Director and Professor of Music Production & Recording Technology Golder O’Neill ’92, M.M.E., participated in the Pan American Audio Educators Conference in Mexico City during the last week of March. He was a part of several presentations and discussions regarding audio education. Several topics were presented and discussed, including “How Are We Teaching Critical Listening?,” “How Are Educators Implementing Immersive Audio Within Our Programs?” and “Strategies for Student Engagement Across Cultural Boundaries.”
The conference was a four-day event that coincided with the Latin America Sound Check Expo, which is similar to the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show that happens in the United States in January. During the conference, audio educators discussed common challenges that educators are currently facing in the classroom and also in the audio industry. There were discussions on using artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom, as well as using AI in audio engineering, such as AI music creation and AI mixing/editing. There were demonstrations by immersive audio specialists, including Miguel Domingez (Genelec speaker monitors) and Raul Oropeza (Televisa Univision San Angel). One of the most exciting aspects of the conference was the presentation of immersive audio projects in Dolby Atmos by some of the world’s top audio engineers, including Morten Linberg, Justin Gray, Michael Romanoski, Ken Caillat and Martha de Franciso.
The Pan American Audio Educators Conference was a convergence of audio educators from around the world to discuss and share ideas and practices of audio education. The conference was led by John Krivit, former president of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and founder of Facebook’s “Hey Audio Student” which has more than 200,000 members.
