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David Bialik |
SAN FRANCISCO— It’s October, and that
means it’s time for thousands of audio professionals
to head to the Moscone Center in
San Francisco for the annual AES Convention,
which this year has taken as its theme “Listen,
Learn, and Connect.” While in the past, pro
audio’s premier convocation may have had
a somewhat singular focus, this year’s 133rd
AES Convention, taking place Oct. 26-29,
is much
more of a “big
tent” event,
especially in
its schedule of
session tracks,
paper presentations, tutorials, workshops
and special events.
The exhibit floor tends to favor recording
products, to be sure, but the show offers
so much more. The convention’s calendar is
constantly fine-tuned to reflect the evolving
interests of its 14,000-or-so members, as well
as exhibitors and attendees, and this year’s
schedule is no exception, focusing on current
hot-button issues from audio networks
to social networking.
MINI-TRACKS
Returning for his 26th consecutive turn
as Broadcast/Streaming Chair, David Bialik
has once again assembled a diverse selection
of panels. “Our goal is to provide meaningful
information in the most accessible format,”
he said. “We make a special effort to develop
mini-tracks focused on topic-related issues.
For example, attendees will find groupings
of events on troubleshooting, and audio for
TV, radio, and streaming, which are virtually
crash courses on these issues. And, we stress
the point that these events are discussions
of technologies and techniques, not sales
presentations. The AES Convention continues
to serve as an essential destination for
the serious audio professional.”
This year’s session track topics also include
network audio, project studios, game
audio, live sound, sound for picture and
product design. Each session track features a
diverse program of presentations and panel
discussions on the issues most relevant to attendees,
assembled by experts in each field.
This year’s workshop program is laid
out in “mini tracks.” Loudness, a popular
subject for broadcasters at the moment,
is one of the featured topics, along with
digital and 3D cinema sound, and presentations—
off-site at Pyramind, a nearby post
production facility and school—on height
channels in multichannel surround sound.
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On Saturday, Oct. 26, multiple Grammy Award-winning producer Steve Lillywhite will keynote the 133rd AES. |
Bialik has organized a broad selection of
panels within the broadcast and streaming
track, many of them
relevant to television
audio specialists. With
the clocking ticking
down to the FCC’s
deadline, “Loudness
and Metadata (Living
With The CALM Act),”
on Saturday, Oct. 27 at
2 p.m., is sure to be a
highlight.
The panel, chaired
by TV and theater
sound designer Joel
Spector, will include
representatives from Austrian TV (ORF),
CBS, Dolby Laboratories, Fox Television,
Linear Acoustic and NBC Universal, as
well as consultant Lon Neumann. The
session will cover the FCC’s Report and
Order on the CALM Act, development of
the ATSC’s A/85 Recommended Practice
(now legislation), and domestic and European
technical developments by major
media distributors and P/LOUD.
Also on Saturday at 10:45 a.m., “Audio
for Mobile Television” will consider the additional
audio processing required to ensure
proper loudness and intelligibility on mobile
devices. The panel includes representatives
from CEA, DTS, Fox, NAB and NBC Universal.
NETWORKED AUDIO
The same audio mix can sound different
depending on the playback system and format.
On Saturday at 4 p.m., Bialik will chair
“What Happens to Your Production When
Played Back On Diverse Media?” featuring
an all-star panel including Karlheinz Brandenburg,
Fraunhofer Institute for Digital
Media Technology IDMT; Frank Foti, Omnia;
Steve Greenberg, S-Curve; and Robert
Orban and Greg Ogonowski,
Orban.
Additional broadcast/
streaming events include
“Working with HTML5” and
“Audio Processing Basics,” as
well as sessions on the topics
of lip sync and maintenance,
repair and troubleshooting.
The network audio track
also offers sessions for TV
broadcasters, including “Audio
Networks—Paradigm Shift for
Broadcasters,” on Saturday at 4
p.m., with a panel of specialists
from the U.S., Europe and Australia delving
into the associated workflow issues, in
particular the continuing—or otherwise—
role of crosspoint routers.
On Sunday, “Interoperability Issues in
Audio Transport over IP-Based Networks,”
will focus on interoperability standards and
methods based on the Ethernet AVB suite
of IEEE standards as well as AES X-192, and
Audio Contribution over Internet Protocol
(ACIP and ACIP2) interoperability issues.
Discussions will be from both a European
and U.S. perspective.
For more information on AES, visit www.aes.org/events/133/.