PRESS RELEASE No.8
HIGH END® 2012 – (03rd – 06th May 2012)
April 2012
The Association of German Sound Engineers (VDT) will take part in the coming HIGH END, with former VDT board member Florian Camerer making a speech on the subject of “Loudness”.
The HIGH END SOCIETY maintains close links with the Association of German Sound Engineers because their goal is almost identical, namely the highest possible quality of music reproduction. Users and music lovers in search of quality, particularly appreciate the work of a sound engineer or producer. When a piece of music is played back, the music system itself only constitutes the last part of a much greater transmission chain. The technical component that we buy as a finished production on a sound recording (or as a download from the Internet), and which we, the users, cannot influence, is significantly greater and more complex. Indeed, all the factors defining the sound during the respective production are an element of the recording and are unalterable for the final consumer. Excellent recording quality is therefore the prerequisite for high quality music reproduction. The cooperation between both associations ultimately encourages mutual sharing of experience and improved networking between users, manufacturers, suppliers and scientists. In future the two associations would like to cooperate even more closely, and in the course of HIGH END 2012 a first step towards this has been taken.
The HIGH END SOCIETY is especially delighted to inform you that we have been able to gain Florian Camerer (sound engineer at Austrian Broadcasting (ORF), and Chair of the European Broadcasting Union Group on Loudness) as guest speaker on the topic “Loudness” at the official HIGH END 2012 press conference on 3rd May. During the fair he will also give a talk on this topic at the "technology stage" in Hall 3.
For some time, the term “Loudness” has stood for a universal and fundamental set of issues in the audio world that affects practically every area of audio production and transmission, and holds particular interest for the discerning music consumer.
It seems that both music productions and radio/TV signals have been involved in an endless competition where the aim is to be as loud as possible, at any rate louder than your rivals. For years, radio stations all over the world have been battling for the greatest loudness Experience has shown that listeners stay tuned much more often to the loudest station. This has led to the increasing neglect of both technical quality and the essential means of designing dynamics and acoustic contrast. The downside is a dramatic lack of musical variation and the inevitable accompanying emotional poverty.
Recently the concrete prospect of a permanent end to these “loudness wars” has been raised – at least for the realm of broadcasting. Florian Camerer is Chair of the European Broadcasting Union Group on Loudness, PLOUD. The PLOUD Group, with its R129 Loudness Recommendation based on internationally standardised algorithms from the ITU, has laid an important foundation for a complete new alignment of modulation practice, consistently oriented on the ear’s sensitivity to loudness. As the driving force of this working group, and a captivating orator, the ORF sound engineer Camerer, has been pre-destined like no other for the task of conveying the loudness idea to not only broadcast professionals, but also lovers of high-end music reproductions and quality entertainment electronics.
The loudness normalisation process not only ensures that successive strands of a programme will be experienced as equally loud by listeners, but almost as an after-effect it means that high-quality recordings with unadulterated original dynamic will, for the first time, sound more attractive than massively condensed and limited contributions in the same context. The new approach especially supports recordings in the superior quality range, and the sparse use of dynamics processing will be very much appreciated by listeners with high-end leanings.
Facts
Exhibition: HIGH END® 2012
THE EXHIBITION FOR HIGH QUALITY CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
Location: M,O,C, Munich - Lilienthalallee 40 – 80939 Munich-Freimann
Dates: 3rd May – 6th May, 2012
Trade visitors day: Thursday, 3rd May 2012 (with prior registration only)
Opening times: from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily
