f.l.t.r.: Prof. Dr. Ernst-Jo Voelker, Dipl.-Ing. Michal Braehler, Dipl.-Ing Wolfgang Teuber, Dipl.-Ing Jens-Uwe Ambos meeting date April 7, 2008, Berlin
The 101st AES Meeting was held in the Berlin Funkturm (Radio Tower). 12 members and guests were present to hear the latest news in the field of Conference Technology. Jens-Uwe Ambos is coordinator for the Media Technique at the Messe Berlin Ltd. He described flexibility for the large network the Messe Berlin combining both audio and video distribution. For the Fair it is a challenge to address many interested people providing them with information on program, localization or other side programs. The Fair works with the audio routing system to connect the different areas, exhibition halls and conference rooms and combines the audio network with video transmission. Ambos described the unavoidable time differences due to DSP calculation times. These time delays were subjected to many contributions of the participants.
Michael Braehler from Company Konferenztechnik Braehler introduced the Braehler Conference Systems which are concentrated on audio and audio quality, simultaneous interpretations, video transmission and interactions with identification cards, answering messages, using video screens, etc... The big problem is the calculation time of DSP's (Digital Sound Processors). To avoid disturbances sometimes an analog transmission systems is preferable. Michael Braehler is head of the Braeher AG (corporation). His company works worldwide with six international branches (subsidiaries) and five branches within Germany. Braehler Company is the leader in conference and conference interaction systems.
Wolfgang Teuber explained the room acoustical requirements to fulfill the standard DIN 18041. He described the growing expectations to achieve good acoustics and pointed out that a high sensitivity is necessary for its fulfillment. It is for instance surprising that a low reverberation time of 0.7 seconds in conference rooms is required Additionally strong sounds reflections must be avoided. The absorbing ceiling is in many cases not sufficient. Teuber explained the rating values of speech intelligibility. He described the influence of strong first reflections on the speech transmission index respectively the CIS and STI values.
Professor Dr. Ernst-Jo. Voelker thanked the speakers and participants for this interesting afternoon. Special thanks to Mr. Ambos of Messe Berlin for the use of the Radio Tower Lounge directly underneath the Funkturm of Berlin as well as to Mr. Braehler and Mr. Teuber for their contributions.
