The Audio Engineering Society (AES) was originally formed in 1948 in New York, growing to have Sections throughout the world.
Melbourne Section – The Early Years
The AES Melbourne Section was formed in 1974, during a period when the Audio Engineering Society was expanding in the Asia-Pacific region under the leadership of the Society’s first Vice-President International, Stephen Temmer. Stephen, as President and Owner of international audio distributor Gotham Audio (New York & Glendale CA), had strong connections with regional professional audio distributors, which he was able to leverage to promote the formation of local AES Sections whereever he went on business. His tour to our region saw him facilitate the formation of the Melbourne Section. It also saw the formation of the Sydney Section at about the same time. On the same tour, he took the opportunity to visit the Japan Section which, formed in 1952, has the distinction of being the first Section to be formed outside the US.
The inaugural Committee comprised Graham Thirkell as Chairman, Alf Bean as Vice Chairman, Brian Horman as Secretary, John Morrison as Treasurer, and Roger Savage, John Ryan, and John Dunne as committee members.
The Committee and active membership comprised a mixture of practising audio professionals across a wide range of industries including recording, broadcasting, manufacturing and design; as well as the owners and representatives of companies importing and distributing professional audio technology
This diversity ensured they could plan meetings that covered a wide range of audio topics, give access to information on the latest audio technology developments, and hear from many visiting international audio leaders on the latest developments in audio. The suppliers provided access to emerging technologies from across the world, and the practitioners provided an understanding of current practices and implementations.
“Over the early years, the meetings were diverse, covering audio electronics and acoustics design, digital audio, testing and measurement, radio, music production, film sound, telecommunications, and talks by overseas visitors. The meetings were often built around technical representatives visiting from overseas who could demonstrate a new product to an interested audience.”
(Source: John Smyth – early Committee Member)
A (Partial) List of early Section Meetings can be viewed here
The Conventions (an overview)
From the solid base of regular well-attended meetings, the Section Committee decided to mount a Regional Convention in 1984 to provide an audio-focused event for the industry. The Convention was held at the Melbourne Hilton Hotel and was the first AES Convention to be held outside of the USA and Europe. Its success encouraged the Committee to continue with regular Regional Conventions through the rest of the eighties and the nineties, even going so far as to collaborate with the Sydney Section on a joint Convention at Sydney’s Darling Harbour Convention Centre in 1995.
In the pre-Internet days Regional Conventions such as the AES Melbourne ones were important in bringing emerging technological developments to the attention of the local industry thus facilitating the timely adoption of new technologies.
As an example, at the 1988 Convention Ioan Allan of Dolby Labs and Tomlinson Holman of Lucas Films brought equipment to Australia to demonstrate the new Dolby Digital/THX surround sound format. It was installed at a Village Cinemas’ city theatre where it was demonstrated to many interested Convention delegates. One industry insider has credited that demonstration with being responsible for the introduction of THX to Australian cinemas.
I do know that the introduction of THX to Australian cinemas was a direct consequence of Tom’s presentation … and that his presence here was precipitated by the AES Melbourne Section
(Rod Brown – personal communication with AES’ Dr Rodney Staples)
The Conventions were:-
September 1984 – Melbourne Hilton
September 1988 – Melbourne Hilton
August 1991 – Moonee Valley (Racecourse) Convention Centre
August 1993 – World Congress Centre, Melbourne
April 1995 – Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour
September 1996 – World Congress Centre, Melbourne
Following the 1986 Convention, the Section applied to the Victorian Department of Justice for Incorporation as a not-for-profit Association to protect individual Committee members from personal financial liability associated with Section and Convention activities.
By the time the 1996 Convention wrapped up, it was obvious to the Committee that the business of trade shows and conventions was changing. Professional exhibition organisers and trade publications were joining forces to mount and promote purely commercial trade shows that were fragmenting the market, affecting both the exhibitor income streams and attendance numbers for volunteer-based incumbents like the AES Melbourne Section. Most of the Section Committee officers and members had pulled extra duty serving on the Convention Committees, significantly adding to their workload.
Judging that their Regional Conventions could no longer be self-sustaining financially, the Committee made the tough decision to stop mounting Conventions. The 1996 one would be the last AES Convention to be held to date in Australia.
For more details on the Conventions, check out the Conventions History page here
Regular Meetings
Despite the strain of organising and running so many Conventions the small hard-working Committee, most of whom had full-time jobs to contend with as well, still managed to hold regular meetings. They had a stated aim of holding ten meetings per year, which they mostly achieved! The meetings were diverse in their content, covering demonstrations and explanations of the current state-of-the-art in professional audio, as well as more theoretical topics and major facility tours.
The topics were wide-ranging – covering topics like Low Bit Rate encoding, early DAWs (Fairlight, TeD etc), Loudspeaker design, Magnetic Tape Recording (analogue and digital), Studio Console Automation and Tape Recorder Synchronizers, Pickup cartridge design and manufacture, Vinyl Record Production and Manufacturing, MIDI in the studio and live performance, Cinema Sound, Audio Post Production, Dolby SR Tape Noise Reduction, FFT spectrum analysis, Audio transmission over the terrestrial and cellular telephone networks, and Surround Sound.
The evenings often included demonstrations of the technology or devices.
There were also tours of a range of facilities like recording studios, acoustic testing labs, radio and TV stations, and entertainment venues.
Regular meetings were held right up to the early 2000’s when the Section went into a hiatus to allow the exhausted long-serving Committee members to catch their breath and scout around for new blood to take the lead.
