AES Show NY 2024: Updates, Upgrades, New Gear for Audio Combined AES and NAB expos demonstrate synergy of audio and video By Dan Daley, Audio Editor Friday, October 4, 2024 - 1:28 pm
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Like peanut butter and chocolate, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) promote the synergistic benefits of audio and video. When the two domains once again combine in an expo at New York's Javits Center Oct. 8-10, the connection will be seamless, with attendees having unfettered access on both sides of the bifurcated hall.
The AES side will host the bulk of the audio exhibition, presentations, and educational activities. Sports will have a significant place among them, via such presentations as AI Takes the Field: The A-List Panel on the Future of Real-Time Sports Broadcasting (Thursday, Oct. 10; 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) and The New Playbook: Producing Innovative Sports and News Content (Wednesday, Oct. 9; 12:30 p.m.-1:20 p.m.). Sessions are $30 for members, $45 for nonmembers.
The AES Show continues to reflect its music-production legacy, with a few battleship-size audio consoles scattered around the exhibits. But even that's a plus these days for broadcast sports, where the playing field, recording studio, and concert hall continue to meld into a single, noisy entity. Here's a look at what vendors on the audio side will be showcasing.
Audinate (NAB Booth 646) welcomes new solutions from Calrec, Gallery Sienna, LAMA, Lawo, and Telos Alliance to the growing list of applications that support native Dante audio in cloud-based production workflows. The recently announced Dante SDK Connect Edition enables software developers to build Dante audio transmission and reception natively into their cloud-based applications. The new integrations give broadcasters and audio engineers an array of new products to choose from in building cloud-based Dante audio-production workflows.
Audio-Technica BP3600 immersive-audio microphone
Audio-Technica (AES Booth 447) will be showing the BP3600 immersive-audio microphone, a premium broadcast-audio tool capable of capturing stable, three-dimensional sound beds at sports and other events. The microphone has eight capsule assemblies with excellent high-frequency characteristics integrated into the body while remaining compact and lightweight enough for single-operator usability and easy setup. Direct routing is also possible, with no need for additional decoding or latency processing with 5.1.4-channel speaker layouts. This practical, state-of-the-art broadcasting solution is intended to capture realistic sound that brings the recording location directly to listeners without the need for extensive equipment.
Avid (AES Booth 518) will preview upcoming audio post tools, including interfaces, control surfaces, and the latest Pro Tools features and integrations, such as speech-to-text capability that allows scanning audio for speech information to be displayed as text. Avid will also show Dolby Atmos renderer improvements.
Calrec True Control remote production
Calrec Audio (NAB Booth 1213), celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, will be demonstrating new products and software updates. This includes the IP-native Argo M console, which provides the operational familiarity of the larger Argo Q and Argo S consoles in a compact 24- or 36-fader footprint. Designed for small to medium-size applications, Argo M is a plug-and-play audio console with native SMPTE ST 2110 for optional networking and I/O expansion. Also to be shown: True Control 2.0 second-generation remote-production capability offers expanded levels of remote control without the limitations of mirroring or parallel controlling, as well as an expanded feature set, which includes EQ, dynamics, routing, direct outputs, and delay; and Type R, Calrec's modular, expandable IP mixing system features the latest software.
Clear-Com Arcadia Central Station suite of products
Among the highlights at two Clear-Com booths (AES 129, NAB 1129) will be EHXv14, which introduces enhanced SIP integration on the E-IPA card, a response to increased customer demand for higher-density connection to digital phone systems and other VoIP communication solutions. Redundancy with SMPTE ST 2022-7 to third-party AoIP devices, ensuring maximum uptime and reliability, also will be demonstrated. The Arcadia Central Station, now equipped with enhanced firmware, allows direct connections between Arcadia devices and Eclipse HX digital-matrix frames via the E-IPA card.
Dale Pro Audio (AES Booth 343) is teaming up with a group of industry partners - RTW, TSL, DirectOut, Glensound, Yamaha, 360 Systems - that share a vision for a connected future.
Fraunhofer (AES Booth 237) will be highlighting the new anchor loudness feature for xHE-AAC, the latest advance in the AAC codec family. It focuses on speech-gated loudness measurement within the xHE-AAC encoder; by normalizing loudness based on speech segments, it ensures a consistent audio experience without volume fluctuations, supporting standards EBU R128 s4 and ATSC A/85. Also on exhibit will be integration of the MPEG-H audio system with Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve 19 Studio video- and audio-postproduction software. The debuting Immersive Voice and Audio Services (IVAS), a 3GPP codec for transmission of spatial audio over mobile networks, offers multidimensional audio for such telephone services as multiparty conferencing.
Lawo (AES Booth 1013) will unveil a tenth processing app for its HOME Apps platform, with more apps to follow in a few weeks. All run on the same generic server and offer the convenience that they can be configured and, using Lawo's HOME management platform, shared among locations. The current lineup: HOME Multiviewer, HOME UDX Converter with HDR processing,
