Speakers
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Andres Mayo (Chair)Andres Mayo Immersive AudioAndrés Mayo, former President of the AES (Audio Engineering Society), is an audio engineer and music producer who has pioneered the art of mastering since 1992. He boasts credits in more than 3,000 albums released in all formats, from vinyl through BluRay. Andres co-chaired the first AES Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality (AVAR), held in Los Angeles in 2016, and since then he has been working tirelessly (together with fellow engineer Martin Muscatello) in the development of techniques and workflows for immersive music production.
Andres Mayo Immersive Audio boasts a Dolby Atmos – Neumann room and caters for all sorts of deliverables, from 360° podcasts and commercial ads through documentaries and music productions.
Member of the P&E Wing Advisory Council at NARAS, Andres is a 2-time GRAMMY and 7-time Gardel Award winner. -
Wilfried Van BaelenMD Auro Technologies, CEO Galaxy StudiosWilfried Van Baelen is a globally acclaimed pioneer in advanced audio formats. He revolutionized the industry with his Auro-3D format, the first-ever 3D Audio format offering an efficient end-to-end solution across all audio markets, rapidly adopted and established in digital cinema, home entertainment, mobile, gaming, brand automotive industries.
Awarded worldwide for his productions and groundbreaking contributions to the evolution of sound, Wilfried Van Baelen combines his expertise as a top musician, accomplished audio engineer, and producer in both the film and music industries. This unique combination enables him to identify market challenges and design innovative solutions. He replaced the term “Surround Sound + Height” by “Immersive Sound” or “Immersive Audio”, now a global standard.
As CEO of AuroMasters, he brings this vision to life through the AuroMasters app, redefining music streaming and paving the way for a more sustainable industry, while elevating the Immersive Music experience, delivered in studio-grade audio quality (up to 192 kHz / 24-bit), to an entirely new level for consumers worldwide.
Wilfried is today CEO and MD of Galaxy Studios Group, Executive Chairman and MD of Auro Technologies. -
Gary SpittleSonicalGary Spittle is an audio technology pioneer with over 30 years
of experience developing advanced sound systems for leading global consumer electronics brands. His expertise includes spatial and immersive audio, delivering high-performance listening experiences for both professional and consumer markets.Living with tinnitus himself, Gary recognized a fundamental gap: today’s headphones and hearing aids are static, limited, and fail in real-world environments—despite rapid advances in technology. He founded Sonical to change that.
Sonical is pioneering a new category – hearing computing – transforming audio devices into programmable, software-driven systems that adapt in real time to each user and environment. Through its flagship platform, Remora, Sonical is shifting hearing from fixed hardware to an upgradeable experience.
Central to this vision is personalised immersive audio – bringing studio-grade spatial sound, once limited to professionals, to anyone listening to music, watching movies, or navigating everyday life.
With a production-ready platform, collaboration with Sony, and strong early adoption from professional users, Sonical is building a scalable platform that will redefine how people experience sound.
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Jani HuoponenEclipsaA media processing veteran with over 25 years of experience, Jani has led key multimedia initiatives across Chrome, YouTube, and Stadia. Currently, he is the product lead for Eclipsa Audio on the Chrome Open Media team, where he drives advancements in immersive audio technology.
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Martin RiegerVRTonungMartin Rieger is a 3D audio expert with a decade of full-time experience as a freelancer and consultant. As founder of VRTonung (Munich), he covers binaural and multichannel production from field recordings worldwide to post-production — with a strong focus on headphone listening and head-tracked spatial audio for HMDs.
With over 100 projects across 15+ countries, he is one of the most experienced practitioners in the German-speaking world. A committed advocate for head tracking and three degrees of freedom, he argues that immersive audio is not a replacement for stereo but a coexistence — each format with its own legitimate role and there are more than you think.
Beyond production, he runs one of the most dedicated blogs on 3D audio and is an active thought leader on LinkedIn, bridging the gap between spatial audio technology and the broader creative and business community.
Immersive Audio Academy 12th Edition – Immersive Audio In All Flavors
There are many ways of implementing immersive audio, across a variety of applications. The experts in this panel represent a plurality of experiences, and will share a variety of paths and approaches to this continually expanding field. Across the discussion, they’ll be sharing insights on hardware and software that can democratize access and reach massive audiences, as well as new applications of immersive audio that could be “the next big thing” that audio engineers need to prepare for.
Online via Zoom
