AES New York 2007
Awards Ceremony

Friday, October 5, 12:00 noon — 1:30 pm

The awards ceremony presentation will be part of the Opening Ceremonies.

Please join us as the AES presents special awards to those who have made outstanding contributions to the Society in such areas of research, scholarship, and publications, as well as other accomplishments that have contributed to the enhancement of our industry. The awardees are:

DAVID BIALIK (Citation) in recognition for making broadcast audio an important part of the AES mission. Bialik earned his Bachelor of Science degree from American University where he also managed the student radio station. A love of broadcasting and audio technology shaped the direction of his career. He has been a professional engineer in the U.S. major market radio since 1983. While working at NPR affiliate WAMU-FM and at the National Technology Department in Washington, DC, he published numerous articles about broadcasting and contributed extensive material to the NAB Engineering Handbook. Joining United Broadcastings' WKDM In 1991, he achieved his goal of becoming chief engineer of a NY radio station. In 1992 he joined Bloomberg WBBR as C.E. A proactive involvement in the Audio Engineering Society in both the DC and New York sections has remained constant throughout his career. Bialik began serving as an AES New York Section committee member in 1993. He has worked tirelessly since his first term as chair of broadcast sessions in 1989 to promote the evolution of the AES Convention into a major technical gathering for broadcasters. Since forming an independent systems engineering consultancy in 1995, Bialik has advised various industries worldwide including broadcasters on integrating technology applications such as studio construction, voice-over IP telephony, and internet streaming. He maintains offices in Rockland County, a small suburb of New York, where he lives with his wife Alicia and their two children, Madeline and Richard.

GRAHAM BLYTH (Fellowship Award) in recognition of your distinguished career in mixing console design and service to the Society. Blyth was raised and educated in Epsom, Surrey, UK. He took piano lessons from the age of 4 and later gained a junior scholarship to Trinity College of Music, London, where he also studied the organ. He went up to Bristol University in 1966 to read electrical engineering and founded the Student Music Society, conducting Bach's monumental St. Matthew Passion in his final year. After graduation he worked in the R&D department of Compton Organs where he met his mentor, the late Bill Kelsey, and learned how to lay out printed circuit boards. Sadly the company was on its last legs and so he moved on to Graseby Instruments, where he designed filters for Admiralty Underwater Weapons contracts, while in the evenings helping Kelsey put together a large mixing desk for Emerson, Lake and Palmer to use at the legendary 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. After this success, Kelsey and his business partner set up Kelsey & Morris. Graham joined them in early 1971, assisting in the design and construction of mixers for many of the great bands of the time, including King Crimson, T Rex, and Ten Years After. Precise dates in the early 70s are hard to recall, but he left Kelsey's to build his own mixer. With no idea how to sell it, a friend in the power amplifier business introduced him to Phil Dudderidge and Paul Dobson at Rotary Speaker Developments. Dudderidge and Blyth then left to form Soundcraft, which was incorporated in 1973, growing rapidly to become one of the major players in the mixing console market. In the late 1980s, Blyth returned to his musical studies on both piano and organ, gaining performance diplomas from the Royal College of Organists, the Royal College of Music, and Trinity College of Music, culminating in a piano recital at London's Whitfield St. Studio to celebrate his 40th birthday and an organ recital at St. Thomas' on Fifth Ave. in New York City, to celebrate Soundcraft's 21st year. These organ recitals are now a regular part of AES conventions. Following the takeover of Soundcraft by Harman in 1988, Blyth has continued in his position as technical director but has also become involved in the designing and voicing of digital classical organs and is acknowledged to be one of the leaders in this field. He lives in Wantage, Oxfordshire, where, in 1995, he built an 80-seat recital hall attached to his house, using the Lexicon Lares acoustic enhancement system developed by David Griesinger. This is a unique space in the UK, whose adaptability allows for anything from a string quartet concert to an organ recital. It has been used for many classical recordings. Blyth is director of the Wantage Summer Festival and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2006.

