2004 May 8–11Messe Berlin

Berlin, Germany

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61EA th

756 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 52, No. 7/8, 2004 July/August

“At last I can welcome the guests of the116th AES Convention for a second time to

Berlin, Germany’s capital city.” With these words,Reinhard Sahr, chair of the convention greeted the thou-sands of audio engineers who flocked to the Messe Berlin inMay for the principal European gathering of the year. Cov-ering four complete days of exhibition and technical ses-sions, and incorporating an additional pre-convention sym-posium for radio broadcasters on multichannel audio, the116th Convention’s expansive program offered somethingfor everyone’s interest and attracted visitors from around theworld.

AWARDS AND OPENING CEREMONYAt the opening ceremony Roger Furness, AES executivedirector, noted that, thanks to the addition to the EuropeanUnion only a week before of ten additional countries in east-ern Europe, Berlin, the capital of Germany, now sits at afocal point of the expanded Union, making it a superb venueto return to after eleven years in other locations.

AES President Ron Streicher also welcomed delegates toBerlin and reinforced the fact that education is an importantelement of the AES mission. He gave information on thenew Distinguished Speakers Program and said that he hopedmany others would join him in contributing to the fund sup-porting this worthy program that will enable distinguishedspeakers to visit AES sections around the world to sharetheir knowledge. Streicher then introduced Rheinhard Sahr,116th Convention chair, who acknowledged the importanceof the convention’s comprehensive program in enablingpeople to find their way through the always expanding uni-verse of new audio technology. He also introduced andthanked his hard-working committee (see page 763).

Awards were then presented to those who had meritedparticular recognition in the audio engineering world. Thisyear’s Publication Award recognizing an author under 35years of age, announced by Journal Editor Daniel vonRecklinghausen, was given to Ville Pulkki for his paper“Localization of Amplitude-Panned Virtual Sources, Part 2:Two- and Three-Dimensional Panning” (J. Audio Eng.Soc., vol. 49, pp.739-751, 2001 September). FellowshipAwards were presented to Roland Goh for his contributionsto professional sound system engineering and to RhondaWilson for her contributions to accurate reproduction ofrecorded music. Goh has been an AES member for 30 yearsand is the longest serving member in Singapore. Wilson hasbeen an officer of the AES in various capacities for manyyears, including chair of the British section, governor, ➥

J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 52, No. 7/8, 2004 July/August 757

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and vice president of the International Region.The keynote address at the opening ceremony was given

by David Wood, head of new media for the EuropeanBroadcasting Union, based in Geneva. In an entertainingand informative talk, Wood spoke of the changing face ofbroadcasting. With tongue firmly in cheek, he humorouslysuggested that the EBU’s mission in the IT-based produc-tion world was to reduce the number of technical people in aradio station to two, one man and one dog, the dog beingthere to make sure that the man doesn’t press any buttons.The EBU believes in the European model of radio, whichstrives to broadcast content that has “something in there thatmakes you think.” Wood emphasized to attendees that we

need to preserve our cultures with drama and music. He also pointed out that this changing world requires a

high level of investment in research and development, andthere is the need to turn R&D into products. DVB-H (DigitalVideo Broadcast-Handheld), for example, provides a wholenew way of delivering content to users, but it requires multi-media content and blurs the boundaries between radio andtelevision broadcasting. He emphasized the importance ofmultichannel audio, pointing out that home cinema is sweep-ing the world and that broadcasters need to be persuaded ofits merits, particularly in radio. Audio has a tremendousadvantage over video, he suggested, in enabling three-dimen-sional scenes with depth to be reproduced relatively easily.

Roger Furness, AES executive director

Packed house at 116th opening ceremonies

Ron Streicher, AES president

Reihnard Sahr, 116th Convention chair

J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 52, No. 7/8, 2004 July/August 759

116th Convention

EXHIBITIONThe exhibition halls of the Messe Berlin, coordinated byThierry Bergmans, thronged with enthusiastic delegateseager to discuss the most recent offerings and innovationsfrom the 256 manufacturers who exhibited their products.The following is a snapshot of some of the innovations ondisplay.

