’s receivers bring not only amplification but in-built sources, streaming, video handling and processing — and every year brings new abilities. The power and channel count you need will depend on the size of space you’re aiming to fill. Loudspeakers over $9999 The ultimate sound requires the ultimate loudspeakers — here are those that have impressed us above all others to win a Sound+Image award. At these prices you’re not only getting state-of-the-art sound…

Yamaha’s 2017 Aventage AV receiver range will be trickling into Australian specialist stores through June and July, representing the eighth generation of the company’s flagship audiovisual receivers, though it seems that this time they will sensibly be labelled the ’70’ series, to indicate their model numbering. The power ratings and feature sets rise through the range from the entry-level RX-A770 at $1499 to the flagship RX-A3070 model at $2999. In addition to the expansive list of features present on all previous Aventage models, the new range all include DAB+ digital radio and Tidal/Deezer streaming support on the audio side, and for UHD video they support (via a future firmware update) High Dynamic Range for not only HDR10 but also the superior Dolby Vision HDR and the broadcast version, Hybrid Log…

TVs just keep getting cheaper, right? Maybe not for much longer. The chart on the right shows a breakdown of 55-inch TV prices (in US$) plotted against the costs of the panels used in those TVs. The top grey line is the average price for a premium brand, and the blue line is the average price for a secondary brand. And the red line is the price of the panel. (All these are for 1080p, since the chart goes back to 2014, when UHD was a rare thing and, at first crazy expensive.) The shrinking gap indicates how profitability is in crisis, with retail prices dropping far more rapidly than the underlying panel prices, which have actually risen recently, back to earlier levels following a dip in 2017. Three years…

Not so long back Sonus faber was delivering new subwoofers under the Mcintosh Group’s Sumiko sub-brand, but its latest bass boxes are all its own, with the company unveiling the new Gravis U1 and U2 subwoofers at Munich High End. Sonus faber is again reinventing its roots (as with the Extrema speakers and the Snail system) with the Gravis name harking back to the first ever Sonus faber subwoofer in 1986, the Gravis FB100. Both models will be available in four finishes: the company’s latest Wengè, also Red, classic Walnut and Piano Black. As for the tech, how does a trilaminated sandwich concave ParaNanoCarbon diaphragm suit you? We await local pricing and availability. More information: www.synergyaudio.com…

As you can see from the Show Guide included with this issue of Sound+Image, The Australian Hi-Fi & AV Show 2017 is at Sydney’s Hotel InterContinental near Circular Quay from Friday 28th to Sunday 30th July, offering the opportunity to hear the latest, smartest and in many cases simply the best hi-fi and AV available today. Check the Guide for all the room details, and the organisers have special offers on online tickets in advance — full details and tickets from www.australianhifiavshow.com.au…

There’s an inevitability in technology that everything tends to trend to digital — and so it is with radio in Australia, as incar head units are increasingly bringing DAB+ digital radio to the car as well as the home. But DAB+ is still stuck in the cities, just given the OK for Hobart, but only longterm hope for the regions (see p14) So it’s little surprise to find that the latest research from ACMA indicates that it’s still analogue radio that rules the Outback, with AM still crucial for those in isolated areas. The new research was commissioned specifically to contribute an evidence base on the role of AM radio in the contemporary communications environment, and it focused on radio use and listening habits in remote Western Australia, to see…

THE LED-LCD LG 55SJ850T Super UHD $3199 + Excellent smart features + Very good picture quality + Decent value for money for a premium TV - No 3D support Display technology: LCD/LED panel Screen size: 138.8cm Native aspect ratio: 16:9 Native resolution: 3840 x 2160 Brightness: Not stated Contrast ratio: Not stated Inputs: 4 x HDMI (all 2.0a), 1 x composite video, 1 x component video, 1 x stereo audio, 3 x USB (1 x USB 3.0), 1 x Ethernet, Wi-Fi (dual band 802.11ac), 1 x aerial Outputs: 1 x optical digital audio, 1 x 3.5mm headphone/analogue audio Audio: Harman-Kardon designed, 40 watts total power Energy rating: 5 stars, 332kWh per year Dimensions without/with stand (whd): 1229 x 708 x 58/1229 x 765 x 247mm Weight without/with stand: 18.1/19.6kg Warranty:…