FRANCISCO MIRANDA KIRCHNER (Citation) in recognition of your dedication to and promotion of the activities of the AES in Mexico. Kirchner has been involved and in love with music and recording audio since childhood. When he was eight years old, his parents gave him a mini 3-inch reel-to-reel Aiwa tape recorder (still in working order). Since then, family and friends introduced him to music and to record live music. Even from that early age he became interested in microphones and amplifiers, even building a tube amplifier for a school project. At the time, he started experimenting with recordings on different locations. From his university program he went straight to New York City to specialize in audio recording at the Institute of Audio Research under Albert Grundy's leadership and great teachers like Bob Katz and Sal Adelphio. As soon as he completed his studies, he began working for Polygram Records, starting as an engineer and eventually becoming studio manager. He took the studio from 8 to 24 tracks, making it one of the hottest studios in which to record. At the same time he worked for a live show and sound reinforcement company called Promovisión Mexicana from 1984 to 1986, touring with the company and gaining experience in the live field, from soloists to complete bands in many different locations. Recordings progressed in the studio as well as on location for classical and popular music, resulting in 25 years of experience. Kirchner also created and co-developed (with the late Narciso Montaño) a program for a Diploma on Recording Techniques, later institutionalized in Fermata Academy of Music. Since his days at Polygram Records, he has worked for a high standard in Mexico's audio industry. A member of the Audio Engineering Society since 1980, he has presented at conferences and been interviewed. He is now chair of the Mexico Section, where they are implementing a monthly conference or workshop program for all members of the section.

BOB LUDWIG (Fellowship Award) for outstanding contributions to the art and practice of audio mastering, and to the advancement of sound quality in recorded music. Ludwig, Grammy and Latin Grammy award-winning mastering engineer, is owner, chief engineer, and president of Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine. An Eastman graduate, he started with Phil Ramone at A&R Recording, then became vice president of Sterling Sound. He worked at Masterdisk where he was vice president and chief engineer. In 1991 he was the first person to be honored with the Les Paul Award. In 1993 Ludwig opened Gateway Mastering Studios, which won the mastering studio TEC Award nine times. He has 13 TEC Awards for mastering. He has mastered countless Gold and Platinum records and has 27 pages of credit listings in www.allmusic.com. Gateway was the first mastering studio in the world to offer DVD Authoring services. Ludwig has contributed a great deal of his time educating other engineers and musicians about sound. He has spoken to many organizations including the AES, SPARS, The Recording Academy, SBE, and RIAA. He has been a lecturer at many universities including McGill, Banff Centre for Performing Arts, Berklee College of Music, University of Iowa, State University of New York, University of Connecticut, University of Maine, University of Miami, Full Sail, and others. The author of many technical and consumer articles, he has often been interviewed. Feature articles about him have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, USA Today, the Portland Press Herald, and the AP. He is cochair of the Producers and Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy and past chair of the New York Section. Active in the AES, he has chaired or participated in many convention and section events.

JOHN MEYER (Silver Medal Award) in recognition of your outstanding achievement in source independent measurement of public address systems and the advancement of quality in sound reinforcement. Meyer's influence on the way audiences hear sound spans four decades, dating back to 1967, when he assembled a high-fidelity bass guitar amplification system for The Steve Miller Band's appearance at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival. Since the founding of Meyer Sound in 1979, Meyer and his company have issued many innovations that have changed the face of sound reproduction, especially in the area of live sound, the most recent being the introduction of Constellation™ electroacoustic architecture to the field of architectural acoustics. When Meyer entered the field of sound reinforcement, sound systems commonly failed before the end of performances, and the sound they presented was usually of poor quality, due to a combination of flaws in design, manufacturing, and deployment. Meyer's efforts, always centered on improving the audience experience, have significantly raised the standards in all of these areas. Recognition of Meyer's contributions goes beyond the bounds of the audio world, as illustrated by his receiving a coveted R&D 100 Award in 1992. Meyer's 1969 invention of the Glyph loudspeaker, a low-distortion system based on huge, fiberglass horns, attracted the attention of notable musicians and led to a position as in-house loudspeaker designer at San Francisco's McCune Sound Service, where he first began creating loudspeakers using integral control processors, a technology later fully developed at Meyer Sound into self-powered loudspeaker systems. In the mid-70s, Meyer was invited to help establish an acoustics laboratory at the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Switzerland, where he advanced his research on low-distortion horns and integrated, large-scale loudspeaker systems. Meyer continues his support of and involvement in advanced research to this day. Since co-founding Meyer Sound with his wife, Helen Meyer, he has focused his efforts on research and development projects covering a broad spectrum of audio technologies surrounding the design, manufacture, and use of loudspeakers. In 2005 Meyer Sound acquired LCS Audio, a groundbreaking manufacturer of digital audio systems for theatrical applications, greatly expanding the scope of the company beyond loudspeakers. Meyer has worked closely with artists such as the Grateful Dead and Cirque du Soleil®, pioneering theatrical sound designers like Abe Jacob and Jonathan Deans, and prestigious venues and events ranging from Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House to the Montreux Jazz Festival. Meyer Sound's development of self-powered systems spawned an entire generation of self-powered studio monitors, and constitutes a major advance in sound reinforcement. Meyer Sound has garnered 37 U.S. and international patents and won numerous industry awards and honors, including five TEC Awards (plus 20 more nominations) and induction of the UPA-1-a standard in the theatrical world-to the TECnology Hall of Fame. In 1985, John Meyer was made a Fellow of the AES. Meyer Sound breakthroughs include the trapezoidal cabinet shape, dedicated loudspeaker processing, advanced phase correction circuits, SIM® source independent measurement systems, wide bandwidth parabolic transducers, directional subwoofers, the REM™ emulation manifold, and Internet-enabled acoustical prediction.