Mixing consoles were in the forefront of new develop-ments and showed some surprises. The introduction ofDigidesign’s ICON integrated console attracted a largecrowd of visitors to demonstrations every day during theconvention. The ICON sports a sophisticated D-Controlworksurface that is fully integrated with ProTools and its

interfaces, being equipped with surround sound facilities forup to 7.1 channels. This console is claimed to incorporatesimilar components to those offered by the traditional largedigital console manufacturers, being more than just a controlsurface for ProTools.

In another region of the exhibition floor many peoplecrowded around SSL’s new Analogue Workstation System(AWS 900). This compact SSL console incorporates Super-Analogue circuitry identical to that found in the larger XL9000 K series console and also includes a digital audioworkstation controller that can operate with the principalworkstation software and hardware packages used in mod-ern operations. In this way it offers an analog alternative ➥

David Wood, keynote speaker

Ron Streicher presenting Fellowship Awards toRonald Goh and Rhonda Wilson.

Garry Margolis,Awards Committeechair

Editor Daniel von Rechlinghausen, left, presentingPublications Award to Ville Pulkki.

760 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 52, No. 7/8, 2004 July/August

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to the digital mixing control options ofDigidesign’s product described previously.The AWS 900 is claimed to offer a greater

bandwidth than 192-kHz recorders, and it has a full moni-toring system up to 5.1 surround.

AMS Neve contributed substantially to the console productline-up with its new MMC Concerto digital audio mixer. Itcan offer up to 500 audio paths with surround mixing up to7.1 channels and is based on the experience gained from mix-ers such as the Capricorn. It’s aimed at the music-to-air ormusic recording in broadcasting contexts. Further offerings inthe new console line-up included Studer’s Vista 8 whichincorporates a completely redesigned control bay with greaterergonomic flexibility than previous Vista consoles.

Karlheinz Brandenburgpresenting tutorialseminar All About DataReduction.

Left, Neville Thiele (wearing tie) discussing hisposter presentation with Dick Small. Below, 81technical papers were poster presentations atthe 116th.

Visitors throng exhibition.

Auralization-Tool or Toy was one of 17 workshops at the 116th: from left, chair Jan Voetmann, Lise-Lotte Tjellesen, Jens-HolgerRindel, Dorte Hammershoi, Christoph Moldrzyk, and Ingolf Bork.

➥

Author Jose Escolano presents paper on wavefieldsynthesis.

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762 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 52, No. 7/8, 2004 July/August

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SADiE’s new large-scale digital audio workstation, thePCM-H64, can be switched between different sampling fre-quency configurations from 64 channels at 48 kHz/24 bit, to16 channels at 192 kHz. The company also showed a neatlittle mobile system for the SADiE editor, the BB2-J, whichprovides an audio interface and processing along with anedit control wheel, all of which can be used alongside a lap-top computer running Windows XP for mobile radio broad-casting applications. Toward the small end of themixer/workstation hybrid scene, Tascam showed its newFirewire controller and audio interface, theFW-1884, showing what can be done withaudio over desktop computer interfaces.

Euphonix and Sony had come to anarrangement that enabled Sony’s DSD pro-cessing cards to be used in conjunction with aEuphonix System control surface, interfacedusing the company’s EuCon protocol. SonyOxford’s new prototype 128 Fs processingdoubles the sampling rate compared with cur-rent implementations that run at 64 Fs, andthe cards are capable of being switched toconventional multibit PCM so that jobs canbe undertaken in both formats.

On the audio networking front, Otari was showing itsLightwinder LW-55 system, designed to transmit 128 audiochannels over a single optical fiber that can be up to 22-kmlong. RS-422 interfaced digital data can also be transmittedover the same fiber if required, and a number of 8-channelI/O modules in different formats enable audio signals to beinterconnected. The company’s new DR-800 multichanneldigital audio recorder was also on display offering a phe-nomenal 170 minutes of 48-track audio on a removable 72-Gbyte hard disk, coupled with multilayer audio editing facil-ities and MADI interfacing.

