| On June 17 2002, the Audio Engineering
Society Singapore Section presented an Audio Technology Seminar in
conjunction with Broadcast Asia 2002. Broadcast Asia is the premier
broadcast exhibition and conference in Singapore and is held every year in
Singapore. Titled, “Future Trends for Digital Audio – the Principles, the
Practice & the Possibilities”, the seminar was attendance was a healthy 48
professionals from various areas of the audio industry and included
delegates from 12 countries, including USA, Japan and China, together with
29 from the host city, Singapore.
The full-day seminar featured 7 speakers and started with
an opening address by Mr. Robert Soo, Chairman of the AES Singapore
Section 2001/2002 and an address by Mr. Shaun Goh, Executive Director,
Communications & Engineering Events, Singapore Exhibition Services Pte.
Ltd., organizers of Broadcast Asia. Mr. Kenneth J. Delbridge, AES Singapore Section
Treasurer for 2001/2002, chaired the seminar. After the 2 opening
addresses, he introduced the first speaker.
The day was split into 3 parts. The 1st part focused on
the principles, namely the work being done on compression schemes and
Digital TV. Ms. Mary Ann Seidler, International Director of Sales, Telos
Systems / Omnia, USA spoke on the new schemes available for audio
compression, in particular focusing on MPEG4’s advantages, including its
more efficient use of bandwidth. Mr. Henk Mensinga, Sales Manager, TC
Electronic, Denmark, then spoke on Audio for DTV, covering the requirements
of broadcasting for digital TV. Given that there are multiple formats of
digital TV being adopted by governments in different countries, Mr. Mensinga
needed to cover more than one format when presenting to the audience.
After a 15-minute break for refreshments, the practice
involved in the future of digital audio was covered in two seminars with a
distinctly international flavor. Mr. John Wigglesworth, Vice
President & Director of Creative Services, Four Media Company Asia,
Singapore and Mr. Danial Shimiaei, Chief Digital Systems Engineer,
Todd-Soundelux, USA, spoke about the trends of international program
producers to complete their programs in high-definition video with Dolby 5.1
soundtracks. Even though many of the final delivery formats for TV are
currently mostly in analog and capable of supporting only Dolby Surround
2.0, the practice of exceeding current requirements permitted a degree of
future proofing that would ultimately prolong the shelf-life of their
products.
Mr. Wigglesworth discussed the topic from a management
point of view, including budget breakdowns that compared major Hollywood
movie budgets with typical Asian budgets. Mr. Shimiaei covered the topic
from an operational angle; with responsibility for operations at the
numerous mixing stages that handle major TV shows that include The Sopranos,
Alias and Star Trek: Next Generation, he offered local delegates an
opportunity to glimpse into the workings of the companies that produce so
many of the programs that make up many of the prime time programming in the
region.
After a lunch break, the possibilities of digital audio
were discussed in two seminars that focused on the developments in network
audio. Mr. Yves Ansade, Head of Product Development, Digigram,
France, gave a presentation on using Ethernet cables for sound distribution,
including an in-depth explanation of applications possible in the format
that permits 24-bit / 64 channel sound. Mr. Ansade discussed EtherSound, a
proprietary card system developed by Digigram that utilizes Ethernet cables
for sound distribution.
The last presentation was a dual-speaker effort by Mr.
Kunihiko Maeda, Chief Planner, R&D Planning Section, Otari Inc System
Engineering Division, USA and Mr. Junichi Fujimori, Project Leader,
Yamaha Corporation, Japan. They spoke about developments by their respective
companies to bring mLAN to fruition for sound applications. Using the
firewire / IEEE 1394 format, single cable connections within studio and
stage environments are now possible, eliminating cable clutter while also
permitting network connections that allow other settings and parameters to
be transmitted via the single firewire cable.
Lively Q&A sessions followed each of the three pairs of presentations. AES mementos were given to each of the speakers by AES Singapore Section
chairman Mr. Robert Soo. Feedback was received from the attendees and the
AES Singapore Section is already preparing for it’s 2003 seminar to be held
in conjunction with Broadcast Asia 2003 in Singapore. |
