AES Standards News Blog

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has honored AES for “Development of Synchronized multi-channel uncompressed audio transport over IP Networks” in the 71^st annual Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards.  The 71^st annual Technical & Engineering Emmy Awards will be presented in a special ceremony at the upcoming NAB Show at the Wynn Encore Hotel and Spa on Sunday, April 19th, 2020, in Las Vegas, NV. 

AES67 is an essential protocol that established a standardized language for audio transport, employed every day in the broadcast world and beyond. Its introduction in 2013 fundamentally changed the broadcast audio landscape and paved the way for recent similar developments for video.

The distinction for “Development of Synchronized multi-channel uncompressed audio transport over IP Networks” cites the AES alongside ALC NetworX, Audinate, Kevin Gross, QSC, Telos Alliance and Wheatstone. AES67 compliance allows audio content interoperability between the proprietary IP-based audio networking protocols developed by the Emmy co-winners: RAVENNA, Dante, Q-Sys, Livewire+ and WheatNet-IP. Co-Emmy-winner and AES Fellow Kevin Gross led the AES67 Standards effort as chair of the AES Standards Task Group on AES67 Development and is the chair of the AES Technical Committee on Network Audio Systems. Former AES Standards Manager Mark Yonge, mentored the standard through the development process.  The improvement from audio networking born in the mid-1990s to new IP-based solutions emerged as a simultaneous invention from the honored companies.  While collectively this represented a technical improvement, interoperability was not addressed until the AES initiated the X192 project on audio interoperability.  Steve Church, Rich Zwiebel, Philip Lawo and Andreas Hildebrand, leaders at these companies, understood the potential for an audio networking standard to greatly speed advancement of the technology. 

The Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards are awarded to a living individual, a company, or a scientific or technical organization for developments and/or standardization involved in engineering technologies that either represent so extensive an improvement on existing methods or are so innovative in nature that they materially have affected television. A Committee of highly qualified engineers working in television considers technical developments in the industry and determines which, if any, merit an award.