AES Standards News Blog

The AES SC-03-06 Working Group on Archiving and Restoration is restarting. Nadja Wallaszkovits and Brad McCoy have agreed to be Chair and Vice Chair. 

The Working Group addresses the application of digital technologies for media preservation and access. Among the topics covered are strategies for content conversion and migration, content integrity, methods of access and distribution, storage systems and media, formats for preservation and distribution, and metadata and documentation. The working group will take account of the work of other organizations in this and related fields, and will liaise and work in conjunction with them.

Individuals interested in participating in group meetings should contact the Standards Manager at [email protected]. 

The AES SC-03-12 Working Group on Forensic Audio met online after a multi-year hiatus.  Attended by 22 people, the group reviewed progress on project AES-X253.  The project is to develop speech collection guidelines for speaker recognition, specifically audio collection at a temporary location.  The group reviewed the first draft of the working document. 

John Hansen is the interim chair.  The group is soliciting permanent Chair and Vice Chair candidates.   People interested in serving on the working group or who want to serve as Chair or Vice Chair should contact the Standards Manager at [email protected].

More Information

In a first for the AES, the spring Standards meetings were held entirely online May 26 – 29. Meetings have been accesible online during previous conventions, but this is the first time there has not been an in-person component Twelve working groups met over the 4 days.  Meeting length ranged from 30 to 90 minutes and attendance varied from 7 to 25 people.  The meetings were followed by a Plenary meeting at which the chairs of each working group summarized the activity within their group. 

Meeting reports will be posted on the AES Standards web site as they become available.

Meetings reports available here

The Vienna AES Convention in May 2020 has been converted to a virtual format as a consequence of the COVID19 pandemic. Consequently the concurrent AES Standards meetings will be changing to an online format. 

Since physical attendance is no longer required, the Standards meetings will not be held on the same dates as the online convention. The convention has been delayed, and will now run June 2 - 5, 2020.  Standards meetings will be held the week before the AES convention, to reduce schedule conflicts for attendees. 

Since attendees will no longer all be in the same time zone, as happens with physical meetings, the meeting schedule will be different. Meetings have been limited to 4 hours in any single day to allow meeting times which span the widest number of waking time zones.  Since all active Task Groups hold regular online meetings, usually biweekly, they will not hold special meetings associated with the online convention.  

Meeting schedule and agendas

AES60id-2020, "AES Information Document for audio metadata - Core audio metadata" was published 0n 2020-04-15.

This specification addresses the creation, management and preservation of material that can be re-used as originally produced, or may provide input material for new production projects. Material is expected to be exchanged between various organisations or between production facilities in a distributed environment. 

The core set of metadata presented in this specification is a co-publication of EBU Tech3293-2019 EBUCore, itself an extension to and a refinement of the Dublin Core. EBUCore is a minimum list of attributes characterizing video and / or audio media resources. An XML representation is used as this is the likely method that metadata would be implemented, for example in archive exchange projects using the Open Archive Initiative's Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH).

For a preview and to purchase this document:

The Vienna AES  Convention in May 2020 is being converted to a virtual format as a consequence of the COVID19 pandemic.  Consequently the concurrent AES  Standards meetings will be changing to an online format. 

Since physical attendance is no longer required, the Standards meetings will not be held on the same dates as the online convention.  It is likely that they will be held the week after the AES  convention, to reduce schedule conflicts for attendees. 

Since attendees will no longer all be in the same time zone, as happens with physical meetings, the meeting schedule will be changed.  Meetings will be limited to 2 hours in any single day to allow selection of a meeting time which spans the widest number of waking time zones.  This will extend the meetings over more than the usual 4 days.

When a schedule is determined it will be posted on the AES Standards web site in the AES Standards Meetings and Reports web page.  Emails will be sent to all AES Standards Working Group and Task Group members announcing the time for their individual meetings.

Meeting schedule posted here

Working Group SC-02-08, chaired by Piotr Majdak and Markus Noisternig has begun revisions of AES69-2015 AES standard for file exchange - Spatial acoustic data file format. It standardizes a file format to exchange space-related acoustic data in various forms. The format is designed to be scalable to match the available rendering process while being sufficiently flexible to include source materials from different databases. 

Binaural listening is growing fast, because of growing sales in smartphones, tablets and other individual entertainment systems. The lack of a standard for the exchange of head-related transfer functions (HRTF) means each company keeps its binaural capture and rendering algorithms private. 3D audio is arising, and binaural listening could be the very first 3D audio vector with sufficient fidelity of HRTF. 

The use of convolution-based reverberation processors in 3D virtual audio environments has grown with the increase in available computing power. Convolution-based reverberators guarantee for an authentic and natural listening experience, but also depend on the acoustic quality of the applied directional room impulse response (DRIR).

With a standardized file format for HRTF and DRIR data, each company could contribute its best algorithms, providing good personalized capture and/or rendering, allowing the consumer to choose its best combination of technologies for the best quality of experience. 

Join the group here

The AES SC-05-05 Working Group on Grounding and Electromagnetic Compatibility Practices, chaired by Anthony Kuzub of the CBC, has started a new project to specify the characterization of analog professional audio interfaces.  

The X152 project will develop a standard method for characterizing analog professional audio interfaces and for the specification of these quantities in product data sheets.  Particular attention will be paid to Input and output specifications such as drive circuit type, receiving circuit type, Impedance, sensitivity, maximum amplitude and grounding, including compatibility with existing standards such as AES48 and AES54. The group  will look for commonalities among analog professional audio interfaces and create a template usable in published manuals and datasheets.

The resulting document will enable users of professional audio equipment to predict the behavior of devices as they come together to form a system.  A common presentation language will give designers and installers the information required to properly interconnect devices.  Users will be able to optimally connect devices based on specifications and reduce trial and error.

The Working Group is soliciting input and participation by all interested parties.   If you would like to participate, sign using the link below. 

Join the group here

The AESSC online database of AES67 Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement (PICS) Summaries now contains 30 entries from 6 different manufacturers. They help users quickly assess interoperability capabilities between AES67 implementations.

An AES67-2018 Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement (PICS) documents the capabilities of an AES67 implementation.  A PICS covers all aspects of AES67 standards compliance and runs to some 25 pages.  AES-R19 describes a two page summary of the primary options and interoperability points documented in a completed PICS. 

Manufacturers are encouraged to submit their PICS summaries for inclusion in the database.

Instructions for submissions can be found at the bottom of the PICS database webpage

AES-X252, a project to specify a common way to control routing of AVDECC/Milan audio streams using an adaptation of the AES70 CM3 feature set, has been started.  It will be developed in SC-02-12-L under the direction of co-chair Morten Lave.

The document will specify a common way to control routing of AVDECC/Milan audio streams using an adaptation of the AES70 CM3 feature set.  The document will also define a programmatic interface between AES70 and AVDECC software drivers that is suitable for implementing the defined adaptation.

The industry will benefit from having one unified layer 3 method of controlling connection management of media streams regardless of the media transport and independent of the protocol layer used for the media transport.

Interested parties may join the SC-02-12-L task group and participate remotely via teleconference and receive updates by email.

Join the group here