The 2009 Reboot
In 2008 Mark Edwards, a Tonmeister graduate from the UK emigrated to Melbourne with his family. He had hoped to connect with a local AES Section to network with like-minded people. Finding the local Section dormant he set about re-energising it with the assistance of the AES Vice-President International at the time, David Murphy (of the Adelaide Section). With David’s help and counsel, he set about assembling a group of interested members to form the core of a new Interim Committee.
At an informal meeting of AES Members in March 2009 at Mark’s home, an Interim Committee was formed. It comprised an Executive of Jim Barbour (Acting Chair), Mark Edwards (Acting Vice-Chair), Graham Haynes (Acting Treasurer), and Peter Smerdon (Acting Secretary). Greg Segal was later seconded to the Interim Committee.
Special mention must go to Graham Haynes who has served on Section Committees continuously since at least 1983, in addition to serving on many Convention Committees. Graham was nominal Secretary/Treasurer during the dormant years and kept the flickering light burning during those difficult times. Graham still holds the position of Treasurer. As well as keeping the Section on a sound financial footing, he has provided the continuity needed to allow the “new guard” to seamlessly take up the reins.
The Interim Committee called a social meeting for all members in July 2009 at a hospitality venue to discuss the future. Brainstorming at that meeting gave the Interim Committee ideas for the future direction and potential meeting topics.
The first formal meeting was held in September 2009, being a tour of the newly built TripleM/Fox-FM radio studios in South Melbourne, where Technology Manager Matt Steadman described the all-digital radio studios.
A Special General Meeting of Members was held in December 2009, presided over by the AES Vice-President International, David Murphy where elections were conducted. All the Interim Committee members were elected by the membership into the same substantive positions, except that Mark Edwards became Chairman, and Jim Barbour became Vice-Chair. New Committee Members Graeme Huon and Dr Rodney Staples were also elected. David then gave a talk on loudspeaker horn design and crossover design, specifically as it related to cinema sound.
Following the important formalisation of the Committee makeup, they were able to get to work planning future activities, establishing a goal of holding at least six meetings per year, with the key element of each meeting being a presentation on an audio-related topic.
To date, the Section has managed to hold at least six meetings per year on audio topics, with these meetings being documented on our website at https://aesmelbourne.org.au/pastevents/
Growth of Online Presence
While the Section had been dormant, cultural and technological advances meant that email communications and a web presence had now become mandatory. Chairman Mark Edwards’ IT skills were used to good effect as he established the Domain Name aesmelbourne.org.au, and set up email accounts for that Domain using Google services. He also built a website for the Domain then administered and maintained it for several years, eventually passing the responsibility to Secretary Peter Smerdon when other demands on his time saw him relinquish his roles with the Section.
The website has been an important vehicle for disseminating information, but requires constant attention to keep it up-to-date, and running properly.
As social media has arisen as a communication platform, the Section has also established a presence on various sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn as a way to reach both members and non-members. A YouTube channel was also established (https://www.youtube.com/@AESMelbourneSection) where video and audio recordings of past meetings can be found.
COVID Changes Everything – Meeting in the Lockdown
In 2020 the world was facing a challenge unseen in a century, a global pandemic – COVID-19.
The AES Melbourne Section was affected early by COVID disruptions, with our March 2020 meeting cancelled at the last minute as the Phillipines-based presenter had to immediately fly home two days before the meeting date as his home country was locking down within 24 hours.
The city of Melbourne locked down shortly after, and as in many organisations, the Committee had to work out how to continue operating in the new environment.
The Committee settled on a calendar of online “virtual” meetings using the now popular Zoom Meetings platform.
We went from this: ………………………………………. to this:
…and welcomed presenters and participants from all over the country and world
The pros and cons of virtual meetings quickly became apparent.
On the pro side, the Section was no longer limited to presenters able to be in Melbourne on the meeting date but could draw on experts from around the country and the world, provided they were willing to meet the time zone challenges. Meetings could also draw a worldwide audience. The fact that they could participate from the comfort of their home (no travel!) was also an incentive for both potential presenters and participants. Many of our early international Zoom participants are still attending the Zoom meetings to this day, and form up to a quarter of our participants, with many more coming from regional Victoria and interstate.
On the con side, social interaction is more limited in virtual meetings, and new people could easily slip into and out of meetings without speaking to anyone. The informal post-meeting “chinwag” where new attendees could be made feel welcome was missing.
The extended lockdowns finally ended in October 2021, and the Section Committee considered how the Section might benefit from the extended audience reached using Zoom.
Returning to a “new normal” was slow as many people were reluctant to congregate in groups and preferred virtual meetings. A couple of in-person meetings were held in 2022, being immersive loudspeaker demonstrations unsuited to an online format, but attendance was low. The Zoom meetings held that year were well attended.
The Committee decided that there should be a mix of purely online (Zoom) meetings and in-person meetings, and the in-person meetings should be live-streamed online where possible.
In 2023/2024 several of our in-person meetings have been live-streamed on YouTube, as we slowly build up attendance at our in-person meetings. People are getting used to attending AES Melbourne Section meetings in person again.
The Future
The expectation is that future meetings will be a balanced mixture of Zoom online meetings and in-person and that wherever possible the in-person meetings will be live-streamed online.
The Committee is also carefully considering Committee renewal as many of the existing Officers and Committee Members have served since 2009 and new blood would be of great benefit to allow the baton to be passed.
The Committee looks forward to welcoming the next generation of professional audio practitioners into the Section and onto the Committee.
If you are interested in serving please contact us
This document draws on material published in the Journal of the AES, historical material in the possession of the Melbourne Section, discussions with some of the parties involved, and significant preliminary research by Committee Member Dr Rodney Staples. We thank Dr Staples for his work, as well as all those who contributed their recollections and resources to this project.
Peter Smerdon,
Secretary, AES Melbourne Section.
October 2024.