Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Re: Message from Meridian concerning Firmware (including Supplementary update)

We have started a new topic to make this statement clearly visible but we have no intention of entering into dialogue.

Meridian is shocked and disappointed at the publication of a utility which threatens our customers, our support chain and our reputation at several levels.

WARNINGS
1) Loading modified firmware into any of our products immediately and permanently invalidates the warranty.
We strongly advise you not to load modified firmware into our products, especially if it is under warranty.
Certain modifications may only be fully restored by Meridian.
2)Modifying parts of the code without a genuine understanding of the consequences is foolhardy.
3)We particularly advise that you do not modify firmware on any item of the 800 Series or especially any of the loudspeakers or any Sooloos product.

DISCLAIMER
Merdidian will accept no responsibility for loss or consequential damage arising from running modified firmware.

Be aware, in this particular case, that transplanting sections of code from one product to another is extremely risky and can have unintended consequences.

Meridian has no intention of supporting or discussing claims or other supporting scenarios arising and particularly where power amplifiers or loudspeaker crossovers or drive units become degraded, damaged or destroyed in products manufactured by Meridian or 3rd-parties.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Firmware updates provided by Meridian convey legitimate users a license to run the firmware.

We do not grant permission for the owner to reverse engineer or decompile our code or other embedded IP.

Clearly the perpetrator of this so-called apodising firmware update is fully aware of this because the utility forces our customers to modify the code instead of distributing modified code. By this method the customer running the utility, violates our terms. However creating such a utility employs reverse-engineering which also violates our terms.

FALSE CLAIMS
The Wiki post asserts that Meridian's apodising filters are transplanted between products. This is incorrect.
Filter executable code is not being moved because IT CANNOT BE.

Each of our products and their (sometimes many) variants has different hardware design, DSP processors, clock structures, command and control interfaces and, crucially, different ways of interpreting, designing and implementing the signal processing and filters at run-time and within operating context.

Programs comprise executable code and data constants. Moving data from one product to another is like cutting and pasting Acts of a Shakespeare play and expecting everything to make elegant sense. A different analogy might be copying a Sine table to where a Log table is expected and then wonder why the run-time designs are wrong or unstable.

We certainly acknowledge that using this method can change the sound of the product, but never into something we would have approved.

COMMON SENSE
If it were this simple Meridian would have done it.
We have said several times that, where possible, we will release updates to older products and that remains our intention.
But we also pointed out several times that more advanced processing, such as that found in recent DSP speakers or 808.2/3 simply cannot run properly on those earlier platforms which did not have sufficient processing power or memory to successfully run the code.

When we prepare code for issue there is an intensive and extended QA process of automatic, manual and functional testing.
Final QA on a code release for a loudspeaker can take weeks and we know what to do!
Final QA on a surround processor can involve up to several hundred thousand automatic tests and takes even longer.

BRAND AND CUSTOMERS
We consider that loading modified firmware which changes the sound of our products to be very unfortunate and we are extremely disappointed that our carefully crafted sound will be impacted.

We want our customers to enjoy the fine balance we crafted into these music reproducers and encourage you to run genuine code.

UPDATE POLICY
By coincidence and as we reported at CES, Meridian was in the late stages of QA for a series of updates, significant improvements and bug fixes for more than a dozen products. This attack on our process will delay release while we change our update delivery mechanisms however we will try to minimise that extra delay.

Our over-riding concern is that our customers continue to enjoy the full benefits of Meridian product, including the ability to enjoy updates from time to time.

Please contact your dealer if you are interested in these future updates.

Bob Stuart
4 March 2011


Supplementary message from Meridian concerning Firmware - 5 March 2011

Inevitably some of you have misinterpreted our motives in yesterday's posting regarding firmware!
Whilst we certainly have IP and third-party concerns, our top consideration is to protect our customers.
To repeat:

"Our over-riding concern is that our customers continue to enjoy the full benefits of their Meridian product".

We are not building throw-away or short-lived CE devices. Rather we build carefully crafted music and movie playback devices intended to give a life-time of enjoyment.

Meridian's loudspeakers are built using the finest materials to provide the highest quality of sound and are referenced back to live sound. Our 'speakers have been proven to endure as fine instruments over 3 decades and our engineering efforts remain focussed on this ethos. We have a similar approach, within reason and wherever possible, with players and processors.

Because we are passionate about the sound quality of our products and we make continual improvements. Where it is feasible, it has been and remains our policy to provide those improvements which are deliverable in firmware to our customer base. Because we are enthusiasts this gives us as much pleasure as we believe customers take in receiving updates. Where improvements cannot be delivered in firmware we occasionally provide hardware updates but not when it offers poor value.

Our motivation in discouraging customers from installing modified firmware stems from this philosophy and from genuine concern that our users do not suffer unintended damage.

We are passionate that our products in the field should sound right.

