Countdown to the AES Show

When the Audio Engineering Society’s annual conference and expo takes place Oct. 29-Nov. 1 at New York City’s Jacob Javits Center, SVG will be there, covering the show’s expanded broadcast components and relevant product offerings.

The show’s Broadcast and Streaming Media Track has a slew of topics relevant to broadcast sports, including Audio over IP, OTT content, 4K and 8K broadcast video, facility design, sound design, loudness for streaming, mixing for live telemedia, integrating mobile telephony, and adaptive streaming.

The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) also will be there, on Sunday, to administer certification exams that serve as a way to educate and quantify skills for potential employers. Additionally, a session celebrating the 50th anniversary of the master antenna on the Empire State Building will be presented in conjunction with the SBE gathering.

“The Broadcast and Streaming Sessions at the AES Convention have traditionally tried to emphasize different aspects of audio — from facility design to production, transmission, reception, and listener experience,” says AES Broadcast and Streaming Media Track Chairman David Bialik. “The AES Convention tracks offer and encourage in-depth discussion of technology and technique, as opposed to sales presentations instead of focusing on audio science.”

DTV Audio Group
The AES Show also serves as the backdrop for the DTV Audio Group’s annual gathering, this year dubbed “The Accelerating Pace of Change in Television Audio.” That event, scheduled for Friday Oct. 29 at 1-6 p.m., will focus on the transition to streamed content delivery over fixed and mobile devices and on how viewers’ expectations of how, when, and where they consume content are fundamentally changing.

“As content creators and distributors struggle to keep up, how are our audio-production processes evolving to meet the flexibility and personalization demanded by a new generation of viewers?” is how DTVAG Executive Director Roger Charlesworth posits this year’s central themes. “Cable cutting and mobile viewing experiences are redefining television. Traditional broadcasters are not far behind OTT providers in migrating to IP-stream–based delivery models. The same type of IT and telecom-driven change is happening on the production side, too. This sort of virtualized broadcasting opens the door for a range of formats and audio-encoding solutions with sophisticated accessibility, interactivity, and immersive options. The future is coming at us pretty fast, and it is definitely getting interesting.”

The DTVAG agenda begins with a keynote address by Sports Video Group Chairman Tom Sahara, VP, operations and technology, Turner Sports. Presentations will cover the impact of mobile and fixed streaming services; the FCC’s recent release of rulemaking around the 600 MHz incentive auction and wireless microphone use; an ATSC 3.0 audio update; how networked wireless and native IP microphones have the potential to streamline identification and control of multiple sources in complex mixing environments; the practical implications of applying higher-order ambisonics techniques to real-time production; and how recent EBU standards-making efforts around Audio Definition Modeling technology and Broadcast Wave File extensions encompassing ADM could open the door for standardized object metadata.

The DTV Audio Group at AES is produced in association with the Sports Video Group and is sponsored by Calrec, Dolby Laboratories, DTS, JBL, Lawo, Linear Acoustic, and Studer.