AES New York 2009

Broadcast and Media Streaming Audio Conference Details
David Bialik – Conference Chairman

Platinum Sponsor: Dolby

Thursday, October 8, 2009

9:00 am — 5:00 pm: Symposium—Surround Live Seven

CAPTURING NEW PLACES-NEW SPACES

Platinum Sponsors – DTS Neural Surround, The Sports Video Group & Sennheiser/K&H

Gold Sponsors – Digico, Ti-Max/Outboard Electronics

8:15 AM–9:00 AM – Coffee, Registration, Continental Breakfast

9:00 AM–9:45 AM Keynote #1 – Kurt Graffy

9:45 AM–10:00 AM Coffee Break

10:00 AM–12:30 PM Presenters 1,2, & 3

12:30 PM–1:00 PM Lunch (provided for ticketed participants)

1:00 PM–2:00 PM Presenters 4, 5

2:00 PM–2:20 PM Coffee Break

2:30 PM–4:30 PM Panel Discussions 1 & 2 with Interactive Q&A

PANEL TOPICS SUBJECT TO REVISION

PANEL 1 Solutions to Acquisition for New and Complex Environments

PANEL 2 The State of the State in Signal Transmission and Re-Transmission—Preserving the Surround Signal for the End User

Scheduled To Appear: Kurt Graffy-Arup Acoustics; Tom Sahara-Turner Networks, Fred Aldous – Fox Sports, Kevin Cleary-Espn, Mike Pappas-Kuvo Radio, Jim Hilson –Dolby Labs. Others TBA

Technology Presentations From: Antoine Hurtado – ISOSTEM France; Norm Hurst – Sarnoff Labs

PRESENTERS SUBJECT TO CHANGE BASED ON AVAILABILITY

Friday, October 9, 2009

9:00 am — 11:00 am: B1 – Studio Design and Acoustics: A Case Study
A team of creative design and system integration specialists will scope out a hypothetical media environment. The myriad of variables in site selection, planning, construction, systems integration, acoustics, HVAC, furniture and equipment selection, and aesthetics will be considered. While the options may seem limitless, the panel’s collaborative process in addressing this open-ended fantasy is guaranteed to produce an abundance of surprising recommendations and conclusions.

Among the participants in this two hour Panel are: John Storyk, co-principal, Walters-Storyk Design Group, independent NY-based HVAC expert Marcy Ramos, Judy Elliott-Brown, systems integration specialist with NY’s Connectivity Inc.; leading contractor Chris Harmaty of NY’s Technical Structures, and Dirk Noy, WSDG partner/GM Europe office.
Chair: John Storyk, Walters-Storyk Design Group – Highland, NY, USA
Panelists:
Judy Elliott-Brown, Connectivity NY
Chris Harmaty, Technical Structures
Dirk Noy, WSDG Europe
Marcy Ramos, M. Ramos Associates
Brian Wick, Technical Director/Partner, audioEngine

11:30 am — 1:00 pm: B2 – Innovations in Digital Broadcasting
This session will look at some of the innovations in digital broadcasting including the digital conversion of U.S. television, radio for the deaf, HD radio, Surround, IP television, receiver technology, and S.B.E. certification.
Chair: David Bialik, DKB Broadcast Associates
Panelists:
David Layer, NAB
Ken Hunold, Dolby
Chriss Scherer, SBE Certifications
Geir Skaaden, DTS Inc.
Mike Starling, NPR
David Wilson, CE

Saturday, October 10,2009

9:00 am — 10:30 am: B4 – Digital Audio Networks in the Studio

This session explores the use of digital audio networking within audio origination facilities by examining the underlying technologies, deployment issues, and implications for workflow. Networked audio takes advantage of established technologies to easily and economically create real-time audio networks using standard telecommunications cabling and components. With digital audio networking, multiple audio signals can be sent over a single connection and the degradation and delay that multiple conversions introduce are reduced, the routing, distribution, and mixing of audio signals is performed in the digital domain and conversion only takes place at the edges of the network. Most systems are capable of managing both audio and control/status data, while some also incorporate video, telco, and other data services.
Chair: Neil Glassman
Panelists:
Tag Borland, Logitek
Kelly Parker, Wheatstone
Greg Shay, Telos-Omnia-Axia
Ted Staros, Harris

10:30 am — 12:00 pm: B5 – IP Audio—Out of the Studio: Connecting Anywhere

Once the work came to the studio, now the studio has to connect to the world. Whether your audio is voice-over talent calling from their lake-front studio, a correspondent reporting from Afghanistan, a reporter on the scene of a breaking story, a technician monitoring a remote transmitter, or a spirited talk-show discussion with phone-in panelists and callers, the demands on connectivity for broadcasters and producers have dramatically increased. Now the same technology connecting the desktop or mobile device to your favorite network provides the potential for an “anything/anywhere” audio path. But does it work, what have the manufacturers done to address audio quality and quality of service, how universal is IP, what kind of hardware and software is needed, does it solve my problem, and does it really work? The answers will be supplied by some of the leading manufacturers whose hardware and software make the IP connections work. This is a discussion for networks, broadcasters, producers, studios, and facilities who want to know more about how to extend their professional network.
Chair: David Prentice, Dale Pro Audio
Panelists:
Steve Church, Telos
Chris Crump, Comrex
Robert Marshall, Source Elements
Alvin Sookoo, Musicam USA
Rolf Taylor, APT
Kevin Webb, Tieline Technology

