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updated 2006-07-08
AES Standards - an Introduction
The AES
The Audio Engineering Society was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in New York, NY., USA. It is the only professional society devoted exclusively to audio technology.
Today, nearly 60 years later, its membership of leading engineers, scientists and other authorities has increased dramatically throughout the world, greatly boosting the society's stature and that of its members in a truly symbiotic relationship. AES Sections serve members in 47 geographic areas throughout the world. Sections in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, South-East Asia, Mexico, South America, and the United States hold local meetings regularly for the dissemination of the most current audio information.
The Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, the official publication of the AES, is the only peer-reviewed journal devoted exclusively to audio technology.
The AES stages two international conventions each year; a Spring Convention in Europe, and a Fall Convention in the US alternating between the east and west coasts. In addition to an exhibition of audio products, AES conventions provide a full programme of technical papers, workshops, tutorials and student events.
AES Standards - a short history
Standards activity in the AES started shortly after the Society was founded. In the early days, the AES Standards Committee (AESSC) mainly acted as a reporting agency to the membership through the Journal on the activities of IEC TC 29 and audio-related activities of other standards organisations such as EIA, SMPTE, IEEE, and the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Even though the AES at this time was not producing documents, many AES members contributed to standards through these other organisations.
In 1977, stimulated by the growing need for standards in digital audio, the AES Digital Audio Standards Committee was formed. It was responsible for creating some fundamental standards such as the AES3 digital audio interface - sometimes known as the AES/EBU interface - and standards for sampling frequency and synchronisation which are still in use today.
In 1980, a full-time secretary (Dan Queen) was appointed. At about the same time, the AES became the secretariat of ANSI S4 (which continued until 2001).
In 1984, the procedures of the AESSC were revised to improve the openness and consensus of our due process, modelled on IEC directives and drawing from the examples of the ASA, IEEE and SMPTE.
AES Standards today
The present standards secretary was appointed in 2001. Communications facilities were extensively updated in 2002, including a new Web site with public and private areas, members' registry, plus e-mail reflectors and a secure document exchange facility for each group.
Membership of any AESSC working group is open to all individuals who are materially and directly affected by documents that may be issued under the scope of that working group. Currently, we operate 16 working groups - with close to 1000 registered members in total - working in the following fields:
- Digital audio Digital audio measurements, interfaces & synchronisation, networks, file exchange, and pro-audio uses of the IEEE 1394 serial bus
- Preservation and restoration of audio recordings Analog recording, transfer technologies, library & archive systems, storage & handling, metadata and forensic audio
- Acoustics Sound-source modeling, loudspeakers and microphones
- Interconnections Connectors, connector usage and EMC practices
These working groups currently maintain 43 published documents and are working on over 40 new development projects.
Liaisons
Standards work in audio does not exist in isolation. The AESSC enjoys liaisons with a number of organisations, including: IEC, SMPTE, BSI, CEA, EBU, 1394TA, ALMA International (loudspeakers), i3a/PIMA (archival media).
Organisation and procedures
The AESSC rules & procedures, as well as other organisational details, are published at: http://www.aes.org/standards/b_policies/
AES standards are available for purchase on-line at: www.aes.org/publications/standards
Standards continue to be a core activity of the Audio Engineering Society and recent changes in organisation, together the associated provision of resources, are designed to ensure the Society can meet the future demands of the audio industry.
Mark Yonge
AES Standards Manager
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