Leaving the console and recording system front, micro-phone and loudspeaker introductions continued apace, ledby AKG’s introduction of its WMS-400 multichannel wire-less microphone system. The system is innovative in its useof an automatic frequency search and frequency databasethat can tune in very short times to optimize performance,enabling the whole system to be set up in less than a minute.Further developments in the microphone domain includedSanken’s revolutionary dual-capsule lavalier, the COS-22,

designed with two omnidirectional capsules in a module ofless than 20 mm in length. This can either be used, it isclaimed, to generate stereo, or with one of the capsulesphase inverted for noise cancelling, or simply to increaseredundancy in the case of capsule failure. Neumann was cel-ebrating its 75th anniversary with the introduction of anofficial Jubilee Edition of its classic M149 microphone,based on the U47 of the 1950s. A limited edition of 500units is available with a platinum-plated grille.

Wolfgang Ahnert, workshopschair

Han Tendeloo, programcoordinator

Reinhard Sahr (right), 116th Conventionchair, and Jörg Knothe, vice chair and tours chair

Papers chairs, from left, Ben Bernfeld, StephanPeus, and Wolfgang Hoeg

Werner Schmidt (center) facilitieschair, with cochairs GerhardPicklapp and Ulrike Schwarz

Martin Wöhr,(left), exhibitorseminarschair, wasalso cochair ofthe 116thMultichannelSymposiumwith JürgenMarchlewitz,right.

ThierryBergmans

(right), exhibitcoordination,

with RogerFurness

J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 52, No. 7/8, 2004 July/August 763

Genelec added to its line of loudspeakers with a range ofnearfield monitors employing two-way active technology.The 8000 range replaces the long-established 1029, 1030,and 1031A models.

EXHIBITOR SEMINARSExhibition visitors continue to appreciate the new series ofexhibitor seminars developed at recent conventions. MartinWöhr organized the 116th seminars, designed to enable com-

panies to explain and demonstrate their technology in a moredetailed way in quieter rooms away from the exhibition areas.Particularly interesting and packed with visitors from morninguntil night was a seminar resulting from a collaborationbetween SoundField, Genelec, DTS, and Steinberg, designedto promote music mixing for surround. This gave delegates theopportunity to hear about everything from capture, throughmixing and postproduction to reproduction. A nonstop seriesof these exhibitor seminars took place throughout the conven-tion, covering topics ranging from surround microphone sys-tems, through grounding and EMC issues to acoustic designfor control rooms.

PAPERS SESSIONSBen Bernfeld and Stephan Peus, papers cochairs, and Wolf-gang Hoeg, posters chair, worked hard to select from wellover 250 proposed papers to create a program that reflectedthe latest developments in audio research. Alongside the for-mal lecture presentations, there was an extensive program ofposter presentations at the 116th in which authors could dis-cuss their research during extended time slots using laptopdemos in conjuction with their posters.

The hot topic of archiving and metadata drew a largeaudience to the session Audio Archiving, Storage, andRestoration: Content Management, chaired by Derk Reef-man. In the first paper in this session, “Take Care of Tomor-row Before it Is Too Late—A Pragmatic Archiving Strat-egy,” authors Nicolas Hans and Johan de Koster detailedcase studies for winning management approval of digitalmedia libraries. The topic of how to generate metadata auto-matically was also discussed in this session, and AndrewMason’s paper described a series of EBU tests designed totest commercial audio watermarking systems.

In the two-part session on spatial audio perception andprocessing authors described a variety of experimentsdesigned to determine the spatial performance of emergingspatial audio systems, such as 5.1 surround and wavefieldsynthesis, and how to train listeners to evaluate such sys-tems. Richard Duda described a novel technique for imple-menting motion-tracked binaural sound that preserved theinformation needed for dynamic head-motion cues. The ➥

116th Convention

Ernst Völker, historical events chair

Martin Litauer and JuliaHavenstein, education eventschair and vice chair

At 116th press conference: Ron Streicher, AES president,Gisele Clark, promotion, and Stefani Renner, press relations.

