AES Up Your Output! 2017

Southampton Solent University was pleased to host the Audio Engineering Society’s Up Your Output! event on 18 and 19 March, co-organised by the University of Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration (ISVR). This annual event, which has run since 2011, offers students and recent graduates the opportunity to learn, network, and develop both friendships and career opportunities.

This year’s event included a student poster competition, where students from across the country exhibited their project work in the form of an academic poster. There were great prizes including plugin packs from sponsors Acustica, iZotope and Solid State Logic.

The event featured a number of keynote speakers:

• Barry Grint (Alchemy Mastering). “Old is the new New – Mastering for Vinyl in 2017“
• Adam Sawkins (Independent Games Developer). “Boy is a car complicated – Developing audio engines for driving games“
• Jim Simmons and Adam Wisbey (BBC R&D) “Audio for mobile: Loudness standards for online streaming, and its effects on portable devices”
• Rob France (Dolby Laboratories) “No Going Back – Immersive audio for live Sports”
• Charlie Slee (Big Bear Audio) “This little bear went to market – taking a product from the drawing board to the marketplace“
• Simon Short (Focusrite) “This is the future – how Audio over IP has changed the design of Live and Studio workflows”
• Varun Nair (Facebook VR). “Making it Real – Audio for Virtual Reality”
• Kyriakos Papanagiotou (KP Acoustics). “A unified approach to acoustics – Echotectonics, Soundscapes and Acoustic Particles”

And workshops:

• Live Sound Workshop: Andrew Horsburgh (Front of House engineer for Sundara Karma) and Tim Southern (Front of House Engineer for Gengahr). Sponsored by Harman International (mixing desk) and d&b Audiotechnik (sound reproduction)
• Mastering workshop: Ioana Barbu (Bauer Media)
• Transaural audio – Development of a 3D soundbar: Marcos-Simon Galvez. (ISVR) Sponsored by ISVR, University of Southampton)
• Audio For Games workshop: Chris Barlow (Solent Acoustics). Introduction to integrating the Wwise Audio Engine and Unreal 4 games engine.
• Audio Test and measurement: Graham Boswell (Prism Sound). Sponsored by Prism Sound
• Pure Data – Zero to Hero: Andy Farnell
• Careers in the audio and music products business: Richard Wear and Jo Hutchins (Interfacio). Sponsored by Interfacio
• Transmission Line vs Sealed cabinet vs ported reflex design: Ian Downs (PMC). Sponsored by PMC Loudspeakers
• Optimising your studio monitoring – speakers, acoustics and room calibration: Paul Mortimer (Emerging UK). Sponsored by Trinnov/PSI
• Delighted audience. Happy neighbours: Oran Burns (d&b audiotechnik). Sponsored by d&b audiotechnik
• Guitar Speaker measurements – from Anechoic to Studio. Andrew Harper (Celestion). Sponsored by Celestion
• Integrated & Holistic Sound System Design in Buildings. Andy Lambert (Arup) Sponsored by Arup Acoustics

The conference featured a large 24-channel spatial audio array in the main atrium. This was used for a soundscaping installation throughout the week leading up to the event and delegates were treated to a live 3D music performance within the array on the Saturday evening. Recordings were also presented by David Monacchi, Dr Chris Barlow and Sebastiane Hegarty.

The event was enjoyed by a good number of delegates and the organisers would like to thank the many sponsors that made it possible.