2016 AES International Conference on Headphone Technology

More than 300 million pairs of headphones were sold in 2015, and people are using headphones everywhere. The popularity of “smart and wearable” devices has driven developments in low-power processors and sensors that are enabling the augmentation of headphones with features more typically associated with hearing aids or smartphones. Therefore, this AES conference will focus on technologies for headphones with a special emphasis on the emerging fields of Mobile Spatial Audio, Personal Assistive Listening, and Augmented Reality.

This conference will assemble scientists, developers, and practitioners who are involved in any head-worn hearing technology, be it in theory, technical design, application or evaluation. The conference will enable an interdisciplinary dialogue across the headphone and hearing aid industries.

The conference takes place at the DGI Huset in Nordkraft; Aalborg’s old power station. This building has been refurbished and is now a combination of historic and modern architecture, located in the redeveloped city centre near the fjord and the city’s new music centre Musikkens Hus. Aalborg is served by its own airport, connected by 16 daily flights from Copenhagen, 3 from Amsterdam and 2 from Frankfurt. 
 
Mains topics will cover design of headphone transducers, additional sensors, wearing and listening comfort, mobile spatial audio, personal and assistive listening, binaural techniques, noise control, monitoring and analytic listening, evaluation and quality standards.

There will be also an area for product demonstrations and workshops. A Best Demonstration will be elected based on decision of the conference audience. A Best Demo Award including a certificate will be presented at the conference closing ceremony.

The conference will also feature the following invited lectures:

1. Dr. Veronique Larcher
Global Director of Strategic Innovation at Sennheiser Electronic Corporation in the USA, will talk about new applications for binaural immersive audio and how consumers really define headphone audio quality.

2. Dr. Volker Hohmann
Professor of Signal Processing for Medical Physics at the University of Oldenburg in Germany, will give a lecture on auditory signal processing for binaural assistive listening devices (ALDs).

3. Dr. Wolfgang Klippel
Honorary Professor on Electroacoustics at Technical University Dresden and owner of Klippel GmbH, will talk about the convergence between traditional headphone transducers and microdrivers.

4. Dr. Andrew Bright
Managing Director of GoerTek Audio Technologies, will give a talk with an industry perspective on headphone technology R&D.

August 24-26
Aalborg, Denmark
www.aes.org/conferences/2016/headphones/