The Tonmeistertagung is the VDT's largest event and a leading pro audio congress in Europe, with around 100 exhibitors, numerous specialist presentations, and workshops. This year's event opened with the presentation of awards to Karlheinz Brandenburg and Günther Theile. In a keynote, Brandenburg also gave an overview of 40 years of audio research, from the beginnings to the latest results.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karlheinz Brandenburg played a decisive role in shaping the audio industry as we know it today. Based on the research results of his dissertation at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität in Erlangen, Germany, the foundations for MPEG-1 Layer 3 (mp3), MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and many of the modern audio compression standards were laid in the 1990s. Together with his colleagues at Fraunhofer IIS and the MPEG Audio Standardization Group, he revolutionized the media industry with this technology. Today, Brandenburg and his team at Brandenburg Labs are dedicated to making lifelike 3D sound via headphones possible for everyone.
Günther Theile was head of the Audio Systems and Engineering Section of the IRT, the research and development institute of the public broadcasters in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He proposed the diffuse field equalization for dummy heads and headphones, which has become ITU-R-Rec. BS. 708. He introduced the sphere stereo microphone, the room-related balancing technique, as well as the OCT Surround System. In 1984 he invented the masking based coding technique and started the development of the ISO/IEC broadcast standard (MPEG 1 Audio Layer II), known as mp2. He was engaged in investigations on multichannel sound, including multichannel source coding (MPEG 2 Audio Layer II). Under his chairmanship ITU-R TG 10-1 has produced Recommendation BS. 775, known as 5.1 surround standard. His work pioneered binaural, HRTF, and wave field synthesis applications, leading to key 3D surround sound and binaural developments.
The VDT has been awarding its Medal of Honor to outstanding personalities from the profession of sound engineers and the audio industry since 2002. The award winners include Fritz Sennheiser, Jens Blauert, Wolfgang Hirschmann, and now Karlheinz Brandenburg. "The award is a great recognition not only of my work but also for the teams I have had the pleasure of working with over the years. I'm delighted to be back at the Tonmeistertagung and to meet up with many friends," said Karlheinz Brandenburg when receiving the award.
The Tonmeistertagung conference is also known as a platform for the presentation of technical innovations. At the 2023 event, Brandenburg Labs also presented the latest version of its immersive audio solution for headphones. The technology makes it possible to recreate real acoustic environments via headphones or to create new realistic listening environments. In this way, virtual sounds fit seamlessly into the user's life and bridge the real and digital worlds. Listeners can explore complex soundscapes and interact with them.
With currently 2,000 members, the VDT is one of the oldest and largest professional associations in the audio industry and connects various specialist areas such as radio, film, stage, production, research, development, and education. The association's work focuses on interdisciplinary exchange as well as further education and training.
Brandenburg Labs, established in 2019 in Ilmenau, Germany, was founded by Karlheinz Brandenburg as a spin-off of the Ilmenau University of Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology. Brandenburg Labs can draw on many years of research in the field of audio at these and other institutions. Its talented interdisciplinary team tackles the challenges of creating an immersive audio experience for headphones, aiming to bring immersive audio solutions and products to the market.
www.brandenburg-labs.com
www.tonmeistertagung.com
