AES News

— The AES’s campaign to raise funds to sustain the Society through the COVID-19 pandemic has garnered support from a host of individuals, from audio industry companies including speaker manufacturer Genelec, and from partner organizations including PAMA —

The Audio Engineering Society has raised more than $159,000 USD since the launch of its COVID-19 pandemic-driven fundraising campaign in mid-April with a goal of raising $500,000 by June 1. More than 170 individuals, making donations ranging from $10 to $4500, have been joined by corporations and organizations – 21 new names have been added to the educational non-profit AES’s Sustaining Member roster. “The AES is grateful for the validation of its importance to the professional audio industry by each and every contributor that is helping at whatever level they can,” said AES President Agnieszka Roginska. 

Further such validation has come from AES industry partners. “To us, the AES represents the only serious forum for the development of audio, and the work it does for our industry is invaluable,” said Siamak Naghian, Managing Director of Genelec, an AES Sustaining Member, when announcing the speaker manufacturer’s contribution to the fund drive. “In its pursuit of excellence and dedication to raising the bar in the industry, it is without equal, and our approaches have much in common. We will do everything we can to help the Society through the ongoing crisis, and this donation is just one way of showing our support and appreciation for this much-loved institution.” Genelec has committed a percentage of all 2020 sales of its new “endlessly recyclable” RAW series of loudspeakers, housed in environment-sustaining chassis. Further, Genelec is inviting individuals in the audio community who have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, both professionals and students, to apply for one of ten Genelec-funded 12-month AES memberships.  (To apply to Genelec for a one year AES membership, please visit www.genelec.com/AES.)

“Genelec has been a steadfast partner to the AES for decades,” shared Roginska, “contributing resources and expertise that play a major role in the quality of our Convention technical programs.” With their contributions to AES’s fundraising campaign, she elaborated, along with the company’s Platinum Sponsorship of the upcoming AES Virtual Vienna Convention, “Genelec is reinforcing its commitment to the continued vitality of the audio industry. The AES greatly appreciates Genelec’s pledge of this further support, helping sustain the Society’s essential contributions to the audio industry.” These contributions are in addition to Genelec’s endowment of the AES Education Foundation’s Ilpo Martikainen Audio Visionary Scholarship, offered annually to an AES Student Member that is a U.S. graduate student in the field of audio engineering. 

The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA), an association of leading companies dedicated to the awareness and appreciation of high-quality professional audio through education, passion and common purpose, is also contributing to the Audio Engineering Society’s fundraising initiative. “The AES plays a vital role in the advancement of audio technology, promoting innovation and education.” said Greg Beebe, chair of the board of directors of PAMA. “Many of our member companies are key exhibitors at AES Conventions. PAMA recognizes the importance of a healthy AES. We are proud to join the roster of AES Sustaining Members.”

“PAMA shares AES’s ultimate goal – a thriving audio industry for all,” commented AES Executive Director Colleen Harper. “We appreciate their work towards that shared goal, and their wonderfully supportive and generous contribution to the AES to sustain our own complementary work.”

The AES staff and volunteer leadership have worked diligently to reduce operating costs and postpone expenditures while maintaining membership services, supporting student and continuing education efforts and other ongoing activities, and planning future endeavors. As with any business, AES has recurring expenses such as rent, utilities and infrastructure; web hosting and email; and various mission-critical contracted services. Creation of a virtual convention, AES Virtual Vienna, has incurred start-up costs while the cancellation and postponement of several AES events have impacted budgeted cashflow. Planning and organization are also underway on the comprehensive Technical Program for this year’s AES Fall Pro Audio Convention, scheduled for October 21 – 23 in New York City, with contingencies being developed to allow the Convention to proceed regardless of the ongoing impact of the global COVID-19 crisis.

Donations may be made on the AES website at https://tinyurl.com/AES-Give or via PayPal (use PayPal’s “Send” function to route your donation directly to [email protected]). No donation is too small. 

Learn more about the AES COVID-19 fundraising initiative by visiting http://www.aes.org/blog/2020/5/the-aes-needs-you. 

About the Audio Engineering Society

The Audio Engineering Society, celebrating over 70 years of audio excellence, now counts over 12,000 members throughout the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Japan and the Far East. The organization serves as the pivotal force in the exchange and dissemination of technical information for the industry. Currently, its members are affiliated with 90 AES professional sections and more than 120 AES student sections around the world. Section activities include guest speakers, technical tours, demonstrations and social functions. Through local AES section events members experience valuable opportunities for professional networking and personal growth. For additional information, visit aes.org.

Join the conversation and keep up with the latest AES News and Events:

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35% e-books discount in May for everyone, 30% discount on print titles always for AES members on Routledge, CRC Press and Focal Press titles

Taylor & Francis Group – publisher of books for all levels of academic study and professional development, across a wide range of subjects and disciplines – has launched a new AES member benefits page which unites the book imprints Routledge, CRC Press and Focal Press.

