BuzzNet Events Hit Campuses This Fall; Students Get ``Ears-On'' Experience With New Audio Technologies.

Entertainment Editors & Music/High-Tech Writers

ARLINGTON, Va.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2000

BuzzNet 2000, a touring educational festival of new music listening technologies, launches this fall with two dates in California promising students an experience of "music like you've never heard it." California State University at Long Beach and the University of California at Davis have been chosen as the inaugural sites for this innovative effort to demonstrate the revolutionary technologies that are re-creating the ways we listen to and enjoy recorded music. The tour is presented by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

BuzzNet is designed to provide students and faculty with direct "ears-on" experience with the latest consumer audio technologies. The technologies showcased include DVD-Audio discs, surround music for homes and automobiles, "virtual" surround headphones, and Internet audio, all of which are transforming the quality, portability, and complete experience of music listening.

"BuzzNet will show that these new audio technologies constitute a new level of quality in the consumer's music listening experience," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA. "New formats such as surround music and DVD-Audio deliver an immersive musical experience virtually indistinguishable from a live performance."

CSU Long Beach hosts BuzzNet October 12th-13th. BuzzNet comes to Freeborn Hall at UC Davis on October 16th-17th. Students and faculty from those schools and the surrounding areas can register to attend by logging onto the BuzzNet Web site at www.buzznet.org.

Additional BuzzNet dates at college campuses across the country are being planned for Spring 2001. Interested students and faculty at any U.S. college or university can register at www.buzznet.org to receive automatic updates of future BuzzNet dates and locations as well as download information about new consumer audio technologies.

BuzzNet will feature new music -- some of it being heard for the first time -- specifically produced for the new surround music formats, plus contest giveaways of consumer audio equipment donated by BuzzNet sponsors.

Companies sponsoring BuzzNet 2000 include Alpine, Denon, Dolby, Klipsch, Runco, Sherwood America, Toshiba, Yamaha, and Hachette, publisher of Sound & Vision and Mobile Entertainment magazines.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), a sector of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), represents more than 600 U.S. companies involved in the development, manufacturing and distribution of audio, video, mobile electronics, communications, information technology, multimedia and accessory products, as well as related services, that are sold through consumer channels. Combined, these companies account for more than $60 billion in annual sales.

CEA also sponsors and manages the International CES Your Source for Workstyle and Lifestyle Technology(SM). All profits from CES are reinvested into industry services, including technical training and education, industry promotion, engineering standards development, market research and legislative advocacy.