San Francisco - Se 2, 2008 - The 125th AES Convention has slated several historical events as part of the convention program. Here's a preview.

Evolution of Video Game Sound
Oct. 2, 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
From the discrete-logic build of Pong to the multi-core processors of modern consoles, video game audio has made giant strides in complexity to a heightened level of immersion and user interactivity. Since its modest beginnings of monophonic bleeps to the high-resolution multi-channel orchestrations and point-of-view audio panning, audio professionals have stretched the envelopes of audio production techniques, as well as the game engine capabilities.

The World's First Audio Recordings: Their Recovery And Restoration
Oct. 3, 1 p.m. -2 p.m.
Lunch Keynote: Dave Giovannoni, First Sounds
First Sounds, an informal collaborative of audio engineers and historians, recently corrected the historical record and made international headlines by playing back a phonautogram made in Paris in April 1860: a ghostly, ten-second evocation of a French folk song. This and other phonautograms establish a forgotten French typesetter as the first person to record reproducible airborne sound 17 years before Edison invented the phonograph. Primitive and nearly accidental, the world's first audio recordings pose a unique set of technical challenges.

Perceptual Audio Coding - The First 20 Years
Oct. 3, 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Who could have imagined in 1988, that everyone would be clamoring for pocket-sized devices with perceptual audio decoders? What made this possible and where is this going?

The History of Audio Processing
Oct. 3, 4 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Emil Torick of CBS Laboratories leads Marvin Caesar(Aphex), Frank Foti (Omnia), Bob Orban (Orban/CRL), Glen Clark (Glen Clark and Associates), Eric Small (Modulation Sciences), Mike Dorrough (Dorrough Electronics) and Dick Burden (Burden Associates) in a discussion about the audio processing tools developed by these innovators.

Mix Foundation 2008 Tecnology Hall of Fame
Oct. 4, 6 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Hosted by Mix magazine Executive Editor/Tecnology Hall of Fame director George Petersen, 15 audio innovations will be recognized.

Innovations in Live Sound - A Historical Perspective
Oct. 5, 2:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.
New techniques and products are often driven by changes in need and available technology. A panel of industry veterans will take a look back at past live sound innovations with an emphasis on the needs and constraints that drove their development and adoption.

The 125th AES Convention will be held in San Francisco at the Moscone Center Oct. 2-5, 2008.