To celebrate this merger of resources, Taylor & Francis Group is offering a discount of 35% on all e-books until May 31st (no discount code required). As always, AES members are entitled to a 30% discount on online orders of print books, applied by using the discount code available through the AES Member Portal.

Titles available include the collaboratively developed “AES Presents” series of books, featuring the recent releases:

Women in Audio by Leslie Gaston-Bird, a valuable resource for professionals, educators, and students looking to gain insight into the careers of trailblazing women in audio-related fields and represents required reading for those looking to add diversity to their music technology programs.

Intelligent Music Production by Brecht De Man, Ryan Stables, Joshua D. Reiss, presents the state of the art in approaches, methodologies and systems from the emerging field of automation in music mixing and mastering. It covers the music production processes; methodologies in classification, data collection and perceptual evaluation; and advances on introducing intelligence in audio effects, production and interfaces.

Beep to Boom: The Development of Advanced Runtime Sound Systems for Games and Extended Reality by Simon N. Goodwin, a rigorous, comprehensive guide to interactive audio runtime systems. Using practical, lowest-common-denominator techniques, Goodwin covers soundfield creation across a range of platforms from phones to VR gaming consoles.

Loudspeakers: For Music Recording and Reproduction, Second Edition by Philip Newell and Keith Holland is a comprehensive guide, offering the tools and understanding needed to cut out the guesswork from loudspeaker choice and set-up. This new edition provides significant updates on the topics of digital control, calibration, and cinema loudspeaker systems.

AES members interested in writing a book for the AES Presents series are encouraged to contact the editor, Hannah Rowe, whose contact details are on the member web page.

The Audio Engineering Society has begun to announce program details for the upcoming Virtual Vienna Convention, including three keynote lectures and the Heyser Presentation. As a result of circumstances dictating the move of the Convention to an online format, the Audio Engineering Society is bringing the AES Europe Convention directly to virtual attendees around the globe, with Keynotes from AES Fellow and Silver Medal Awardee Jamie Angus (University of Salford), Marisa Hoeschele (Acoustics Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences) and Franz Zotter (Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics, University of Arts and Music, Graz), as well as this year’s Heyser Presentation by AES Fellow and Bronze Medal Awardee Francis Rumsey (technical consultant, author, Audio Engineering Society). The AES Virtual Vienna Convention will take place online June 2 – 5, and registration is now open for as little as $50 USD for AES members.

On the opening day of AES Virtual Vienna, The Heyser Presentation – an online adaptation of the AES Technical Council’s Heyser Lecture series that serves as a highlight of each AES convention – will be presented by Francis Rumsey on “Sound Quality in the Era of Interaction and Extended Reality.” Rumsey’s description of his presentation notes, “When evaluating sound quality, audio engineers have traditionally relied on some explicit or implied comparison with a reference. Even if a reference signal is not formally used, any judgement about what is ‘good’ or ‘correct’ has traditionally been rooted in a concept of fidelity to some ideal. That ideal might be a memory of ‘the best I have ever heard,’ some naturally occurring version of the sound in question, or perhaps ‘what the engineer/producer heard in the control room.’ We assume that we know what correct sound reproduction is, and that high quality means getting as close to that goal as possible. This is all very well when we are mainly aiming at sound reproduction of something that actually happened, and when a canonical version exists. Audio products are increasingly interactive, though, and multiple versions can be rendered depending on user interaction. Extended reality systems make the user experience increasingly indeterminate. The concept of fidelity breaks down, and the engineer no longer has ultimate control over what is delivered to the listener. New paradigms for integrative evaluation of sound quality are needed.”

On day two of the Convention, Marisa Hoeschele will give the keynote address “Audio from a Biological Perspective.” In the abstract of the address, Hoeschele states, “Audio plays an important role in the human experience. We communicate and express ourselves via sounds such as language and music. For a long time, the types of sounds we produce in both language and music were considered arbitrary cultural phenomena. But over the last decades, it has become increasingly clear that biology plays an important role in how we perceive and produce sounds. This talk will be an overview of insights that can be taken by considering biological foundations of our cultural practices in producing audio and perceiving music.”

The day-three keynote “Try Ambisonics, It's Better Than Ever!” will be given by Franz Zotter, “Ambisonics sounds and works better as 3D audio technology than ever before,” says Zotter. “There are microphone arrays available for higher-order recording, excellent Ambisonic decoders for loudspeakers, and excellence has been achieved by new headphone decoders.” Additionally, he notes, “In the last decade, we have gathered a profound perceptual understanding of Ambisonics. In addition to commercial tools and plugins, many free tools developed at universities became available in recent years. Currently, we experience Ambisonic technology that is highly versatile and can easily live up to the expectations that its inventors had been dreaming of several decades ago.

On day four, Jamie Angus will deliver the final keynote of the Convention, titled “Dicing With Audio.” Says Angus, “Noise, random or otherwise, has been around in audio since its very beginning. It can be a compositional tool, a synthesis element, or just a nuisance to be eliminated. How do we use noise creatively and technically to enhance our audio experiences? The answer might surprise you. Join me for a white noise ride at the boundaries of audio!”   

