By Brecht de Man (C4DM, Queen Mary University of London) – 138^th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, Warsaw, Poland, 7 – 10 May 2015.

The 138th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society was held in Warsaw, Poland for the first time, 7 – 10 May 2105 . It’s was annual European gathering of audio engineering researchers, as well as professionals, students, and companies, alternating with its odd-numbered American editions which take place in Autumn.

Queen Mary University of London, and more specifically the Centre for Digital Music, had a strong presence at the Convention – if not in numbers, then certainly in impact. Liam B. Donovan, György Fazekas, Andrew McPherson, Joshua D. Reiss, Bob Sturm, David Moffat and Brecht De Man all attended.

Dave Moffat, PhD student, successfully ran against two other candidates for the role of Vice Chair of the Student Delegate Assembly for European and International Regions, and will as such be representing an estimated 4000 student members worldwide.

He succeeds Brecht De Man, also PhD student, who was elected for the same position at the 136th Convention in Berlin one year earlier, and who will now become Chair.

The Student Delegate Assembly representatives are a team of four students (two for North and Latin America, and two for European and International Regions – now half QM!) who answer student queries, support independent student events, represent the student members in the AES and its Education Committee and – perhaps most importantly – organise many events at the biannual Conventions. Among them are the Student Recording Competition, Student Design Competition, Student Party (at a local club or recording studio), an opening and closing student meeting, and an Education and Career Fair where institutions and companies can exhibit, promote and recruit to students for free. For the first time in many editions, if not ever, Queen Mary was represented (by Dave Moffat) with a focus on its new Sound and Music Computing MSc.

Audio and Music Hackathon London, Queen Mary University of London, Saturday 18 July – Sunday 19 July 2015, London, UK.

The Centre for Digital Music (C4DM) organised the Audio and Music Hackathon, which had over 50 participants and about 15 hacks. According to the organisers, the event was a big success. The event was sponsored by HARMAN, Abbey Road Red, Big Bear Audio and AES.

The Audio and Music Hackathon is a hacking session in which participants conceptualize, create and present their projects. Anything goes as long as its music and/or audio related. This is a standard hackathon format with a few twists. The event took place during the day on Saturday 18 July and Sunday 19 July, not 24 consecutive hours. It ended with a showcase event, and prizes were awarded by the event’s sponsors. Harman provided some very nice hackable wireless loudspeaker systems, and the organisers also provided hackable instruments based on the BeagleBone.

For further details about the event, please read the post on the C4DM website.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrechtDeMan/status/605337355067760640.

To see more about the even, check outt:

Twitter hashtag:    #audiomusichackathon

info about most of the hacks: http://audioandmusichackathonlondon.challengepost.com/

facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/audiomusichackathon2015

Technology that was hacked

–       Harman:  developer.harman.com (for those who don’t know, they have what are essentially programmable, wireless, connected loudspeakers with an API)

–       BeagleRT: http://beaglert.cc (a mainly C4DM technology)