AES Los Angeles 2016
Product Development Track Event Details

Thursday, September 29, 10:45 am — 12:15 pm (Rm 402AB)

Tutorial: T2 - Product Management 101: The Business and Marketing Behind The Product

Abstract:
Product management has developed into an interdisciplinary field that takes a holistic view at the entire product life cycle from inception to end of life, bringing together strategy, market needs, opportunity analysis, product plans, product development and engineering, manufacturing and operations, financial management, marketing, customer support, and additional functions as needed to ensure products meet customer needs and business requirements. This tutorial will walk through the major product management implications through the product life cycle and discuss key interdisciplinary functions for each phase.

Thursday, September 29, 2:15 pm — 3:45 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development: PD1 - Headphones, Headsets, and Earphones: Electroacoustic Design and Verification

Abstract:
This presentation reviews the basic electroacoustic concepts of gain, sensitivity, sound fields, linear and non-linear systems, and test signals for ear-worn devices. The Insertion Gain concept is explained and free and diffuse field target responses are shown. Equivalent volume and acoustic impedance are defined. Ear simulators and test manikins appropriate for Circum-, Supra-, and Intra-aural and insert earphones are presented. The salient portions of the ANSI/ASA S3.7 and IEC 60268-4 standards are reviewed. Examples of frequency response, left-right tracking, insertion gain, distortion, and impedance are shown. The basic concepts of noise cancelling devices are also presented.

This session is presented in association with the AES Technical Committee on Loudspeakers and Headphones

Thursday, September 29, 4:00 pm — 5:30 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development: PD2 - To Anechoic or Not Too Anechoic: Advancing Speaker Measurement in the Nearfield

Abstract:
Line arrays, sound bars, and other loudspeaker systems using multiple transducers in large enclosures require a big anechoic measurement room with proper wall treatment and climate conditioning to ensure acoustical measurements under far field condition. Scanning the near field of the loudspeaker output and holographic processing of the measured data is an interesting alternative to far field measurements to improve the accuracy and the angular resolution of the directivity pattern within a shorter measurement time. Scanning the near field also has the added benefit of measurement under less than anechoic conditions. This tutorial explains the theoretical basis of the new technique, shows the practical application to professional and consumer loudspeaker, and discusses the consequences for the development of active loudspeaker measurements with active control of the directional properties (beam steering).

This session is presented in association with the AES Technical Committee on Loudspeakers and Headphones

Friday, September 30, 9:00 am — 10:30 am (Rm 408B)

Product Development: PD3 - What Happens in a Patent Lawsuit

Abstract:
This session covers the mechanics of patent lawsuits and what you can expect when you are involved, whether you are an owner, manager, engineer, or employee. We will cover the basic steps including: starting a lawsuit; proving a product infringes a patent, proving a patent is invalid, using experts to show infringement or invalidity; deposing experts and company personnel; asking the judge to end the case; limiting what information is available at trial, and trying a case. There will be a detour through the recently established procedures to challenge patents at the patent office rather than in court. The presentation will involve real-world experience, including our work in what was the largest audio patent case in US history—Lucent v. Microsoft—where the MP3 standard itself was on trial for patent infringement. We will present information on how often and at what stage cases settle, as most do. And we will share insights on how to win.

Friday, September 30, 10:45 am — 12:15 pm (Rm 408B)

Product Development: PD4 - Practical Loudspeaker Processing for the Practicing Engineer

Abstract:
Loudspeaker signal processing is making the transition from traditional analog designs to digital processing. This is being driven by the availability of digital content, the desire to have wireless products, and the promise of improved sound through digital signal processing. We cover the main concepts behind digital audio processing for loudspeakers. We use a hands-on approach and interactively build up the signal chain using graphical tools. We discuss crossovers, equalizers, limiters, and perceptual loudness controls. Key concepts are reinforced through examples and real-time demos. The session is aimed at the practicing audio engineer and we go easy on math and theory. Instead of writing code we leverage modern design tools and you will leave ready to design your own processing chain.

Friday, September 30, 1:30 pm — 3:00 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development: PD5 - User Experience for Mobile Apps

Abstract:
This session will discuss how Design Thinking using the User Centered Design process influences mobile application design for audio products. Mobile applications are becoming a central component of the overall product and brand experience. These applications are becoming personalized, technically advanced, and can define the product experience. Learn common practices in the User Experience discipline that place the user at the center of your product design process.

Friday, September 30, 3:15 pm — 4:45 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development: PD6 - Modern Digital Processing of Microphone Signals

Abstract:
Microphones have been in use for decades in professional audio applications. Recently they are also being incorporated into consumer and automotive products and their use is exploding. And although they are ubiquitous they are usually the weakest link in the audio signal chain. Common problems include dynamic range issues (too loud or too soft) and noise (electrical noise, background noise, wind, and plosives and sybillants). This session covers modern digital approaches to microphone processing. We use an interactive approach and build up the signal chain using graphical tools. We design single and multiband automatic gain controls, noise gates, and dynamics processors for reducing plosives and handling noise (“de-poppers”). We show how these algorithms are designed and tuned in practice.

