148th Convention Committee
The AES would like to thank all of the committee members that volunteer their time to put on our technical program!
Piotr Majdak (Convention Chair)
Piotr Majdak is Deputy Director of the Acoustics Research Institute (ARI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW). His background is electrical and audio engineering, studied at the University of Technology and the University of Music and Performing Arts (KUG), both in Graz, Austria; with a Ph.D. in the field of “Psychoacoustics and signal processing”. With a habilitation in "Acoustics and Audio Engineering", he teaches at the KUG and the University for Applied Technical Sciences in Vienna. He is member of the Acoustical Society of America, Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the Austrian and German Acoustic Associations, and the president of the Austrian section of the Audio Engineering Society.
Nadja Wallaszkovits (Convention Chair)
Nadja Wallaszkovits is the Immediate Past President of the Audio Engineering Society, serving on the AES Board of Directors. She began AES Convention work as a Student Member for the 92nd convention in Vienna, Austria - March 1992, and has served in various chair functions for many European AES conventions. Professionally, she recently took over the management of the new research department of NOA GmbH, a Public Private Partnership collaboration between the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and NOA, a leading global provider of flexible turnkey solutions for quality-controlled digitizing, management, and archiving of audio and other media content. This collaboraion is dedicated to the restoration of acetate media.
Alex Kosiorek (AES Virtual Vienna Technical Co-Chair, Content Aggregator and Editor)
Coordinating and managing audio-media productions, Alex Kosiorek leads projects that promote high-quality reproduction, mixing and mastering, all through technologically advanced concepts. His expertise incorporates audio-media production, system design, codec implementation, surround & immersive content, loudness management, as well as copyright compliance. Kosiorek’s current roles include Manager of the award-winning production service Central Sound at Arizona PBS, Executive Producer of Classical Arizona PBS productions, AES Vice President for the Western Region of USA/Canada, as well as serves on the AES Board of Directors. He regularly oversees recording and broadcast productions, end-to-end management of production facilities, while maintaining affiliation with dozens of recognized arts organizations. He earned his degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, with graduate education from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and Bowling Green State University.
Thomas Gmeiner (Facilities Chair)
Thomas Gmeiner is Director of Engineering at Mvoid Technologies and runs his consulting firm Gmeinertechnik, after having contributed to the audio industry in management positions at AKG, Harman, Knowles and Usound. He holds two master’s degrees, one in electrical engineering from University of Technology Graz and one in acoustics from Pennsylvania State University.
Michael Mihocic (Facilities Co-Chair)
Michael Mihocic is a member of the group "Psychoacoustics and Experimental Audiology" at the Acoustics Research Institute (Vienna), of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He develops software, and performs psychoacoustical experiments and acoustical measurements. Michael Mihocic is maintaining the technical field of the Lab Facilities at the Acoustics Research Institute. He is also part of the audio measurement team (room acoustics; car and train noise measurements). His background is in electrical engineering with focus on audio-and-video engineering and computer-and-system engineering. Since 2016 Michael Mihocic is member of the board of the Audio Engineering Society Austria.
Thomas Sporer (Papers Chair)
Thomas Sporer is Deputy Director of Fraunhofer IDMT and Professor at the University of Arts in Berlin. He has a background in computer science (Master) and in electrical engineering (PhD) from university of Erlangen-Nuremberg. His fields of interest include audio coding, psychoacoustics, subjective and objective quality assessment, spatial audio, immersive environments and acoustics. He is Co-Chair of the convention policy committee and of the TC on perception and subjective evaluation of audio systems.
Areti Andreopoulou (Papers Chair)
Areti Andreopoulou is an Assistant Professor in Music Technology at the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA), Greece. She has a background in musicology from UoA and Master's and PhD degrees in Music Technology from New York University. Her fields of interest include spatial audio, immersive environments, auditory displays, and acoustics.
Matthias Frank (Workshops & Tutorials Chair)
Matthias Frank studied electrical and audio engineering at University of Technology and University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. After receiving his Diploma in 2009, he joined the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics in Graz as teacher and researcher. In 2013, he finished his PhD dealing with spatial and timbral properties of phantom sources created by multiple loudspeakers. Besides his interest in spatial audio, he works on product sound quality evaluation and design for non-audio products, such as home appliances and cars. Matthias is member of the Audio Engineering Society and the German Acoustical Society.
Ana Monte (Workshops & Tutorials Chair)
Ana Monte is executive director and co-founder of DELTA Soundworks, an audio production company with focus on immersive audio formats. She holds a B.A from California State University - Chico where she studied “Music Industry and Technology” with a focus on “Recording Arts” and an M.A. from the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, where she studied “Film sound and Sound design”. For her work as sound designer, Ana has received diverse sound awards including “Best Sound Design in a Drama series” at the LA Webfest 2015 and a “Best Sound” nomination from the LA Film Review.
Daniel Deboy (Workshops & Tutorials Chair)
Daniel Deboy is a sound engineer and co-founder of DELTA Soundworks, a company specializing in 3D audio production based in Germany. Daniel is an award winning expert in immersive sound, music production and digital audio signal processing. Fascinated by environmental soundscapes and room acoustics, he utilises space as an important ingredient for his recordings and the creation of virtual sonic images. As a consultant, he supports companies in the field of 3D audio technology and builds bridges between application, research and development.
Michael Iber (Technical Tours Chair)
Michael Iber studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and initially pursued a classical concert career. Since the end of the 1990s, he has been developing projects at the intersection of music, sound and media art, as well as in the field of music informatics. Since 2014 Iber has been responsible for the master class audio design at the Department of Media Technology at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences. Besides project management of contract research projects for museum installations and music education, his main research interest lies in the design of acoustic information and data sonification, especially in the fields of health care and manufacturing. In addition to his teaching and research activities, Iber works as an author, director, sound designer and producer of radio features and radio plays.
Andreas Büchele (Technical Tours Chair)
Andreas Buechele is Professor in Audio Technology and Sounddesign at the Department of Media and Digital Technologies of the University of Applied Science St.Pölten / Austria. Formerly, he was the Chief Sound engineer of the Burgtheatre Vienna and has extensive experience with live sound engineering and event-sounddesign.
Katharina Pollack (Student Volunteers Coordinator)
Katharina Pollack is currently finishing her masters degree in electrical engineering audio engineering in Graz. Her focus lies on signal processing and education. She has been active in the AES community for years and brings experience from organising other conferences and events.
Magdalena Piotrowska (Education Chair)
Magdalena Piotrowska is a mastering engineer and educator based in Poland. She has served the AES as Governor, Education Committee Vice Chair and being involved in convention committees as Workshops&Tutorials Co-Chair and Student and Career track in Europe and US. Recently she is Education Committee. Magdalena is involved in numerous educational projects in field of sound and acoustics. Her main scientific interests are music information retrieval, psychoacoustics, signal processing and connections between science and practical application in the field of audio technology.
AES Staff
Colleen Harper
Chris Plunkett
Graham Kirk
Lori Jackson
Sue Williams
Bill McQuaide