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Audio
Engineering Society
Chicago SectionMeeting Recap - April 18, 2012
AES
Chicago Section Meeting Notice
TOPIC
/ PRESENTER: A DVD viewing of a 2011
interview with Leo Beranek
DATE:
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
TIME:
7:30pm; dinner (optional) at 6:30pm
LOCATION:
Shure Incorporated, 5800 W. Touhy Ave,
Niles, IL 60714 ABOUT THE PRESENTATION:
A DVD viewing of the 2011 interview with
Leo Beranek as part
of the NAMM Oral History Program ABOUT
THIS MONTH’S SPEAKER:
Directly
from Wikipedia:
Leo
Leroy Beranek
(born
September 15, 1914) is an American acoustics
expert,
former MIT
professor
and a founder and former president of Bolt,
Beranek and Newman
(now
BBN Technologies).
A
student of piano at an early age, Beranek, growing up in Mount
Vernon, Iowa,
went on to study at Cornell
College
while
working as a radio and small appliance repairman. He graduated
with a Bachelor of Arts and went on to study at Harvard
University,
where he received a doctorate in 1940. During World
War II,
he managed Harvard's electro-acoustics laboratory, which designed
communications and noise reduction systems for World War II
aircraft, while at the same time developing other military
technologies. During this time, he built the first anechoic
chamber,
an extremely quiet room for studying noise effects which later
would inspire John
Cage's
philosophy of silence. Beranek remained on staff at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology as professor of communications engineering
from 1947 to 1958. In 1948, he helped found Bolt,
Beranek and Newman
(BBN),
serving as the company's president from 1952 to 1971.
His
1954 (reprinted in 1986) book, Acoustics,
is considered the classic textbook in this field. His seminal 1962
book, Music
Acoustics and Architecture,
developed from his analysis of 55 concert halls throughout the
world, became a classic; the 2004 edition of the text expanded the
study to 100 halls. Beranek has participated in the design of
numerous concert halls and opera houses. From 1983 to 1986 he was
Chairman of the Board of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra
(where
he remains a Life Trustee). He also serves on the Council for the
Arts at MIT.
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