We know that it is not possible to build safe or correct firmware images by copying sections of object code between products or even necessarily between firmware images for different versions of the same product. Some of you seem to think that we should have done this 'simple thing' without grasping two of the points made yesterday and which I am going to repeat:

"Each of our products and their (sometimes many) variants has different hardware design, DSP processors, clock structures, command and control interfaces and, crucially, different ways of interpreting, designing and implementing the signal processing and filters at run-time and within operating context." and,
"But we also pointed out several times that more advanced processing, such as that found in recent DSP speakers or 808.2/3 simply cannot run properly on those earlier platforms which did not have sufficient processing power or memory to successfully run the code."

What this is telling you is the dangers in this flawed approach. Let me try to explain one more time.

Meridian's systems are extremely sophisticated. Elements can't simply moved between code releases because processing which actually runs is dynamically assembled at run-time and depends on the hardware discovered, operating conditions, copy-protection rules, configuration and according to algorithms that differ between platforms. One can move the ingredients but since each product variant has its own recipe the wrong answer is guaranteed.

We accept that changing code in this way will always change the sound and that some may be (temporarily) confused into thinking that different = better.

Going beyond the sound, making changes to firmware risks actual damage. DSP code is powerful and can be tricky in that run-time may lead to content-dependent instabilities that may take hours or days to manifest unpleasant-sounding or destructive output. Had we been asked about this proposed modification we would certainly have advised accordingly.

To quote yesterday's statement again:

"We want our customers to enjoy the fine balance we crafted into these music reproducers and encourage you to run genuine code."

Let me illustrate this with four concrete examples.

1) Despite the warnings we have had posted on our website for over 10 years, we see some customers are now experimenting by fitting 800v4 firmware in 800v3. The hardware differences between these two simply mean that the code cannot run correctly. We are absolutely sure it will sound different for some sources but it will not be our design and in some circumstances the processing may time out, the controlling software will be looking for handles that do not exist in the cards and at minimum there will be ocassional clicks, pops and misbehaviour of the FIFO.
We aren't trying to warn you that the consequences are equivalent to meddling with the firmware in an aircraft, but several of you have touched on an automotive analogy and in these terms, the firmware files deal with steering, navigation and braking as well as engine management.

2) In some cases, updating the firmware is not necessarily reversible without having the flash changed in the factory and so experimenting with the 800 and 808 is not advised. This is why some firmware has never been released. Of course, conspiracy theories are usually more interesting than the truth!

3) Mixing generations or unapproved firmware will lead to content-dependent misalignment of surround systems.

4) In a different type of example, just yesterday our technical support teams and distributors were advised of products becoming disabled through loading this firmware.

That is exactly the kind of inconvenience we want our customers to avoid.

There also seems to be misunderstanding in my closing comments about update policy.

We have every intention of continuing to provide firmware updates where doing so gives significant or tangible improvements. Those of you with Sooloos systems see this happening also.

As mentioned at CES and Bristol, we are in the closing QA stages of an important update to bring a number of significant improvements and fixes to our loudspeakers and other products and details of these will be communicated in due course.

Yes, it is unfortunate, but we are obliged to re-engineer the update mechanism to protect our customers and partners from the consequences of modified firmware and this will cause a small delay.

In the meantime, if you need any support or advice please do contact your dealer. He is there to advise and help.

Bob Stuart
5 March 2011

I appreciate you're likely to not reply but...

Does this mean that these updates will only be via a dealer or are Meridian trying to guage interest in the updates by asking us to go to the dealer base?

Thanks,
Ed.

So, i will ask my dealer if my 800v3 can get a firmware update so that i can configure it in the Meridian Configuration Program (not needing the very old legacy tool anymore) and this will happen ?

Many thanks for giving such a clear (and forceful) statement of your policy and current position.

No doubt many here will eagerly anticipate the future improvements about which you have spoken.

I strongly urge you to communicate more regularly with this forum so that misunderstandings about Meridian do not occur; and so that customers's enjoyment of Meridian can be enhanced, and the standing of Meridian itself can be augmented. This does not require a day-to-day dialogue but a monthly response to issues raised here would be helpful to all.

Thank you for your response. I have been looking forward, with patience, to a release of a fully functioning Trifield. Sadly it would appear that this may now be further delayed.

I shall contact my dealer for information

Regards I

I second this most strongly.

Bob's message is I believe clear, that although publicly available any use of Meridian's proprietary code is a breach of license and infringes Meridians ownership of the code.

It appears future updates will now only be available through Meridian dealers, i.e. "update delivery mechanisms". I anticipate Meridian will charge for these updates according to the benefit they bring to a legacy product.

None of this seems unreasonable except perhaps the time it takes for updates to reach market. However Meridian is not Apple and able to afford concurrent updates to legacy products upon the launch of new products.

I am neither surprised nor upset by Bob's comments. And I am entirely sympathetic to his concerns about possible damage caused by mis-applied (in the technical sense) software. We know its power to do good through optimisation, surely we should be cogniscent of the reverse!