For years we’ve been covering Panasonic’s rather nice combo PVR (personal video recorder) and Blu-ray recorders. For so many years, in fact, that the first few were PVR/DVD recorders. This 2017 model, the Panasonic DMR-PWT560 is a little different. It is a PVR, but it is not a Blu-ray (nor DVD) recorder, just a player. You can time-shift stuff on the TV, but not archive it to an optical disc. (There is a higher model which still allows that.) Instead it hits what we reckon might be a convenient combo hotspot for many users: a PVR and a Blu-ray player in one box. Equipment So, as a PVR what do we have? Two high-definition digital TV tuners, both of course supporting the H.264 codec used these days for the high-definition…

Win REDGUM’s Black Series RGi120ENR integrated amplifier! “You will never need a bigger integrated amplifier!” says REDGUM of the Black Series RGi120ENR, purpose-designed to power ultra-low speaker impedances, and capable of delivering: 2 x 175W RMS into 8› (transient 310W short-term RMS) 2 x 265W RMS into 4› (transient 630W short-term RMS) 2 x 500W RMS into 2› (transient 1265W short-term RMS)! To enter this competition, take your Competition Card to REDGUM in Room 2122 WIN Astell&Kern’s Kann high-res audio player! The complete all-around portable high-res digital music player, with powerful output and studio quality sound. Native DSD playback up to DSD256 (11.2MHz), PCM audio playback up to 32bit/382kHz, and the 32-bit AKM AK4490 DAC. Valued at $999, it’s one of the Show’s top prizes! To enter, take your Competition…

Once again, a very warm welcome back to everyone, not least our fantastic show visitors, who have made this show one of the most enjoyable in the world, and now, remarkably, into its 7th year! This year we return to Sydney, where we have so many happy memories. Although as Organisers we reside on the other side of the globe, we have developed a kinship for this show like no other, and long as the trip to Australia might be, we look forward to it every year, and to meeting up with everyone again. Hi-fi Shows such as the Australian Hi-Fi and AV Show continue to be unique events, in that there are very ‘few’ consumer products that support such stand-alone shows. And that is partly down to the enormous…

The Cyrus Cadence app controls the Lyric very effectively, and was particularly good at ‘finding’ it when first opened. On just two occasions in a month of use the app jammed on either iPhone or iPad Pro, and both times an app reinstall fixed it. Cadence nicely fits a phone, with a neat input screen (right) from which you select a source then browse through the sub-menus, be they for TIdal, internet radio or your various networked and USB-connected music collections. While the Lyric could take a little while to connect each time to, say, a USB hard drive, this indexing period pays dividends, as thereafter navigation was unusually speedy, with instant folder browsing where so many network systems take a moment to populate each screen or worse, fail to…

Well, the definitions balloon is truly burst by Pioneer’s slimline SX-S30. It’s a two-channel amplifier, it has the networking smarts which defines this group of smart amplifiers, it has radio tuners (including DAB+), but also HDMI inputs and decoding for movie formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio (delivering them in stereo), plus a set-up microphone for room EQ adjustment. So call this a smart stereo receiver? However you label it, this is something many lounge rooms have been begging for — an amp that can properly handle both music and TV audio. Add the smarts — here courtesy of the rising ‘FireConnect powered by Blackfire’ platform, which includes Chromecast — and the promise is high indeed, especially given the price. Equipment The power rating first — no amount…

Regular readers will know that we don’t reach for the superlatives willy-nilly, but after a couple of weekends these over-ear Pioneer headphones absolutely transported us with their divinely balanced presentation and thrilling imaging in particular, so that we were prepared to start proferring some prolific phrases of praise. With one caveat — we were listening all that time with a cable, not realising these were Bluetooth headphones. They had arrived unheralded, and we didn’t clock the BT on the model number until later. So, would our initial thrills be tempered when we went wireless? The SE-MS7BT headphones are from Pioneer’s ‘Style series’; they have quite large earcups, and they don’t fold up at all, so they need a bit of storage space when you’re carrying them around. We were so…

Owning things is taking on a whole new meaning these days. Many people don’t own a music or movie collection any more. With services like Pandora, Spotify, Netflix and others you can listen to or watch nearly anything you might want for less than the cost of a CD (or an album download or two) a month. So if you don’t actually ‘own’ the media you consume, why should you own the equipment you watch and listen with? This may sound bizarre, but like plenty of new developments we shall find that the future is not only already here, but in many ways, we’ve been there before. The easiest example for the ‘as-a service’ idea right now may be to consider the concept of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). This arrangement is being…