Participants in the AES 49th International Conference on Audio for Games, following the February 6-8 event at London’s Carlton House Terrace.
The Audio Engineering Society’s 49th International Conference on Audio for Games was held on February 6, 7, and 8 in London’s Carlton House Terrace. Conference chairman Michael Kelly reports that the event scored high points from all attendees.
The third conference in the on-going AES series attracted 116 attendees from leading academic institutions and game developers including BBC, Capcom, Codemasters, Eutechnyx, Guerrilla Games, IO Interactive, Lionhead Studios, Microsoft Studios, Mind Candy, Ninja Theory, Playdead, Playfish, Rovio Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment and Wargaming.
“These conferences provide a unique opportunity for broad creative and technical discussion on game audio and for cross-fertilization between industry and academia,” Kelly says. “The audience was truly international and included visitors from the UK, Europe, Russia, the U.S., Japan, Korea and Australia. It was large enough to draw key players, and intimate enough to encourage significant dialog.”
On the second day of the event, the Keynote address by Robin Rimbaud, aka “Scanner”—a highly regarded London-based artist, writer, and composer—addressed “Inspiration From A Different Place.” The unusual timing of the Keynote underscored the theme of “out of the box” thinking.
Other highlights included Scott Selfon’s “Crossing the Streams” tutorial on novel historic and contemporary game audio applications; Mike Caviezel’s “Planes, Trains and Auto-mobiles” presentation, which provided a revealing look at how vehicle sounds are recorded and employed; and Stephan Schutze’s “How Sound Effects Realities” which explained the role “perception” plays in game sound design. Xavier Buffoni’s talk on High Dynamic Range (HDR) Audio drew positive feedback for providing broad technical details on this timely game audio topic.
Attendees found extensive networking opportunities at both the Dolby-sponsored opening day reception and the following evening’s pub gathering—which was so popular that an impromptu gathering returned to the scene on the final night of the conference.
“AES Audio For Game Conferences are proving increasingly popular,” Kelly says. “Feedback is universally positive, we consistently draw high level participants, and the connectivity factor between them is extraordinary. We are already planning a fourth Conference for 2015.”
Read about AES 49th Conference highlights at Audio For Games’ Website.
Visit the AES at www.aes.org.