The result may be that we have to either cart our kit to dealers for a s/w upgrade (no doubt with a charge) or have to receive software in some form of license-controled medium (also, no doubt, with a charge). And perhaps the firmwares are now being modified to include a water-mark to identify if the code has been modified in an uncontrolled manner?

I for one would be circumspect about buying a previously-owned unit that had been messed with in this manner. Am I alone?

No Gianni you are not alone, whilst understanding the circumstances that have led to the unofficial release, it may result in the future a much more protracted process for updates.

Regards I

That sounds a typical statement just to avoid warranty risk for the company.
But that is the actual status between M and customers in my sight of view

We the customers are disappointed from M at ANY level just to promise things - and so the owners start to modify their equipment.
If the customer is satiesfied with his equipment, then there is no reason to make any changes.
The customer must be get frustrated for a long time with this "service" and finally then this step or decission will be done.

That should be thought from M, I mean you Mr. Stuart, before a statement
"This attack on our process will delay release while we change our update delivery mechanisms." have to be said.
And the customer should now
"contact your dealer if you are interested in these future updates" ??

Is that the message, just to shift the problem to the dealer?
And the reason is that owners have "touched" their own equipment?
Is that your thinking?

Why not just make first your basic homework and take care of quality products and good service?

Two personal typical examples:

I have bought against all my bad repair/service experiences a new 861v6 and sold my 861v4.
What happened after?

1) To my v4
As my buyer have an analogue setup, cards changing/adding are get necassary in the v4.
After severall try with the M service, the problem is not solved after 8 EIGHT MONTHS.
My dealer always say "answers/solution/suggestions from M will come"
My buyer and I are still waiting for a satiesfied answer/solution since 8 MONTHS.

2) And what happened to my brand new 861v6?

The connectors are misaligned in the chassis and bent, the top glass plate is misaligned on the chassis.
This is known at M since the 10th of september and a replacement cover is promised and still not delivered.
This is now almost 6 SIX MONTHS just to ship a spare part?

Does that show quality products or quality services at all?
These are are only 2 examples, still other problems are open since over ONE YEAR !!
And you Mr. STUART, as one of the founder of M say:

"Meridian is shocked and disappointed at the publication of a utility which threatens our customers, our support chain and our reputation at several levels"
Do you not mean, this examples above besides the loooooong promising of upgrades generate
exactly that impressions and feeling BUT at the customer side?

So M is shocked and diappointed when the owner do that what M is not willing or able to do?

Of coarse, it's correct and fair from you give a warning to the customer do all that, but they have strong reasons to do that.

You and your employes should be not disappointed when these things happen, you should be lucky that 99% of this forums still believe in the reputation of M and still buy your products with all the imperfection from YOUR company.
You should not condemn the customers to stop their activity, you should learn HOW to avoid that in the future.
And a very good way is JUST to post here at the forum or on your homepage the M statement but in a way that is NOT arrogantly and give the customer the feeling and security that he get listened for his needs and not be just a finacial resource.

Even I am still open for arguments, but talking and never get satiesfied answers or even answers at all -
THIS is not funny, not fair and smell arrogantly Mr. Stuart !!

Wistrela Robert

Hmmn, seems like a curious response .... both critical and potentially punative.

1. I totally get the comment about warranty and, frankly, if my 800 were still under warranty I'd not have loaded an 'unauthorized' firmware version. So this seems completely understandable.

2. But, owners have been modifying audio/video equipment for as long as there has been audio/video equipment. There are mod companies all over the place, and while these are mostly harware related, some impact software, and I do not recall such a severe response from Meridian.

3. The 'rogue' software has significantly improved the sound of my 800 - not sure how this is a bad thing - but I'd still very much view it as an interim solution. Should Meridian decide to offer an official upgrade (even at a reasonable charge) I'd be the first in line. The best analogy I can think of is collecting bootleg CDs. I collect them for my favorite bands because they are not officially available, but I also buy all of the official releases and would do so also for those concerts that I have on bootleg.

4. Meridian has known for years that there is a width bug in Trifield for many legacy products, yet has chosen not the fix it. There have, frankly, been mixed messages about firmware updates/upgrades.

5. The dealer network (indeed for all hi-end products) is becomming increasingly problematic - at least here in the USA. They are increasingly scarce, and where they do exist, they are either custom install shops or by appointment studios. I no longer have a local dealer I like who handles Meridian, so it becomes a problem if in fact Meridian are going to over-react.

6. My appologies, but I cannot help making one, tiny cynical comment. My 800 has proven to be somewhat less than the last word in reliablity. Within the 3 year warranty period it has gone back to Atlanta for service 3 times: one for a connector problem, a second time for a firmware problem, and most recently for a ROM drive / power supply replacement. So, if this unauthorized firmware were to require a fourth trip, that would pretty much be business as ususal.

Just my repectful thoughts!

Simon

I am not quite sure where all this talk about copying code comes from. The Wiki page does not say anything about it, so how did you come to this conclusion? Did you reverse engineer the updated firmware?