12:00 pm — 1:00 pm: B6 – Mobile TV

Chair: Jim Kutzner, PBS

2:00 pm — 3:30 pm: B7 – Audio for News Gathering

Broadcast journalists inhabit a small, unique, and sometimes dangerous corner of the audio world. The technologies used in this space for audio field recording, and for the transport of live and recorded audio from remote sites to broadcast production centers, have expanded greatly in recent years. This ever-challenging environment is now served by a variety of new options, while a few well-used methods are being phased out. From EV-DO to BGAN, AMR-WB to HE-AAC, CF to SDHC, this session will get beyond the acronyms and explore current and emerging components of audio field recording and “backhaul,” along with the applications for which each is best suited—all presented by highly experienced professionals from around the industry.
Chair: Skip Pizzi, Media Technology Consultant & Contributing Editor, Radio World
Panelists:
Andrew Butterworth, Connectivity Specialist, BBC News
Robert Duncan, Foreign Desk Operations, NPR
Mike Noseworthy, Senior Audio Engineer, NBC Network News Field Operations
Chris Tobin, Broadcast Technologist, CBS Radio – New York, NY, USA

5:00 pm — 7:00 pm: Significant Technical Contributions of RCA Corp.

From Nipper and “His Masters Voice” to the World Trade Center “Antenna.”

RCA covered the spectrum….All from Camden NJ.

Talking Machines, by the millions – led to Radios, by the millions – led to RCA Broadcast Division

The Broadcast Division maintained an unbelievable spree-décor, among their employees—we were routinely challenged to development of state-of-the-art products that met the challenging needs of this fast growing industry, with unbelievable support. The resultant products were of unquestioned quality; were marketed, sold, and supported by an extremely well organized, well trained, and expertly supported, domestic and international sales and service organization. This resulted in an outstanding industry that to this day has been unmatched. Incidentally, the RCA Broadcast Division was one of the most profitable divisions of the RCA Corporation. It operated from roughly from 1930 until 1985. Many of the former RCA Broadcast employees report that the time that they sent at RCA Broadcast, was the most invigorating time of their lives. They served in many aspects of the broadcast industry including, Engineering, Marketing, Development, Sales, Advertising, Service, and the world famous RCA Princeton Laboratories.

Our opportunity here at AES is to look back, and review some of the greatest activities of the RCA Broadcast Division. The list is endless, however, our emphasis here will be directed toward the RCA Broadcast Audio products including microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, theater systems, and RCA photophone activities.

Look at the Industry and how it grew…We all learned…Let’s look back …What did we learn…Let’s now look ahead…

Moderator: Cliff Rogers
Presenters:
Fred Barnum, L3 Communications
Hans Dietza

Sunday, October 11, 2009

9:00 am — 10:30 am: B8 – Lip Sync Issue
Lip sync remains a complex problem, with several causes and few solutions. From production, through transmission, and ultimately reception, there are many points where lip sync can either be properly corrected or made even worse. This session’s panel will discuss several key issues.

What is the perspective of the NAB and SMPTE regarding lip sync? Where do the latency issues exist? What are the recommendations from the ITU and ATSC? What correction techniques exist? How does video display design affect lip sync? Are there mechanisms for ensuring lip sync is maintained when the signal reaches your television? Join us as our panel addresses these questions and more.
Chair: Jonathan Abrams, Nutmeg Post
Panelists:
Aldo Cugnini, AGC Systems LLC
Graham Jones, National Association of Broadcasters
Steve Lyman, Dolby Laboratories
Mark Schubin, Engineer-in-Charge, Media Department, Metropolitan Opera

1:00 am — 1:00 pm: B9 – Listener Fatigue and Longevity

This panel will discuss listener fatigue and its impact on listener retention. While listener fatigue is an issue of interest to broadcasters, it is also an issue of interest to telecommunications service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, music producers and others. Fatigued listeners to a broadcast program may tune out, while fatigued listeners to a cell phone conversation may switch to another carrier, and fatigued listeners to a portable media player may purchase another company’s product. The experts on this panel will discuss their research and experiences with listener fatigue and its impact on listener retention.
Chair: David Wilson, CEA
Panelists:
Sam Berkow, SIA Acoustics
Marvin Caesar, Aphex
Tim Carroll, Linear Acoustic
James D. (JJ) Johnston, DTS Inc.
Hannes Müsch, Dolby
Ted Ruscitti
Ellyn Sheffield

2:30 pm — 4:00 pm: B10 – Audio Processing for Internet Streaming

With the growing popularity of streaming over the internet, content originators want to be able to deliver intelligible, robust audio that is competitive with other mediums. Given the unique restraints and what the audience listens with, internet streaming requires an audio processing chain unique to radio and television. This session will discuss various techniques and technologies to enhance the audio content to be delivered over the world wide web.
Chair: David Bialik, DKB Broadcast Associates
Panelists:
Ray Archie, CBS
Marvin Caesar, Aphex
Steve Dove, Wheatstone
Frank Foti, Omnia
Thomas Lund, TC Electronics
Geir Skaaden, DTS, Inc.

