TECHNICAL TOURS

Sunday, March 22

11:00 – 16:00 h
T1 POLYHYMNIA - 'HIGH RESOLUTION' CLASSICAL RECORDING CENTER, Baarn
Polyhymnia International, formerly the Philips Classics Recording Center, provides state-of-the-art recording, post-production, consulting, and mastering services for many of the world's top classical labels and artists. Polyhymnia is particularly known for quality multichannel SACD recordings, which appear on labels such as Philips Classics, Telarc, and PentaTone.
The technical tour will include demonstrations of their surround recordings, a tour of the multi-room facility, and a look inside the Polyhymnia/Eurosound mobile recording truck, specially designed for high-quality surround recordings.
There will also be time for discussions and coffee.
Ticket Price: EUR 12,-


Monday, March 24

10:00 – 15:00 h
T2 HKU / KMT - COMPUTER BASED AUDIO TRAINING CENTER, Hilversum
At the Utrecht School of Music & Technology in Hilversum, the sub faculty Music Technology will present some work by students and researchers.
1) IPLM is a newly developed interactive teaching program for EQ and compressor usage, an interactive course in a Protools environment.
2) MEDIATE (Multi-sensory Environment Design for an Interface between Autistic and Typical Expressiveness) is an Interactive Environment that reacts to the user which is an autistic person.
3) 3D AUDIO FOR LIVING ROOMS: A new concept, using convolution reverberation for surround sound production, resulting in a dramatic improvement in imaging.
4) GAMES FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDREN: Sound used as the basic element in a game design and development process.
5) ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN for a planned new studio complex.
Ticket Price: EUR 12,-

10:00 – 15:00 h
T3 DUTCH VIEW, NOB - BROADCASTING STUDIOS, Hilversum
NOB Cross Media Services and her sister organization Dutch View offer a guided tour through their studios.
The core activities of NOB Cross Media Services are the transmitting processes for radio and TV for public and commercial broadcasting. New digital techniques and processes have been developed for radio and TV productions.
Dutch View is specialized in the registration of radio and TV programs, and like the NOB, is a market leader with the broad range of facilities, supporting her professional broadcasting customers.
Radio registration studios will be visited during the tour, including a final control room and transmitting facilities.
Much attention will be paid to the technical background of present and future developments in digitalized radio facilities.
Ticket Price: EUR 12,-

10:00 – 15:00 h
T4 RECORD INDUSTRY - VINYL PRESSING PLANT , Haarlem
The complete process of manufacturing vinyl disk records will be shown. From a supplied master tape a cut is made in the cutting (transcription) room. The next step is the electro-plating or galvanic department, where stampers (negatives) are produced to be used for pressing the disk records. Two stampers are required, one for the A side and one for the B side. Roughly 1000 to 1500 records can be pressed from one set of stampers. The vinyl material for the disk record is first formed into a small 'puck' or 'biscuit', using high pressure. Then the vinyl 'puck' is mechanically placed between the two stampers, and pressed into a record in 20 seconds, using a pressure of 150 bar. The pressed records are cooled down for approximately 3 hours for 125 grams records, or a whole night for 180 grams records before they are ready for packing. Throughout the whole process very comprehensive quality control procedures are applied.
Ticket Price: EUR 12,-


Tuesday, March 25

10:30 – 18:30 h
T5 PHILIPS RESEARCH LABS, Eindhoven
Philips Research Laboratories have facilities in several countries - The Netherlands, Belgium, England, Germany, France, India, China and the USA - and employs approximately 2500 people. The program for this tour is centered around new developments in sound technology. After an overview of Philips Research in general, three demonstrations will be given.
Ticket Price: EUR 40,-

09:00 – 13:00 h
T6 DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - WAVE FIELD SYNTHESIS, Delft
The Laboratory of Acoustical Imaging and Sound Control of the Delft University of Technology will present an introduction to their work on explorational seismics, noise control, and especially on audio recording and reproduction in relation to Wave Field Synthesis. The latest developments on Wave Field Synthesis will be demonstrated.
Ticket Price: EUR 20,-