The 135th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention was the place to be if you have anything to do with the audio industry. It was held October 17 to 20 at the Javits Center in New York City. The exhibit floor, panels and technical sessions were packed for all four days and, as AES celebrated its 65th anniversary, a five-year-high registrant number of 18,453 was tallied. At show close, AES reported a 16-percent increase in registration since the last time the convention was in New York two years ago (131st AES) and a staggering 71-percent increase over last year’s San Francisco event (133rd AES), which had been plagued by smaller attendance due to Hurricane Sandy.
Convention Committee Chair Jim Anderson and his team created the most ambitious and comprehensive schedule of workshops, panels and technical programs in AES convention history. Among the highlights were the opening keynote address on October 17 by Josh McDermott from MIT; the Heyser Lecture by legendary producer, technologist and multi-Grammy Award winner George Massenburg; October 18’s lunchtime keynote by multi-Grammy Award winner Jimmy Jam; the Project Studio Expo and Knowledge Center; the “Sound For Picture” “Deadliest Catch” workshop; the Grammy SoundTables event honoring the late Phil Ramone; and presentations by engineer and Jay-Z collaborator Young Guru.
“I can’t express how thrilled I am with our convention this year,” stated Bob Moses, Executive Director of AES. “Our organizing committee really outdid themselves, with over 250 presentations from an astounding 682 leading researchers and practitioners in the field, many of them standing-room-only. The convention floor was absolutely packed, and the only complaint I heard was that we ran out of convention programs on the second day because so many people showed up!”
The 137th Audio Engineering Society Convention will take place October 9 to 12, 2014, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles CA.