Minutes of the AES Historical Committee Meeting

at the 112th AES Convention, 2002-05-11, in Munich, Germany

Attending: Louis Manno, Willy Aubert, Manfred Krause, Daniel van Recklinghausen, Myles Cochran Davis, Mathias Helling, Robert Boesnecker, Ron Streicher, Michael Murphy, Wolfgang Niehoff, Rudolf Mueller, Kees Immick, Hans-Otto Hoffman, Herman A. O. Wilms, Dave Read, Irv Joel, Friedrick Engel, Ernst-Jo. Völker (Munich meeting chair), Ted Sheldon (AESHC vice chair, meeting secretary). Also several visitors attended the meeting

1. Chair pro-tem Ernst-Jo. Völker called the meet to order at 10:10 and greeted those attending. He thanked everyone for coming and noted the recent passing of Heinz Thiele, a pioneer and dedicated researcher in the history of audio. He introduced and thanked students from Darmstadt University who served as volunteers working with the AESHC, several of whom were at the meeting. The agenda was distributed and reviewed. No additions were suggested and the agenda was approved as distributed.

 
2. Remembrance of Heinz Thiele by Manfred Krause

M. Krause indicated the sadness brought by news of Heinz Thiele's passing on 2002 March 4. His papers are now at the Technical University of Berlin through arrangements made by Manfred Krause. A few moments of silence were observed in his memory. Much of Thiele's equipment and papers were destroyed toward the end of World War II. After the war, he restarted his research and remained active until 1975 when he retired. He was a strong supporter of AES and other societies and associations. Krause intends to continue the work of Heinz Thiele. He intends to make CDs from tapes of interviews made by Heinz Thiele, and hopes that some can be loaded on the AESHC web site.
 
3. Roll call of members and guests.

At the suggestion of chair Völker, members and persons in attendance introduced themselves by name and affiliation.
 
4. Report on AES Historical Committee projects. Irv Joel (for AESHC chair Jay McKnight).

Joel reviewed the communications methods used by the AESHC. He described the AESHC email reflector and how it can help members communicate with each other and with all members using the reflector. Another means of communication is the AESHC web site. To access it, go to the AES web site www.aes.org, then click on Historical Committee. There will be found descriptions of the projects currently operated by the AESHC to accomplish its work. Leaders of the respective projects are:
 
1. Audio Timeline, Irv Joel.
2. 112^th convention, Ernst Voelker.
3. 113^th convention, Wes Dooley.
4. History of the AES, Roger Furness.
5. History of the AES Japan Chapter, Takeo Yamamoto, chair; Steve Sohma, secretary.
6. History of audio engineering at the Vatican, Roberto Beppato.
7. H. K. Thiele Archive, Manfred Krause.
8. Oral History, Irv Joel, chair; John K. Chester, technical advisor.
9. Server provider, David Josephson.
10. Web master and reflector, Howard Sanner
To start a new project, write a description of the proposed project, then send it to Jay McKnight, AESHC chair. Please be prepared to participate as a leader of the proposed project.
 
5. Minutes of the meeting at the 111th Convention  in New York City on 2001 Dec. 2  were accepted without exception.

 
6. Report on European AESHC projects, Manfred Krause.

Vatican project. No activities were reported.

The H. K. Thiele project. The Thiele archive continues to develop as Manfred Krause directs it and learns its content. A database is planned. The collection contains patents and correspondence of patent holders. The first stage of the database is to create headings for all of the material in the archive.

History of the AES. Roger Furness described the project. Materials at the AES HQ will be gathered together as the offices are renovated during the coming year and a place found for them. Also, the materials need to be organized and cataloged.

7. The day's scheduled for presentations in the HC room at this convention were reviewed. They include Hans-Otto Hoffmann from Bavarian Radio discussing the first loudspeakers, a very interesting presentation, and Manfred Krause discussing the legendary tape recorder magnetophon of AEG. Ernst Völker will discuss Phillipp Ries - from the first telephone to the first (carbon) microphone. Other highlights in the program schedule were reviewed.

 
8. The Oral History project. Irv Joel noted that some 68 oral or oral/video interviews have been completed. Two already were competed at this convention and more are planned. Miles Davis has done two interviews in England, and others are encouraged to help with identifying interviewees and act as interviewers.

 
9. Still images of the "When Vinyl Ruled" exhibition at the New York 111^th Convention, 2001-12, were shown by Irv Joel. Joel noted the theme of the presentation and the methods used to put the exhibition together.

 
10. The next meeting of the AESHC will be at the Los Angeles convention in 2002 October 5-8.

Respectfully submitted,
Ted Sheldon, Vice Chair and Secretary
AES Historical Committee

2002-06-26  a
2002-09-04  b  jm html & edit; attendees confirmed against video tape by ij