Registration Opens for AES Europe 2024, June 15-17, in Madrid, Spain

The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has announced the opening of registration for the 2024 AES European Convention – Madrid, to be held June 15-17 in Madrid, Spain. The next in-person gathering of audio professionals, researchers and academics will be hosted by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, located in the southeast area of the city.

Flex Logix Technologies and CEVA, have announced the world’s first successful silicon implementation using Flex Logix’s EFLX embedded FPGA (eFPGA) connected to a CEVA-X2 DSP instruction extension interface. Enabling flexible and changeable instruction sets to meet demanding and changing processing workloads, the ASIC, known as SOC2, was designed and taped out in a TSMC 16nm technology by Bar-Ilan University SoC Lab, as part of the HiPer Consortium, backed by the Israeli Innovation Authority (IIA).

The Audio Product Education Institute (APEI), an initiative of the Audio Engineering Society, will host the second in a series of webinars on Automotive Audio on Tuesday, February 23 (12:00pm EST): Computational Platforms for Automotive Audio. As auto manufacturers continue to push the limits of existing processing platforms to meet the increasing complexities of automotive systems, this online session will discuss the features that are common to all kinds of processing, and the ones that are unique to audio, identifying the distinctive characteristics for automotive audio applications.

Everyone knew it was coming because the rumors about the new over-ear headphone design abounded for some time, but no one knew exactly what the focus for the new product would be, except that everyone was anticipating an "augmented" edition of the popular AirPods Pro in-ears. Now, we know it is a radically new approach to wireless headphones, leveraging all of Apple's technologies and experience in design and user interfaces. Most importantly, the AirPods Max headphones combine high-fidelity audio with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, and spatial audio.

For this edition of The Audio Voice, I intended to focus a bit more on the latest developments in the fascinating world of sensors and how it impacts product development and design in all applications areas, particularly in consumer electronics, automotive, and health applications. After writing previously about Apple - the sensors on the Apple Watch and the surprising firmware updates for the AirPod Pro earbuds - I really didn't want to go back to Apple. But as always, Apple has a way of surprising us exactly when we least expected, and the company made another important audio announcement.

Opening what was broadly expected to be an event focused on the iPhone 12 unveiling, Apple introduced the new HomePod mini. Unlike the original HomePod, primarily focused on the music listening experience, the HomePod mini is touted as an actual Smart Speaker. In fact, betting on leading on four fronts: to combine a great music listening experience, an intelligent assistant, and smart home capabilities, with built-in privacy and security, in a beautiful compact design. Also much more affordable, at just $99.