Professional societies discuss studio design

This week Solent’s Media Technology programme was proud to host a new first – a joint technical meeting for the Audio Engineering Society (AES), the Institute of Acoustics (IoA) and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

Dr Eddie Veale of Veale Associates has been designing sound studios since the 1960s, and lists amongst his clients John Lennon, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, CBAs studios and Virgin radio. Eddie gave a fascinating talk on the process and requirements of different types of studios, from music studios to broadcast studios – and issues that the studio designer has to deal with. Typical issues range from acoustics and infrastructure to the balance of client wishes against the available budget. His talk gave an overview of a range of different projects with which he had been involved, and led to a very active Q&A session at the end of the presentation.

The Media Technology programme is heavily involved with several professional societies, which afford the students access to contemporary information as well as allowing them to develop their networks. The AES, IoA and SMPTE hold regular meetings at Solent but these are often separate and framed around topics that are of interest to the particular society. It was great to have a session that brought together various factions of the wider industry. We look forward to another joint session between the AES and SMPTE on object based audio and Audio over IP, which is scheduled for April.