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Chair: Andrés Mayo
Andrés Mayo, former President of the AES (Audio Engineering Society), is an audio engineer and music producer who has pioneered the art of mastering since 1992. He boasts credits in more than 3,000 albums released in all formats, from vinyl through BluRay. Andres co-chaired the first AES Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality (AVAR), held in Los Angeles in 2016, and since then he has been working tirelessly (together with fellow engineer Martin Muscatello) in the development of techniques and workflows for immersive music production.
Andres Mayo Immersive Audio boasts a Dolby Atmos – Neumann room and caters for all sorts of deliverables, from 360° podcasts and commercial ads through documentaries and music productions.
Member of the P&E Wing Advisory Council at NARAS, Andres is a 2-time GRAMMY and 7-time Gardel Award winner. -
Adrián Lara Moreno
Head of Research at HOLOPLOT, Adrián joined the company in 2011 as a DSP and Sound Engineer, researching Matrix Array concepts together with Helmut Oellers, the founding father of HOLOPLOT technology. Adrián played a pivotal role in the creation of Orion, HOLOPLOT’s first loudspeaker and proof-of-concept product. Adrián’s progression to Head of Research has been instrumental in delivering X1 and the Sphere project, as well as driving HOLOPLOT’s further product development.
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Emad El-Saghir
A Fellow at HOLOPLOT, Emad is an expert in acoustics and sound engineering and joined the company in 2018. With over 25 years of experience in the field, Emad has played a pivotal role in shaping HOLOPLOT’s success. He specializes in acquiring and supporting large-scale projects while serving as a subject matter expert for the customer success team. Emad’s contributions have been instrumental in designing the Sphere sound system, establishing HOLOPLOT as a leader in innovative sound technology.
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Michael Amorello
With five years of experience as an acoustical consultant, Michael transitioned to HOLOPLOT just under two years ago. In this role, his primary focus has been on system designs, particularly specializing in X1 system installations and commissioning. Michael has played a significant role in providing user support and training for HOLOPLOT customers and made substantial contributions to the successful commissioning of the Sphere project.
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Erik Hockman
Erik Hockman is a multi-national award-winning creative media producer, audio/visual systems designer, and product developer. His passion is orchestrating the seamless blend of art and technology creating innovative experiences that invoke emotion and wonder.
With over 30 years of professional experience working in the themed entertainment, special venue, and leisure industries Erik has held leadership roles in live and studio content creation, broadcast engineering, theatre audio and show control design, film sound, live entertainment production, and engineering/construction management.
Erik has designed numerous projects for clients including Disney, Universal Studios, Panasonic, Anheuser-Busch, David Bowie, Yanni, and Luther Vandross. Of special note, Erik is extremely proud to have lead the Audio/Visual systems design at Universal Studios Japan for virtually every show, ride, attraction, and facility, from the park’s conception and throughout the first 20 years of operation.
Erik holds the position of Senior Vice President | Senior Fellow with the Madison Square Garden company, where he is leading the audio and acoustics team designing iconic structures, developing immersive experiences, and creating groundbreaking technologies. He holds a BFA from California Institute of the Arts in Sound Design for Theater, Music Composition, and Production Management.
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Paul Freeman
Paul Freeman is a Recording Engineer, Music Producer, Sound Designer, Software Designer, Guitar Player and Principal Audio Artist / Beam Meister – Sphere. His music business career began at age 14 while playing guitar in a successful touring rock band. Paul started engineering at the age of 18 and began producing professionally at age 25. Paul has produced and or engineered records for such artist as Kenny Loggins, The Beach Boys, The Doobie Bros., Marvin Gay, Dianna Ross to name a few. He has received twelve Grammy nominations for his record works as well as six gold and three platinum records.
Paul was involved in the “Digital Audio Revolution” from the beginning producing and engineering for Telarc – the premier Audiofile label at the time. Telarc was one of the first record companies to release digitally recorded Compact Discs. Paul produced and recorded the first all digitally recorded and mixed Pop record – The California Project featuring The Beach Boys as well as the first SurroundSound CD – Spies, “Music of Espionage” for Telarc.
In 1976, Paul was the recording engineer on Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade – Disneyland. This project started his love for Theme Park and Production Music. Since that time, Paul has recorded/Produced over 1,000 projects for Disney, Universal, DreamWorks, Busch Entertainment and others.
In 1992, Paul founded Audio By The Bay, an audio post production house providing audio post production services to Disney, Universal as well as for feature films and corporate events.
In 1996, the Music Productions arm of ABTB was created and Clients include Disney, Universal, Warner Bros, DreamWorks and Busch Entertainment. In 2002, Paul produced the Olympic Torch Theme Song featuring Aretha Franklin as well as a new theme song for the Special Olympics. Paul produced the soundtrack of “Wicked, The Musical” for Universal Studios Japan and Steven Schwartz, as well as many Disney projects. Paul produced and engineered the soundtrack and immersive sound design for Beyond All Boundaries at the National WWII Museum for executive producer Tom Hanks.
Paul is currently The Principal Audio Artist, “Beam Meister” at MSG Sphere Studios and is part of the development team assisting in defining the entire audio pipeline, from recording concepts and techniques to audio editing, mixing, and spatialization, through to final playback and show control integration. Paul has been involved with the development of the Holoplot system currently deployed at Sphere Las Vegas for over five years.
Paul has received numerous awards for his work including twelve THEA Awards, four IAAPA Brass Ring Awards, twelve Grammy nominations, three Emmys, a special technical Academy award as well as six gold and three platinum records.
Location
There are many events that are held online throughout the year.
Immersive Audio Academy 8th Edition: Designing the Sound System for SPHERE
(Please note the time listed above is in ET).
Event Description
Sphere is a unique venue located in Las Vegas that has implemented the world’s most advanced concert-grade audio system – Sphere Immersive Sound, powered by HOLOPLOT. In this edition of the Immersive Audio Academy, the AES will host the definitive discussion about the sound system implemented at Sphere. The panel will include 3 experts from HOLOPLOT plus Erik Hockman, Senior Vice President and Senior Fellow at Sphere and Paul Freeman, Mixing Engineer and immersive audio designer at Sphere. The presentations will cover in-depth the system design, commissioning and mixing for this venue. The seminar will be open to questions from the audience and will be moderated by Andres Mayo.
Host: Andres Mayo
Panel: Adrián Lara Moreno, Emad El-Saghir, Michael Amorello, Erik Hockman, Paul Freeman