Opening

The AES 11th Regional Convention subtitled "Audio Engineering in the New Century" was held on July 7-9, 2003 in Tokyo Japan. Convention site was the Science Museum located quietly in the green of Kitanomaru Park of the Imperial Palace district in Tokyo. (Program & Specifics)
Convention which drew 13,538 visitors during its 3-day activities, started 10.00 AM Monday July 7 with welcome speeches by Hiroaki Suzuki, section chair, Kimio Hamasaki, convention chair and Kees A. S. Immink, AES president. President Immink saluted the efforts of the convention staff that made this convention possible, and strongly encouraged the visitors to learn from the convention how new technologies to be developed for the future.
(Speech texts of Suzuki and Hamasaki are cited at the end of this report)

Special Presentation

Subsequent to the opening sessions, the special presentation titled "Everlasting Dream of the Surround Sound" was performed by Isao Tomita, the composer renowned for his pioneering works of Moog synthesizers and for outstanding musical compositions such as "Snowflakes are Dancing" (1974), as well as the sound and laser spectacle performed for the music festival held in 1984 on Danube River in Austria. Tomita talked about his views, ideas and concepts of his sound creations that have developed as the recording format has progressed from mono to stereo, stereo to quadraphonic, and further into present multi-channel surround sound. Along the development story, he demonstrated respective works from his early sound experiments to the latest compositions such as the symphonic poem "THE TALE OF GENJI", that indeed represented the beauty of "surround sound".
Finally, Tomita stated his prospect and desire that the surround sound should proliferate more into such as home theaters and car audios so that musicians' artistic representations as intended are fully realized and become appreciable by everybody in the restriction-free sound environment.

AES Japan Award

On the first-day July 7, AES Japan Award was presented to Akira Omoto, Kyushu Institute of Design, for his paper "Physical Measures Suitable for Recording Studios" presented to the Tokyo Regional Convention 2001, Koichiro Hiyama, NHK for "The Minimum Number of Loudspeakers and Its Arrangement for Reproducing the Spatial Impression of Diffuse Sound Field" presented to AES 113th Convention Los Angeles, and to Masatoshi Maruya, Otaritec Corporation for his efforts for establishing "BWF-J", the digital sound file exchange system for Japanese broadcasters as the chairman of the working group for the same.

Technical Tour

On the same day July 7, Masaki Morimoto, M & N Sound Projects conducted the Technical Tour to "New National Theatre, Tokyo". Escorted by 3 theatre staffs, visitors enjoyed to examine their ultra modern sound and stage facilities of "Opera" (1,814 seats) "Medium" (1,038) and "Small" (340) Halls of the theatre complex.

Banquet

Organized by Akira Asakura, the banquet chair, a banquet was held in the evening of July 7 at "The Space" room of Science Museum, 87 members and guests gathered, were greeted by Kimio Hamasaki, Convention Chair, Garry Margolis, AES Past President and Hiroaki Suzuki, Section Chair.

Sound Award for Students and Young Sound Designers

On the final day July 9, chaired by Toshio Kikuta, Institute of Sound Technics and Tohru Kamekawa, Tokyo National Univ. of Fine Arts & Music, "Sound Award for Students and Young Sound Designers" was presented as follows.

Top Prize:	Takashi Aida and Mitsuru Saitoh, Institute of Sound Technics for the composition "TACOS"
Second Prize:	Koh Kurihara, Institute of Sound Technics for the composition "RASHOMON"
Second Prize:	Hisaharu Suzuki and Yosuke Tabe, Kyushu Institute of Design for the composition "Tranquility of Water"
Special Prize:	Yuri Hasegawa, Sony PCL for the composition "Case 218"

Special Program

In the evening of the first-day July 7, Masaki Sawaguchi of NHK presented NHK 's Hi-Vision TV programs of high resolution wide screen pictures with multi-channel sound, the powerful and vivid sound with beautiful pictures really fascinated the audience in the large "Science Hall".

