Sound Commission Daily Events Houston 2008

IMPORTANT :  please note the following addition to the schedule --  Student Presentations on Thursday @ 10:00

Session Proposal forms were distributed -- if anyone didn’t get one and wants to suggest programming for 2008 (or any future USITT for that matter) contact Dave Tosti-Lane or Bill Liotta to either get a form or just jot in on a piece of paper and hand it to them.  Remember that submitting a session idea is tantamount to offering to chair it.  Their email addresses are on the main USITT Sound Commission page: http://www.usitt.org/commissions/sound/Sound.html

Tamara Honesty, regional co-programming coordinator spoke about the USITT Cincinnati 2009 Conference.  In thinking of programming and resources there is a possibility of using the resources of CCM if needed.   Also, Stage Research and Syn-Aud-Con are both in a reasonable proximity and which might be worth looking into as additional resources for programming.

The Day Of Focus topic for Cincinnati is up for discussion.  The Day Of Focus is generally Thursday and is three consecutive sessions on a single topic.   Playback systems is an possibility, discussing different options in separate sessions.  Other topics mentioned were networking and digital consoles.

This is a HUGE year for the Sound Commission in terms of awards and special recognitions.

Rick Thomas’ book on Abe Jacob will be released on Friday.  The book is part of the Monograph series USITT publishes. Rick will be receiving the Joel E. Rubin Founder’s Award in recognition of his continuing dedication and work in representing the interests of entertainment designers in general and sound designers in specific.

Elisheba Ittoop will be receiving the LDI2008/Live Design Rising Star award on Thursday, the first sound designer to get that award.

Jason Knox  will be receiving the Robert E. Cohen Young Designer & Technician Sound Achievement Award.

Abe Jacob will be receiving the USITT Award in recognition of his pioneering contributions in sound design.

Helen and John Meyer will be receiving the Harold Burris-Meyer Distinguished Career in Sound Award 2008 for their efforts in furthering the state of audio art and support of the theater sound community.

Please make it a point to congratulate each of our colleagues receiving awards.  

Specific suggestions  for Sound Commission sessions for 2009 which were put forward and discussed included: Networking  (TCP/IP, CobraNet, etc.  This was discussed as a possible PDW or as a series of sessions or both.  An informal poll suggests there is much interest in this topic.

Digital consoles.  Again, this was discussed as a possible PDW or Day of Focus sequence of sessions.  Different strategies for accessing equipment and session content were discussed.

Critical listening. Smaart / Spectrafoo / Measurement techniques Loudspeaker rigging, which could be a session done with the TD/Engineering commissions

“Tricks”  -- design process and creative techniques for cue creation

The Logic of Upgrade  -- system upgrades and the long view System analysis -- what are the weak links in your system?

Approaching Pat Brown from Syn-Aud-Con to do a one day “Hums and Buzzes for Theater” session ( a smaller version of their SAC workshop)

Hearing protection  

Director designer collaboration -- round table approach or specific collaborator teams

Room acoustics, sound dampening, transmission loss .  Possibly a joint session with the Architecture Commission ”What happens to the sound from the moment it leaves the speaker til it gets to your ear?”

Designing/ mixing with A/B system (vs. mono sound system vs. the 5ms delay system)

The OISTAT Sound Working group meeting is set for  June 13-16, 2008 in Stockholm Sweden.  If you are interested in information contact Rick Thomas at zounds@purdue.edu