4:00 pm — 5:30 pm: B11 – Loudness and Audio Processing for Broadcast
The panelists in this session are experts in the field of audio processing and all have various techniques and opinions on how best to tame the audio levels in broadcasting – from the control of loud commercials in television to the competitive loudness of radio stations. Audio processing has always been science with a good measure of art thrown in, so this discussion will be interesting not only from a technical viewpoint, but also from an artistic angle. We will discuss Dialnorm and the use of meta-data for television and loudness and dynamic range for radio.

After the panelists have made their presentations, the audience is invited to participate in a question and answer session, which should be an interesting mix of technology and technique.
Chair: Dom Bordonaro, Cox Radio
Panelists:
Marvin Caesar, Aphex
Tim Carroll, Linear Acoustic
Frank Foti, Telos-Omnia-Axia
James D. (JJ) Johnston, DTS Inc.
Andrew Mason, BBC R&D
Jeff Riedmiller, Dolby Laboratories
Jim Starzinski, NBC

5:30 pm — 7:00 pm: B12 – Production of a Soap Opera
There’s a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to mixing a soap opera. It may be considered a dying art, but the production mixer must deal with overworked actors having difficulty following a script, complicated, 3-dimensional blocking, lighting grids that make booming the action more difficult, and botched blocking. All this every day after being handed only a script and the most rudimentary information as to what’s in store.

In addition, the A-1 must determine when booming is not feasible and the use of RF body mic-ing is the lesser of two evils. That’s where an agile A-2 assist comes into play. These mics have the added difficulty of having to be hidden when in use. His techniques of doing this are very important as time is always of the essence.

Finally, when all is said and done, the tapes are sent to postproduction to have sound effects and music added to the final product, as well as whatever effects are deemed necessary. The postproduction engineer also makes fixes to the relatively few and inevitable flaws that occur in this high speed taping environment.

Dominick Maldari, 5-time Emmy award winner in this endeavor, will give an overview and also discuss the mixing aspects. Emmy award nominee Bill Mozer will go over the audio assist’s techniques, and R.T. Smith will talk about the art of postproduction.
Panelists:
Dominick Maldari, All My Children
Bill Mozer, One Life to Live
R.T. Smith, All My Children

Monday, October 12, 2009

9:00 am — 11:00 am: B13 – Sound Effects: Recording and Mixing for Different Media

Sound Effects and Sound Design artists, Sue Zizza and David Shinn, of SueMedia Productions, return to AES with an updated demonstration of performance and recording techniques for sound effects and foley, as well as multitrack recording and mixing techniques, for a variety of entertainment media. Included in their presentation will be practical demonstrations on the use of sound effects in audio sound design, including working along-side talent when creating and recording effects, microphone selection for sound effect recording, multitrack and surround sound recording and mixing.
Co-chairs: David Shinn, SueMedia Productions; Sue Zizza, SueMedia Productions
Panelists:
Butch D’Ambrosio
Marc Wiener

11:30 am — 1:00 pm: B14 – Stream Playback and Distribution

With radio broadcasting, encoding and stream delivery are key factors affecting a broadcaster’s distribution strategy. In today’s environment, all “connected” devices are potential “radios.” These devices range from internet radios to mobile phones to IP-enabled televisions / set-top-boxes to MOBLIN-powered Mobile Internet Devices. This session will focus on presentations of various solutions to these new challenges and will conclude with a panelist discussion about strategy and the future this fast changing landscape. Quality of Service and current problems as well as possible solutions will be examined.
Chair: Ray Archie, CBS Radio
Panelists:
Majd Naciri, Intel
Ben Terrell, Reciva
Jean-Francois Gadoury, Stream the World
Harry Johnson, vTuner

2:00 pm — 5:00 pm: TT11 – EUE Screen Gems Studios
In 2005, after almost three decades of five-day-a-week production on daytime programming classics Guiding Light, Search For Tomorrow, and Edge of Night, this vast, full-service 125,000 sq. ft. midtown-Manhattan production complex re-positioned itself to enter a new era of digital production for the global television, feature film, commercial advertising, and new media industries. This complete retooling of their six stages and support areas and support areas has created a fully integrated digital workplace— “The DigiPlex.” Beyond providing high-end production, postproduction services, and “wired” production offices to CBS’s Rachael Ray, an anchor tenant since 2005, the studios host The Onion News Network, and a variety of traditional and new media clients including, Warner Brothers TV, PBS, Food Network, Embassy Row, WebMD, Paramount Pictures, Oxygen Network, BET, History Channel, Fox News, Universal Music Group, and commercial advertising agencies and production companies, among others.

Technical Tours are made available on a first come, first served basis. Tickets can be purchased during normal registration hours at the convention center.

Price: $30 (members), $40 (nonmembers)

If you have questions or comments about the program please contact:
David Bialik, Chairman of Broadcast /Media Streaming Sessions at dkbialik@erols.com.