WolfgangNiehoff (right),tutorialseminarschair,presentingaward forstudentrecordingcompetition.

We Thank…Reinhard Sahr

chairJörg Knothe

vice chair and tours chair

Ben Bernfeld andStephan Peuspapers cochairs

Wolfgang Hoegposters vice chair

Wolfgang Ahnertworkshops chair

Wolfgang Niehofftutorial seminars chair

Martin Wöhrexhibitor seminars chair

Martin Litauereducation events chair

Julia Havensteineducation events

vice chairErnst Völker

historical events chair

Werner Schmidtfacilities chair

Gerhard Picklapp andUlrike Schwarzfacilities cochairsHan Tendeloo

program coordinator

764 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 52, No. 7/8, 2004 July/August

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system allows listeners to hear binaural recordings overheadphones that carry small head trackers so that the repro-duced sound scene adapts to head movements.

The world of low bit-rate audio coding continues to exciteinterest and new developments. At the 116th delegatesheard about a new innovation in the MPEG-4 standardknown as ALS (Audio Lossless Coding) as well as animportant extension to the MPEG standard, called MP3 Sur-round. MP3 Surround has complete backward compatibilitywith existing MP3 players by using a compatible downmix,either automatically or manually generated, coupled with alow bit-rate extension involving parametric representationsof interchannel level, time, and correlation values based onbinaural cue coding (BCC). The quality of the results asevaluated in listening tests turn out to be quite high for onlya modest extension in the bit rate compared with two-chan-nel MP3. A number of papers in another session, SpatialAudio Coding, also covered topics involving similar pro-cessing methods whereby spatial audio signals can beencoded at relatively low bit rates by parameterizing theinterchannel relationships.

WORKSHOPSWorkshops provide an ideal way for learning about the lat-est developments in audio technology, bringing together theexpertise of individuals from around the world and enablingdelegates to discuss issues of concern in a public forum.Wolfgang Ahnert, workshops chair, organized 17 opportuni-ties for learning in Berlin. The diverse range of topics ranthe gamut from Sound Systems for Hearing Impaired Peopleto The Role of Multiple Low-Frequency Signals in the Per-ception of Reproduced Sound. Multichannel in Automobileswas a hot-topic workshop at the 116th, as manufacturersrealize that the car is a great place to experience surroundsound; a number of luxury car makers already offer sur-round sound systems that upmix two-channel material anddiscrete 5.1 systems are beginning to appear.

The acoustics community gathered for a comprehensivediscussion of auralization tools in a workshop chaired by

Jan Voetman on Saturday morning. Proponents of some ofthe most widely used auralization packages and researchersin this field took the audience through the basics of the tech-nology, explaining how to deal with problems and dis-cussing the difficulties of conducting comparisons betweenreal acoustical environments and simulated ones.

Among the other interesting workshops was one on therelatively new DRM, or Digital Radio Mondiale, which is anew digital broadcasting system for frequency bands below30 MHz. Using MPEG-4 AAC+ coding, it involves effi-cient audio encoding and high audio quality in 9- or 10-kHzRF channels. Chair Peter Senger and the panel of expertsexplained the various features of the system, including dataservices and multimedia options that will enhance radioservices.

TUTORIAL SEMINARSTutorial seminars are another recent and popular innovationby the Audio Engineering Society that draw large audiencesconsisting of both students and seasoned engineers. ChairWolfgang Niehoff coordinated 15 seminars covering audiofundamentals in important areas. The ever-popular StanleyLipshitz and John Vanderkooy explained the basics of digitalaudio. Other topics covered were sound reinforcement, sur-round sound design in TV, the center channel challenge, andaudio data reduction.

AES technical committees often sponsor workshops andtutorial seminars at conventions. Summaries or selected pre-sentations are made available on the relevant technical com-mittee web pages. For example, the extensive 116th tutorialseminar Listening Tests in Practice chaired by NickZacharov, and also given last year in New York at the 115thConvention, can be found at http://www.aes.org/technical/pseas/. This seminar, which took place over thewhole of the last afternoon at the 116th, took delegatesthrough all the fundamental issues involved in designing andrunning listening tests, including the key standards involved.

