9:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Track IV:
The Revolution of Surround Sound; Recording, Distribution and the Experience
Surround sound music is creating a quite a buzz from DVD to Dual-Disc to HD Radio to Internet radio. But how important is it really? What will it take for stereo to give way to surround? Are artists, labels, distributors, and toolmakers viewing it as a fundamental shift or is it a niche primarily of interest for movie soundtracks? Come and hear insights from leaders in the music industry.
Roberto Fisher, Director, Digital Media, Yahoo
Bela Canhoto, Artist Relations, Native Instruments
Niko Bolas, Producer, Engineer, Mixer, Soundtracks for Pixar (Cars) and Sony Pictures (Martin Scorsese's Lightning in a Bottle)
Howard Soroka, VP Media Technologies, Universal Music
David Frerichs, VP and US General Manager, Coding Technologies, Moderator
Niko Bolas, Producer, Engineer, Mixer: Having grown up with a passion for motorcycles and road racing, at 18 Niko moved from his native Los Angeles to New York to manage an IMSA pit crew and start a Suzuki motorcycle dealership. Returning to LA in 1977, he was hired to work on the construction crew of the now world-famous Record One Studios on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, CA. When construction was complete Niko had learned a great deal about sonics, equipment, and acoustics, and threw himself into learning recording techniques and engineering. In 1983 he was lead engineer at Record One, and began his recording career for artists ranging from Neil Young ("The Volume Dealers"), Melissa Etheridge, Keith Richards to Herb Alpert, Stan Getz, John Doe, - most recent, Martin Scorsese, John Mayer, Herbie Hancock, Sting, and Daredevil Jane. In 1989, Niko and his brother Mark formed Fakespace Music – a virtual reality / 3D music project, which allows for a musically driven virtual reality experience. They presented the world’s first virtual reality music presentation at SIGGRAPH 95, demonstrating two new technologies with exciting commercial and artistic potential: The Soundsculpt Toolkit links the worlds of music and virtual reality to create experiences unlike any other; Third Dimension Video adds depth to traditional video imagery using innovative stereoscopic video techniques. The team at Fakespace went on to win many patents, design & science awards for their work. In 1998, Niko once again teamed up with brother Mark, (now a Professor at USC), and took a journey into Internet Radio they originally called Sonicbox. Sonicbox was founded to make listening to 'Best Of Planet' Internet Radio as simple as possible. With pushbutton e-commerce capability and targeted one-to-one ad insertion, Sonicbox gave radio stations new revenue opportunities, and advertisers access to highly targeted listeners via an Internet-extended cluster model. In 2000 the company was re-named iM Networks and in 2001, it was merged with Japan’s software giant Softbank. In 2005, Niko formed Nick Lansky Entertainment with long time friend Harlan Lansky, and continues to divide his time between LA and NY, working with legacy artists, emerging talent and start-up companies. Journeying through all the studios and dotcoms and projects, – only technologies change in Niko’s world – the core values stay the same: rock n’ roll and motorcycles
Howard Soroka, VP Media Technologies, Universal Music: Howard Soroka has been a senior technologist in music and the entertainment industries for over twenty years. His numerous roles have included software engineer, consultant, producer, music editor, evangelist, gadfly, curmudgeon, and advisor to some of the most powerful and inattentive executives in the business. He is currently VP of Media Technologies at Universal Music Group's eLabs. Prior incarnations have included lengthy stays with Philips Media, and George Massenburg Labs. He has degrees in both music and computer science, but remembers precious little of what was ostensibly learned while earning them. He lives in Santa Monica, CA., with with his wife and two unruly children,
David Frerichs is VP and US General Manager at Coding Technologies. Most recently Founder, President, and CTO, iM Networks, he joined Coding Technologies in 2002 after being blown away by a demo of aacPlus. Mr. Frerichs brings with him over 11 years of human-interface, Internet infrastructure, multi-media, and semiconductor experience. With a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana/Chapmaign, Mr. Frerichs holds patents related to source-less virtual reality head-tracking and the scaling of virtual reality sensor data. With this foundation, he started Future Vision Technologies, Inc. to develop consumer VR products. After selling his first company to Fujitsu Microelectronics, Mr. Frerichs held senior positions at Silicon Graphics and 3Dlabs and developed significant overseas market experience in Japan. His successes include bringing to market the first Internet radio appliance (the Philips FW-i1000), helping to bring Cosmo Player to 25 Million desktops, working with NASA JPL to bring the Mars Pathfinder landing to the Web in 3D, initiating the first trans-pacific VRML broadcast, and founding the Web 3D Consortium.