NEIL MUNCY (Fellowship Award) for outstanding contributions in the fields of noise susceptibility and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) in audio systems. Muncy studied Electrical Engineering at George Washington University and the Capitol Radio Engineering Institute in Washington, DC. He began his professional career in 1959 as a member of the technical staff of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the areas of low-level analog instrumentation, radar, and other related communications research projects. In 1966, after further studies in Physics & Business Administration at the American University, he founded SSI, Inc., a company that pioneered in the application of operational amplifier technology in large custom-built multichannel recording consoles, real-time and high speed tape recording and duplicating systems, and related equipment. He currently specializes in the development of solutions to acoustical and technical problems, with particular expertise in the elimination of grounding, EMI and RFI problems in completed installations, and the presentation of papers, lectures, and training seminars on audio-related topics. From 1968 to 1986, Mr. Muncy was a guest instructor at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, participating each summer in the Eastman Recording Institutes, one of the very first college-level courses in Recording Technology. From 1980 to 1989, he also served as one of the principal instructors in the Music Recording Workshop Program sponsored by National Public Radio, in Washington DC. Recent seminar clients include the Harris Institute for the Arts in Toronto, The Fanshawe College Music Industry Arts Program in London, Ontario, and the Recording Program at The State University of New York at Fredonia. Since 1989, Muncy has held the position of Consulting Sound Designer for the Toronto International Film Festival. Muncy has contributed to a number of U.S. and International patents, holds a TEF license from the California Research Institute Foundation, and was a contributor to the development of the Reflection Free Zone (RFZ™) control room design concept. He has authored articles and papers on various audio topics and earned credits on several Direct-to-Disc, live jazz, and classical albums. His 6/95 Audio Engineering Society (AES) paper identifying the "Pin-1 Problem" has become the best selling publication in AES history. Professional affiliations include the Acoustical Society of America, the Audio Engineering Society, The Canadian Acoustical Association, and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Muncy has served as Chair of the Washington, DC and Toronto AES sections, Facilities Chair of the AES International Conference on Digital Audio in Toronto, and Co-Chair of AES-Toronto's Audio Overview-II. He created the position of Membership Secretary of the Toronto AES section, and has served as the Chair of the AES Standards Committee SC-05-05 Working group on grounding and EMC practices. In 1997, he was elected to the position of AES Eastern Vice President. Notable past projects include the Reverberation and Sound Enhancement System for the restoration of the Elgin Theatre in Toronto; the Sound Recording Studio for the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts in North York, Ontario; the analog disc mastering installation for Acoustic Sounds and Record Technology Inc., Camarillo, CA, and the design of the Multichannel Sound Enhancement System for Toronto's Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts. He is presently conducting an ongoing survey of off-air vs. off-cable television audio, with the goal of developing improvements at all points along the TV audio distribution chain, research into the evolution of audio wiring and installation practices since the dawn of the telephone industry a century ago, and a comparative review of power conditioning devices soon to appear in the Canadian publication Audio Ideas Guide.