A full listing of all papers, workshops, and tutorial semi-nars begins on page 776 of this issue. A CD-ROM of all

116th HeyserLecturer KeesImmink

Large crowd enjoysreception after theHeyser Lecture

Kees Immink flanked by, from left WieslawWosczyzk, Technical Council chair, and vicechairs Bob Schulein and Jürgen Herre.

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Marchlewitz, was held on the Friday preceding the 116thConvention. This exceptional event proved the popularityof the topic among radio broadcast engineers and operators,attracting 170 delegates for lively debate on the future ofmultichannel sound in radio. From the presentations givenit is clear that the technical challenges of handling multi-channel sound in broadcasting networks can be surmountedin a variety of imaginative ways. For example, Bosse Tern-ström from Swedish Radio was able to show how DTS-encoded audio had been routed throughout SR’s internalsystems, “hidden” in various ways within conventional net-work routing structures, and even broadcasted successfullyover satellites. Downloads by hundreds of thousands ofInternet listeners of multichannel material from theSwedish Radio website demand about 75 to 80 percent ofits bandwidth. Representatives of management, however,need to be convinced that money spent on this type of ser-vice attracts more than a relatively small fraction of thebroadcaster’s listeners. Other panelists spoke of multichan-nel as a way to give radio some extra appeal, as stereo didfor radio in the 1960s, but the danger now is that televisionwill get there first and steal the limelight.

HEYSER LECTUREThe AES Technical Council’s Richard C. Heyser MemorialLecture was given by former AES President, Kees Imminkto a packed hall with over 200 people present. Immink’slecture, “From Analog to Digital,” guided the audience on ashort tour starting in the early days of pulse code modula-tion, which began in 1937 with the work of Alec H. Reevesbut only recently came to full fruition. Over that time, andparticularly in recent years with the consumer boom in digi-tal audio, there has been a paradigm shift, Immink sug-gested, from tangible, physical media to today’s “any song,any time, anywhere” yearnings. “In retrospect,” saidImmink, “one may say that the digital audio revolution is animmense success as everybody is satisfied with the out-come… There are a few nostalgic exceptions who cry out inlonging to return to the fleshpots of radio hiss, the warm ➥

Among the vintage audio equipment displayed anddiscussed at the histiorical venue was a hand-cranked movie projector whose operation wasdemonstrated by Ulrich Illing.

Over 170 people attended the day-long multichannelsymposium “The Effect of Multichannel on RadioOperation,” chaired by Martin Wöhr (left) and JürgenMarchlewitz.

29 exhibitor seminars drew large crowds: Norbert Sobol, topphoto, speaks at AKG seminar; Andrew Goldberg, bottomphoto, speaks at Soundfield/Genelec/DTS/Steinberg seminar.

116th Convention papers and individual PDF files can bepurchased online at http://www.aes.org/publications/convention_cds.cfm.

SPECIAL EVENTS

The Effect of Multichannel on Radio Operations

A special preconvention symposium on multichannel audioin radio operations, chaired by Martin Wöhr and Jürgen

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distortion of electron tubes, the scratchy sound of thegramophone, and, not to forget, the greener grass.”

Following a presentation to the speaker in memory ofRichard Heyser, the Technical Council, led by WieslawWoszczyk, hosted a reception, enhanced by refreshmentsand live music, for the audience and the speaker.

TECHNICAL TOURSFor those wishing to visit Berlin’s famous audio venues, JörgKnothe, the convention’s tours chair, organized a program ofeleven stimulating technical tours. These included visits to theKonzerthaus Berlin (Concert House Berlin) and the famousBerlin Philharmonic Hall and its Kammermusiksaal, wherevisitors were able to appreciate an orchestral rehearsal fromdifferent seating locations. In addition to this, delegates couldvisit the Film City Babelsberg, various broadcasting sites, stu-dio complexes, and live sound installations. For those withmore diverse engineering interests, extending to the need forspeed, a trip to the BMW motorcyle plant was a must.