Paper Sessions, Workshops and Product Seminars

The biggest feature of this convention, also the most welcomed and appreciated by both of visitors and presenters, was the great many and a wide variety of technical papers, workshops and product seminars, that is, 44 technical papers, 13 workshops and 14 product seminars representative of the hottest topics in the audio community. The subjects were not limited to pure audio but extended to "Next-Generation Optical Disc System", "Surround Audio for Games", "HD24p Audio Program Production", "Encoding for Surround Media", "Digital Signal Transmission" and the like as shown elsewhere in this issue.
In particular, the product seminars were new and the first in this kind of convention, in which, an auditorium was time-bracketed through the 3-day period. Like paper sessions, equipment manufacturers, importers or sales representative firms each dedicated to the time-bracket, promoted their best products. They lectured the products' technical features and demonstrated how they operate in studios, not to just bystanders but to the visitors who intended to learn them. More than 1,000 people attended over the 14 product seminars, in some occasions, the room was fully packed with earnest visitors. The product seminars were quite successful indeed. On the other hand, nearly 3,000 people attended over 44 paper sessions, and nearly 1,000 attended over 19 workshops.

Fresh engineers and Students

Throughout the 3-day convention, it was prominent that fresh engineers and students who were eager to see new products, attended various sessions and seminars, had lively discussions with paper presenters and exhibit attendants. Among them, 21 had applied for membership, a big success.

Facilities

Ultra modern and functional audio and video facilities provided to respective presentation rooms, were quite effective and enhanced the presented papers and workshops. Names of those generous providers are listed elsewhere in this issue.

--End of Report--

Report by Vic Goh
Photographs by Keisuke Kawagishi

Opening speech by Hiroaki Suzuki, Section Chair

Good morning president Kees Immink, past president Garry Margolis, and ladies and gentlemen. I am Bike Suzuki, chairman of the AES Japan Section.

Thank you very much for coming all the way to join the AES Tokyo Convention 2003. We are very honored to have you with us.

It was around May last year when we began to prepare for this Convention. Since then many members of Japan Section have exerted their full effort to make the Convention a success for AES as well as audio industry or audio research .
As it is recognized, the audio industry is not necessarily having a good time. Rather we may be having a very hard time.

It is all the more important for AES to give people concerned with audio, an opportunity for them to get together to exchange information, listen to and see what is going on in the aspects of audio.

I wish you would enjoy meeting with people in Japan to discuss the future of audio. Further, I wish you enjoy your stay in Tokyo very much.

Opening speech by Kimio Hamasaki, Convention Chair

About one year ago, the committee of AES Tokyo convention started the preparation for this regional convention in 2003. Through this hard work, many peoples and companies help us to realize the substantial convention. In order to provide the participants various opportunities to get advanced information concerning professional audio technologies, we made a plan that consists of 4 principal events such as exhibitions, paper sessions, workshops, and product seminars.

It is great honor for us that AES president Dr. Immink and AES past president Dr. Margolis join this convention.

I hope every participant enjoy discussions with many presenters and engineers and this convention will contribute for the revitalization of professional audio business in Japan.

Closing speech by Kimio Hamasaki, Convention Chair

I am very happy that many participants join this AES 11th regional convention, Tokyo. On behalf of committee of this convention, I appreciate very much many companies who offer their equipments for this convention and every operation staff and every committee member for their efforts and contribution to this convention. I thank Dr. Immink and Dr. Margolis for participating in Tokyo Convention. Let us see again in 2005 at AES 12th Regional Convention, Tokyo.

Closing speech by Hiroaki Suzuki, Section Chair

On behalf of AES Japan Section, I would like to express our heartfelt thanks to those who have come all the way from overseas to Tokyo to attend the AES Convention 2003.
I believe you have seen that the Convention is really a success.
We did new trials, for example, product seminar, and workshops dedicated to one group or corporation. I am very pleased to say these trials have attracted many people, especially young people working in the field of audio engineering. We are confident that what we can provide at a workshop or product seminar will lead to a successful Convention.
AES Japan Section will start preparing for the next Convention, AES Tokyo 2005.

I wish we will see more people coming from overseas at the next Tokyo Convention. See you then.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Related Information

1. Program & Specifics (pdf)
2. Call for papers
3. Registration fees and pre-registration (pdf)
4. Conference preview guide (pdf)
5. Conference timetable guide (pdf)
6. Access to Science Museum
7. Contact information

Acrobat Reader is available here.