Friday, September 30, 5:00 pm — 6:30 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development: PD7 - Developing Novel Audio Processing Algorithms – Moving Quickly from Ideas to Real-Time Prototypes

Abstract:
High-level programming languages are frequently used by DSP and Audio Engineers in audio product design. These languages allow engineers to rapidly create and understand new audio processing ideas which later are targeted for implementation in various audio products. In this workflow, real-time tuning is an important component.

In this tutorial, we will use our industry knowledge to summarize the best programming practices adopted by audio companies to reuse research code directly for real-time prototypes. We will show a number of examples, tips, and tricks to minimize latency, maximize efficiency, run in real-time on a PC, and generate native VST plugins for testing and prototyping without writing any C or C++ code.

Saturday, October 1, 9:00 am — 11:00 am (Rm 402AB)

Product Development Super Saturday: PDSS1 - Product Management, Industrial Design, and User Experience

Abstract:
AES Super Session: How to Develop a Killer Audio Product in One Day!

In the lead-off session of Super Saturday, we will explore the initial phases of product development. These three areas are done most effectively when they are done in parallel to speed time to market and ensure development team collaboration.

Product Management has become one of the most important functions in developing and bringing products to market today. In the past product managers mainly focused on product features and pricing. Today the Product Manager must take a 360 degree view in include a broader variety of expertise and content. Scott Leslie of PD Squared will present the elements of such a complete view of product management:
1. Business case
2. Sales forecasting by geography and product segment
3. Market assessment
4. The constantly changing competitive landscape
5. Sales channels
6. Detailed pro forma product costing
7. Building the development budget
8. Creating a Project Schedule
9. Designing the development team
10. Selecting partners to win rather than selecting suppliers on cost

User Experience covers all aspects of a product usage today, from its size, shape and weight to user input from physical controls to mobile apps to voice input. Marc Krolczyk and Frank Marino of Three Design will present what it takes to makes User Experience the difference between a winner and a loser in the market.

Industrial Design is all important function of determining the “look and feel” of a product. From shape and size to weight to materials to placement of features, industrial design is making sure that the product appeals to the buyer from the pre-sales phase to when it has lived out its useful life. Our expert in Industrial Design, Myk Lom of Lum Design Associates (LDA) will engage with our audience in what it takes to develop products that connect with consumers today and cause them to hit the “buy” button as soon as they see the product!

Saturday, October 1, 11:15 am — 1:00 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development Super Saturday: PDSS2 - Acoustic Design and DSP Engineering

Abstract:
AES Super Session: How to Develop a Killer Audio Product in One Day!

In the second session of Super Saturday, our team will explore the depths of acoustic design and DSP, two disciplines when put together, can be used to create a product that it more than the sum of its parts.

Acoustic Design when it comes to successful products is always a compromise. Size, bass and loud are three competing goals of any audio product. Today there are rich tools, methods and technologies to take on acoustic challenges and bring amazing acoustic performance to the consumer. Mark Trainer of Minimum Phase will explore what is possible with transducer selection, acoustic modeling, DSP manipulation and 3D printing and show how he applied it to design the Speak2Me product that you will see for the first time at the AES Super Saturday event.

DSP Engineering today has evolved rapidly. The amount of processing power from even the lowest cost silicon devices has changed the game from a hardware to a software based engineering effort. The high level software tools of today and now compete and exceed the capability of even the best DSP coders. This changes the approach and even the method of developing audio products as DSP simulations can be tuned and iterated in very short times allowing for significant advances in optimization of both cost and performance that was not possible until recently. Paul Beckmann of DSP Concepts will discuss the details of how to approach product development from the beginning with DSP as the game changer for any audio product. During the session Paul will design and demo the DSP chain developed for the Speak2Me product. He’ll solicit help from the audience in making tradeoffs in the loudspeaker and microphone processing

Saturday, October 1, 2:00 pm — 4:00 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development Super Saturday: PDSS3 - Speak2Me Demo and Natural Voice Input

Abstract:
AES Super Session: How to Develop a Killer Audio Product in One Day!

Following our lunch break, the PDSS Team will host a Demo to show off the Speak2Me product to PDSS attendees in a “mini” trade show floor co-located in the PDSS room. You will see and hear how it performs from a variety of consumer uses. The development team will be available to answer questions from PDSS attendees.

