New York, September 11, 2003—The AES has pooled together today’s most respected designers and end users to present their techniques for getting the most out of a wide range of equipment at this year’s Convention Workshops.
One of this year’s hits will be the High Resolution Audio workshop. One of the most exciting and contentious areas in audio today, high resolution audio is a hot topic. New development strategies are driving technologies including SACD, DVD-A, Blu-Ray DVD, HDTV, WMA and broadband streaming. The workshop will also present an interactive segment to enable designers, producers and end-users to exchange views.
“For this convention we have tried to present practical and focused information that will be of great value to participants,” says Sam Berkow, 115th Workshops Chair. “We are fortunate to have many leading engineers and prominent members of the audio community speaking on a wide range of topics.”
Well known mastering end user, Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering and DVD, will participate in two panels this year. As the chair of DVD AUTHORING, he will lead an exploration of the current state of DVD authoring. As a new area of audio technology, DVD authoring has an ever changing set of rules and goals and audio for DVDs comes in many flavors. Ludwig will also participate as a panelist in the MASTERING workshop, moderated by Dave Glasser of Airshow Mastering. A panel of veteran mastering engineers that includes Darcy Proper, Sony Music Studios; Andy VanDette, Masterdisk and Jonathan Wyner, M-Works will discuss mastering for varied release formats including CD, DVD (V & A), SACD; surround mastering issues; preparing catalog and historical material for reissue; mastering studio workflow and technical infrastructure; and other topics
The scope of workshops has been expanded this year with the introduction of a few new topics to the mix. Sound for Broadway will illustrate the unique blend of leading edge technology and old-school theatrical production values that make sound production for Broadway so exciting. Another first time topic, Design of Technical Systems for Sports Facilities, will address the various configurations of systems being used in sports facilities, and the logistical and operational issues designers face when working with such large facilities.
As the Digital Audio Workstation has become the centerpiece of many recording studios, the DAW workshop will explore how the use of DAWs is evolving at an extremely rapid pace and how its configuration fits into both studio and live environments.
Also gaining more widespread attention at recent AES conventions has been the Audio for Games workshop. Games have long been a staple of the PC computer world. Once exhibiting only paltry audio support, modern computers and native gaming platforms now sport very high quality audio specifications and capabilities. With the advent of multichannel games, these systems are increasingly being hooked up to home theater systems. This year’s workshop will address and discuss the nuts and bolts of their real-life experiences in the game audio trenches.
The need for great audio in cars is ever growing and developers of automotive audio systems, both OEM designers and the aftermarket installers share the goal of customer satisfaction. The Automotive Audio workshop will present its OEM-heavy audience the opportunities and challenges in the world of aftermarket automotive audio.
The full program of workshops includes Line Arrays; Interactive Immersive Sonic Scenes; MPEG-4 Audio; DVD Authoring; Mastering; Practical Studio Design; Speech Intelligibility; System Optimization; Surround From Stereo and Audio Standards.