PHIL RAMONE (Fellowship Award) for outstanding contributions in the fields of audio recording, music productions, and the innovative use of technology. Ramone is one of the most respected and prolific music producers in the recording industry. With 33 Grammy award nominations, 14 Grammy Awards, including a Technical Grammy for his lifetime of innovative contributions to the recording industry, an Emmy, and numerous honors and accolades to his credit, Ramone's musical acumen and use of audio technology are unmatched among his peers. Acknowledged as one of the top creative producers, he has also played an integral role in pioneering many of the technological developments in the music industry over the years. He ardently supported the use of the compact disc, digital video disc, hi-definition recording, and surround sound. Appropriately, the first CD ever pressed, Billy Joel's 52nd Street, was a Phil Ramone production as was the first pop DVD release, Dave Grusin Presents West Side Story. His use of a fiber optics system (EDNet) to record tracks in real time from different locations for Frank Sinatra's Duets I and II was a groundbreaking achievement. In 2005 Ramone was a recipient of the first Grammy award given for Best Surround Sound Album, Ray Charles Genius Loves Company. Ramone's unique skills make him invaluable to the artists with whom he works. His impeccable list of credits includes collaborations with artists such as Burt Bacharach, Bono, Ray Charles, Chicago, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Liza Minnelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Peter, Paul and Mary, Andre Previn, Carly Simon, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, and Stevie Wonder. He has long been recognized for the diversity of his work, as evidenced by his recordings with artists ranging from James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Gladys Knight, Sheryl Crow, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Queen Latifah, and k.d. lang to Wynonna and the Dixie Chicks. The new Tony Bennett Duets, An American Classic, which Phil produced, pairs Tony with some of the industry's most honored musicians including Bono, Elvis Costello, Billy Joel, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand, and Sting. A passionate fan of all forms of entertainment, Ramone has numerous concert, film, Broadway, and television productions to his credit including A Star is Born, Beyond the Sea, Flashdance, Ghostbusters, Midnight Cowboy, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Passion, and Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert In Central Park, Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards, among others. He is also active in music and service related organizations. He is the chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and the Producers and Engineers Wing, and is a trustee of the MusiCares Foundation, producing their annual pre-Grammy tribute. Ramone is a champion of music educational programs and serves on the boards of the National Mentoring Partnership, and the Berklee College of Music. He is a trustee of the National Academy of Popular Music and the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress. He is a founding member of META (The Music & Engineering Technology Alliance), an elite group of producers and engineers facilitating the establishment of high-quality music recording and delivery by uniting audio professionals, consumer electronics manufacturers, music enthusiasts, and technology providers.

JOHN STRAWN (Board of Governors Award) in recognition of chairing the AES 121st Convention in San Francisco, October 5-8, 2006. Strawn has straddled the two worlds of engineering and audio since childhood, starting with piano lessons and learning to solder. He received a B.Mus. degree from Oberlin in 1973, where he also worked in the analog electronic music studio. He went to Berlin in 1973 to study musicology on a Fulbright and also found his way into Tonmeister classes. In 1976 he traveled to Japan, where he performed and conducted independent research in electronic music with an IBM Watson Fellowship. After receiving a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1985, Strawn joined The Droid Works/Lucasfilm. Starting in 1987 he helped found Yamaha Music Technologies, an American R&D wing of the Japanese music instrument manufacturer. Since 1992 he has been active in his consulting practice (S Systems), specializing in digital audio, computer-generated music, and digital signal processing as programmer and expert witness. He has published articles in the JAES and serves on the review board. Several local chapters have invited him to give lectures. At various conventions he has chaired sessions and given presentations. He chaired the 1987 Fifth International Conference on Music and Digital Technology. From 1992-1994 and 2005-2007 he served on the Board of Governors and was named a fellow in 1996. For the AES conventions in 1992 and 2002 he was papers cochair. He presented the keynote address at the 1996 convention. Most recently he served as committee chair of the 117th convention (2004) and 121st convention (2006), both in San Francisco.

JOSEF ZIKOVSKY (Fellowship Award) in recognition of your substantial contributions in the field of electroacoustic applications. Zikovsky was born in 1944 in Prague in then Czechoslovakia. In 1966, he received a degree from CVUT-the faculty of electrotechnology. At the end of 1966 he began working as an independent researcher in the department of electroacoustics at the Research Institute of Communicative Technology. From 1973 he was director of the Research Institute of Gramophone Technology and gramophone concerns at the Ministry of Culture CR. Between 1975 and 1977 he was a leader of a project group, specializing in the area of sound systems at sports stadiums. In 1977 Zikovský began managing scientific and technical work at a laboratory of electroacoustics at the Research Institute of visual and sound technology in Prague. In 1990 Zikovský founded the company Soning Praha a.s., and became its general director. Since 1995 he has been giving lectures in the field of acoustics and electroacoustics for students at CVUT. Zikovský is an author of 22 patents in the field of acoustics and electroacoustics. In his field, he has published both technical articles as well as feature articles in various publications. Zikovský has received many awards, such as the merit award for providing a solution of acoustics and electroacoustics in the building of the National Theatre in Prague. In addition, he won the top Grand Prix award, which he received at an international fair FOR ARCH for "universal sound-absorbing facing." In 2005 he was awarded the honorable title for "the best manager" in his field in the Czech Republic.