In addition to the normal technical tours, three speciallocal studio tours had been arranged, sponsored by RadioBerlin Brandenburg, two of them held at the organization’sstudios throughout the convention. The first two involved

seminars on microphone recording, studio production ofradio plays, and music recording in stereo and 5.1, provid-ing opportunities for hands-on experience in live situationsfor the enthusiastic delegates that signed up for these tours.There was also a daily studio tour to Blackbird Studioswhere the latest TV and film production and postproductioncould be observed.

SOCIAL EVENTSA mixer party held on the first evening of the conventionenabled everyone to get together informally in the hugeatrium of the Messe Berlin entrance hall, to the accompani-ment of live music. The convention banquet was held onMonday evening at the Old Telephone Exchange Room ofthe Berlin headquarters of Deutsche Telekom. Food andwine were both excellent, providing examples of Berlinspecialities.The musical entertainment was provided by thePique Dame Quintet, and magician Igor Jedlin showed theguests what he had up his sleeve.

MUSICAL ENJOYMENTAudio engineers are renowned for their interest in music, andthey were not disappointed at the Berlin convention.

The Pique Dame Quintet provided the musicalentertainment at the 116th banquet in the historicTelegraph Exchange Hall at Deutsche Telekom’sBerlin headquarters.

Graham Blyth, left,received specialrecognition fromReinhard Sahr forhis organ concertperformances atAES ccovnentions.

Magician IgorJedlin shows Jörg

Knothe how tolevitate a napkin.

➥

768 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 52, No. 7/8, 2004 July/August

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ing occasional advisory documents. In two specially pro-vided rooms close to the technical sessions at the MesseBerlin these committees kept up a lively program of meet-ings that attracted key figures from the audio industry to dis-cuss topics as diverse as automotive audio, semantic audioanalysis, and multichannel sound (for more information visithttp://www.aes.org/technical).

HISTORICAL PROGRAMLed enthusiastically by Ernst Völker, historical eventschair, the rememberance of audio history was featuredprominently in Berlin with a full program of events at aspacious booth on the exhibition floor. The focus was on

Those who could spare half a day could take part in a Sing-Along Mozart event at the Haus de Rundfunks during whicha rehearsal of the Mozart Requiem was undertaken by theSinfonieorchester Berlin and the Rundfunkchor Berlin. Laterin the convention, Graham Blyth delivered an inspired organrecital at the St. Matthias Cathedral in Berlin, performingBach’s great Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor and Guil-mant’s First Sonata, among other works. The fine acousticsof the building and the spatially distributed organ divisionsprovided a first-hand experience for the audience of surroundsound in a natural environment, free of distortion and with anunassailable frequency response!

STUDENT ACTIVITIESThe number of student members in the Society has beengrowing at a healthy rate over the past two years, and this isreflected in the increased participation of students at conven-tions. Martin Litauer and Julia Havenstein, education eventschair and vice chair, supported by Education CommitteeChair Theresa Leonard, and Natalia Teplova, chair of the Stu-dent Delegate Assembly, planned an ambitious schedule ofeducational events ranging from recording competitions tobeing involved in a live recording of the organ concert men-tioned above. The tutorial seminars that are now such animportant part of the convention were also planned with stu-dents in mind. Other events included the Education Fair andthe Education Forum (see Education News on page 860 for amore complete wrap-up of educational activities at the 116th).

STANDARDS AND TECHNICAL COMMITTEEMEETINGSBefore and throughout the 116th convention the standardscommittees of the Society, led by Standards Manager,Mark Yonge, and the newly appointed chair of the Stan-dards Committee, Richard Chalmers, conducted a full pro-gram of meetings covering fields including digital audio,preservation and restoration, acoustics, interconnections,networks and file transfer (for more information on thesemeetings see AES Standards Committe News on page 750and visit http://www.aes.org/standards).

There are also a large number of AES technical commit-tees that aim to track the latest trends in audio engineeringwith a view to planning conferences and convention ses-sions that educate and inform members, as well as develop-

Education Committee chair Theresa Leonard is flanked bystudent officers: from left, Martin Berggren and NataliaTeplova of Europe and Marie Desmarteau and Felice Santos-Martin of the Americas.