Additional details on the AES Virtual Vienna Convention Technical Program, including topics and events, Paper presentations, Workshops, Tutorials, Posters, Engineering Briefs, Virtual Tech Tours and other technical program content, along with live- and forum-based dialog with presenters, will soon be announced. Registration and preliminary information are available at AESEurope.com. 

AES Annual Business Meeting

Monday November 2 at 1:30pm EDT

Join Zoom Meeting HERE

Meeting ID: 835 9894 0606
Passcode: 783386

Early Bird Registration options and pricing are available through August 31 for the online AES Show Fall 2020 – the 149th International AES Convention – featuring an expanded timeline and event offerings for maximum opportunities to Listen, Learn, and Connect with audio peers and pros from around the world. October is Audio Engineering Month, culminating in the Convention’s comprehensive Technical Program.

AES Show Fall 2020 Convention registration includes four full weeks of live and on-demand tech program content, live Q&A’s, networking, and more, for just $99 for AES Members and $224 for non-members – the latter including one year of AES membership and benefits – through the end of August. Student Members can register for $49.

Visit AESShow.com to find out more and Register Now!

New York, NY, April 28, 2020 — As much of the world follows safe-at-home and social distancing guidelines and mandates, the Audio Engineering Society is bringing the AES Europe Convention directly to attendees. Originally scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria, the AES Virtual Vienna Convention in now set for June 2 – 5, 2020, with an online format. The AES Virtual Vienna Convention is a front-row-seat to the AES event experience, utilizing live streaming, on-demand audio/video/multimedia presentations, interactive Q&A and forum dialogs to realize the personal connection and emotional feedback that is at the heart of AES live events. All Access registration for this first-of-its-kind AES live event is available for just $50 for AES members ($175 for non-members), with additional discounts available for currently enrolled audio students.

The AES Virtual Vienna Convention will explore the gamut of audio engineering science, application and technology with presentations from some of the leading minds in the industry on Studio Recording, Live Sound, Networked Audio, Broadcast & Streaming, Music Production, Post-Production, Game Audio, Spatial Sound, Audio for AR/VR/XR, Product Development and more. The AES Virtual Vienna Convention is led by AES Convention Co-chairs Piotr Majdak and Nadja Wallaszkovits; Facilities Co-chairs Thomas Gmeiner and Michael Mihocic; Papers Co-chairs Thomas Sporer and Areti Andreopoulou; Workshops and Tutorials Co-chairs Matthias Frank, Ana Monte and Daniel Deboy; Technical Tours Co-chairs Michael Iber and Andreas Büchele; Student Volunteers Coordinator Katharina Pollack; and Education Chair Magdalena Piotrowska.  

Further details on the AES Virtual Vienna Convention, which will include a multi-faceted schedule of presentations of Papers, Workshops, Tutorials, Posters, Engineering Briefs, Virtual Tech Tours and other technical program content, along with live- and forum-based dialog with presenters, will be announced in the coming weeks. Registration is currently open at AESEurope.com.

More Information

Every AES Convention hosts the Student Recording Competition and the Saul Walker Student Design Competition, where students present their projects to peers and a jury of industry legends. In return, they receive invaluable feedbac and, possibly, eternal fame commemerated by a beautiful certificate. Oh, and there are tons of prizes!  

For COVID-19-driven reasons, the AES Student Delegate Assemby will be hosting these competitions online this year as part of the AES Virtual Vienna  event, which means the format will be slightly different. 

To sign up:

- you need to be a current AES Student Member (if you’re not, become one now!) 

- be registered for the AES Virtual Event. You can register through your AES member portal here  

- to enter the Student Recording Competition, go to https://secure.aes.org/events/competitions/?ID=50

- to enter the Student Design Competition, go to https://secure.aes.org/events/competitions/?ID=49

The submission deadline is April 27th midnight ET.  Don't miss it!

Other than this, the requirements are the same as previous years. The jury and audience participation remains at the core of the experience of competing!  

Please familiarize yourself with the competition rules before submitting. 

SRC: http://www.aes.org/students/awards/recording/

SDC: http://www.aes.org/students/awards/design/ 

For any membership/website issues, contact us here

While we are very sorry to not be meeting in person with our fellow students in Vienna, the SDA is putting together a not-to-be-missed program of virtual events – more details are coming very soon. We are very excited by the opportunity that this year's change in format presents for more participants than ever to submit unique contributions from all corners of the world.

Take the Survey

The AES is a signatory to a letter to US lawmakers asking that additional associations be covered by the CARE act. 

"The AES is among 3000 associations that are signatories to this letter, all feeling the impact of this international pandemic,” comments AES Executive Director Colleen Harper. “We encourage our US membership to support your AES by reaching out to your representatives to encourage the extension of the CARES Act to professional associations."

You can read the letter in full here.