Voice Input using Natural Language Understanding is probably the hottest feature set in consumer audio products today from loudspeakers to remote controls to doorbells to assistive living devices and beyond. With the growth in IoT devices predicted in the billions, a key input to many of these devices is listening and processing information from humans. Barry Roitblat of VoiceBox will lead a discussion of the primary considerations for creating a great user experience using natural language understanding.
Natural Language Understanding is about more than just voice recognition. Once the system understands the words spoken, it must still discern the meaning and then take the appropriate action. To do this, requires Voice AI. Voice AI combines a number of features and techniques, including:
• Context – historical, conversations, environmental, or personal information that lend to the understanding of the current request.
• Semantic Understanding - parsing, knowledge, and reasoning to determine the meaning of a request from the language structure, and infer appropriate queries and actions to fulfill the request
• Machine Learning - adapt to different dialects and pronunciations, understand new words and aliases, derive new relationships, and learn new phrases or other language forms from previous interactions
• Dialog – use natural language responses and multi-modal interaction (speech, touch, gesture, etc.) to request additional information needed to fulfill a request

Saturday, October 1, 4:15 pm — 6:00 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development Super Saturday: PDSS4 - Design Validation, Product Verification and Sourcing & Supply Chain

Abstract:
AES Super Session: How to Develop a Killer Audio Product in One Day!

In our last session, the team will discuss how the product moves from the design phase to the production phase. Most product companies have challenges in getting through this phase quickly and without undue stress. Making sure the design is right, it is properly documented and having the right partners is essential to success in getting the product into the customers’ hands.

Design Validation is the phase of development where the design is fully evaluated to make sure that the design can transition to be manufactured in high quantities while adhering to product specifications and costing constraints. Production Verification is where the appropriate systems and controls are put in place to ensure that the production facility, equipment and work force are ready to produce the product to meet customer demand for availability price, quality. Jonathan Novick of Audio Precision will discuss these key topics and how a product can successfully move from design phase to the production phase. He will look at how these are applied to the Speak2Me product and what challenges a product company faces in making sure that a high level of confidence about the product’s ability to perform as expected when it is in the customer’s hands.

Sourcing and Supply Chain today has evolved tremendously over the past 15 years. Audio products have morphed from separate components to integrated solutions of analog and digital electronics, wireless, speakers and enclosures and the factories and their support teams have also evolved to support these products.

There is a lot more to getting a product into production than sending out a bid and picking the lowest cost producer. Timing of vendor selection is often early on in the process to get the sign on of the vendor team and to insure the development of a product that fits both the brand’s and factory fabrication processes. Product price points and quality, projected quantities, ability and speed to ramp up production, are just some of the selection criteria. Much of the heavy lifting in product development as well as design for manufacturability are often the responsibility of the vendor with oversight by the Brand.

Mike Klasco with Menlo Scientific, who has been involved with product development and international factory selection for over 30 years. Mike will discuss specifically how he addresses bringing the Speak2Me to market and the roles that the Sourcing and Supply Chain people must perform to ensure product and market success today.

Sunday, October 2, 9:00 am — 10:30 am (Rm 402AB)

Product Development: PD8 - UI/UX Design Thinking and Best Practices for Audio Plugins

Abstract:
Design thinking encompasses specific methods and approaches used by modern designers during UI/UX development. Our talk will cover this subject through the lends of audio plug-in development. We will also cover best practices and common interface design elements through data analysis of the top 100 commercial plugins. We will cover topics including toolbars, flat design, parameter outlining, cross-modality and 1080 p/4 k compatibility. Included will be a brief video of users discussing their experience with interfaces. We will conclude with honoring our users—the producers and engineers who craft the recordings we love.

Sunday, October 2, 10:45 am — 12:15 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development: PD9 - New Standard for Electrical and Mechanical Transducer Measurements

Abstract:
This tutorial reports on the progress made in the development of a new IEC standard dedicated to electrical and mechanical measurements (part B) complementing the acoustical measurements (part A) presented at previous AES conventions. Both standards are applicable to all kinds of transducers, active and passive loudspeakers, and other sound reproduction systems. Voltage and current measured at the electrical terminals provide not only the electrical input impedance but also meaningful parameters of linear, nonlinear, and thermal models describing the behavior of the transducer in the small and large signal domain. This standard addresses long-term testing to assess power handling, heating process, product reliability, and climate impact. New mechanical characteristics are derived from laser scanning techniques that are the basis for modal analysis of cone vibration and predicting the acoustical output. The electrical and mechanical data are required for transducer and system design based on numerical simulations (FEA, BEA) and digital signal processing protecting the transducer and correcting the transfer behavior actively.

Sunday, October 2, 1:30 pm — 3:00 pm (Rm 402AB)

Product Development: PD10 - Improved Loudspeaker Performance Using DC-Coupled Amplifiers

Abstract:
DC coupling in audio amplifiers has been considered more dangerous than advantageous because a DC signal generated somewhere in the audio chain might damage the transducer silently. However, the transducer would benefit from a small electrical DC signal that keeps the voice coil at the desired working point in the gap and copes with the DC displacement generated dynamically by the transducer nonlinearities and a shift of the coil’s rest position due to production variances, aging, gravity, and load changes. An adaptive control system based on a nonlinear model will synthesize the DC signal automatically by minimizing the voice coil offset that can be detected from voltage and current monitoring. This technique allows to compensate for nonlinear distortion, to protect the transducer reliably against mechanical overload, and to operate the voice coil at the Bl maximum generating highest efficiency and maximal output. The workshop explains the control theory, discusses the practical implementation and illustrates the benefits and power requirements on practical demos.

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