Theresa Leonard, AES Education Committee chair andpresident-elect leads the discussion at the Education Forum.

Student recording competition drew large, enthusiasticcrowds.

Numerousschoolsofferedinformationon their audioprograms atthe EducationFair.

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the history of sound and film in Berlin, concentrating onBabelsberg, one of the first centers of film production thatused gramophone wax plates in playback mode. This stu-

dio also produced “TheBlue Angel,” starringMarlene Dietrich, one ofthe first sound films inGermany. Also on dis-play in the HistoricalCorner was a collectionof vintage equipmentsuch as old microphonesand speakers as well asdisk-cutting machines.Delegates could attend aseries of short presenta-tions given by expertsfrom Germany, such asUdo Zölzer, on effectsunits and vintage guitaramplifiers.

THANKS TO…AES conventions such as the 116th could not happen with-out the many days of dedication offered on a voluntarybasis by tireless members of the Society. In addition tothose mentioned above it is important to note the contribu-tions given by those who arranged the facilities thatensured everything ran smoothly, Werner Schmidt, GerhardPicklapp, and Ulrike Schwarz, without forgetting the vitaljob of program coordination undertaken by the Society’ssecretary, Han Tendeloo.

The historic city of Berlin provided an excellent venue forthe 116th. At the crossroads of an expanding EuropeanUnion, Berlin is uniquely situated, both geographically andculturally, to bring people together from Europe and beyondfor the free exchange of ideas, which occurred throughoutthe AES 116th Convention.

Meet your colleagues again later this year at the AES117th Convention in San Francisco October 28–31. Nextyear (May 28–31) for its European convention the AES willbe going to Barcelona, a venue that should prove highlyattractive for exhibitors and delegates alike. (For details onall upcoming Society activities visit www.aes.org.) ➥Technical Council meeting filled a large room.

Above, Richard Chalmers (left)chair, and Mark Yonge,manager, organized and led anambitious schedule ofStandards Committeemeetings.

Conference Policy Committeemeeting: Søren Bech (right),chair, and Garry Margolis

Education Committee meeting: from left,Mercedes Onorato, Bozena Kostek, andGeoff Martin

Publications Policy Committee meeting: RichardSmall (left), chair, and Daniel von Recklinghausen,editor

Convention PolicyCommittee meeting: AESPresident Ron Streicher

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Jay Fouts, legal counsel; Marshall Buck,treasurer, Convention Policy Committee chair,and Finance Committee chair; Garry Margolis,governor and Awards Committee chair

Ron Streicher, president and Future DirectionsCommittee chair; Han Tendeloo, secretary

Subir Pramanik, Regions and SectionsCommittee cochair

Ivan Stamac, Europe Southern Region vicepresident; Richard Small, governor andPublications Policy Committee chair; NevilleThiele, International Region vice president

Roy Pritts, governor and Regions and SectionsCommittee cochair; Jerry Bruck, governor;Mercedes Onorato, Latin American Region vicepresident

Theresa Leonard, president-elect and EducationCommittee chair; Jim Anderson, USA/CanadaEastern Region vice president; Bob Moses,USA/Canada Western Region vice president

Curtis Hoyt, governor

Natalia Teplova, student representative; FrankWells, USA/Canada Central Region vice president;Richard Chalmers, Standards Committee chair

Søren Bech, Europe Northern Region vicepresident and Conference Policy Committeechair; Bozena Kostek, Europe Central Regionvice president; Martin Berggren, studentrepresentative

Peter Swarte, governor

Daniel von Recklinghausen, editor; ReinhardSahr, 116th Convention chair

Kunimaro Tanaka, governor; Kees Immink, pastpresident and Nominations Committee chair;Roger Furness, executive director

Don Puluse, governor; Wieslaw Woszczyk,Technical Council chair

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Board ofGovernors Meets

The AES Board of Governors met on October14 to hear reports from AES officials andstanding committees: