How Many LUFS are Enough?

A 30-year veteran of the Television and Audio industries, Michael is a multi-disciplinary specialist in Production and Post-Production Sound, with emphasis on multi-channel acquisition, editing, sound design and mixing.

Michael has an international reputation for his work in the deployment of multi-channel sound technologies and workflows in large-scale broadcast environments, and for his advocacy for immersive surround production in long-form factual, music and variety production.

As Bell Media’s Post Sound Supervisor for 10 years, and another decade as Senior Manager for Broadcast Audio and Post Production Operations, Michael has enjoyed supervisory and mixing duties on more than 100 documentaries and over 1500 factual episodic programs, along with countless Live productions spanning every genre from Sports and News, to Live Variety and Specials. His mixes have garnered him three Gemini nominations and two Canadian Screen Awards, including an Academy Special Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement. The highlight of his mixing career has been the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.

He is currently serving with Bell Media’s Strategy and Innovation team, which is responsible for the creation of a 3-5 year technology roadmap. As part of this effort, he is focused on the emergence of VR/AR/XR as they relate to the creation of Next Generation media content, especially as regards Audio.

Michael’s professional affiliations include AES, SMPTE, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. He is a frequent presenter at AES, SMPTE, NAB and SVG events across North America, as well as being an occasional contributor to several industry publications.

Marking his 52th year as audio professional, Bob Katz has recorded and mastered three Grammy-winning albums and several nominees. He masters all styles of music as president and mastering engineer at Digital Domain, Orlando, FL.

In 1988, Bob became Technical Supervisor and recording engineer for audiophile label Chesky Records. He produced the world’s first commercial oversampled recordings with his own implementation of the DBX ADC. His recordings for Chesky used minimalist miking, have been acclaimed for their balance, depth, clarity and purity of tone. In 1997, he recorded the first 96 kHz/24-bit audio-only DVD.

Bob was workshops Chairman of the AES 74th Convention, Facilities Chair of the 79th, and chaired the 1994 NY Section. Through 2022 he was a member of the working group that produced the AES loudness recommendation “TD-1008”, succeeding TD-1004, which he had edited.

His book, “Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science”, in its third edition, has been translated to Chinese, German and Spanish. “iTunes Music: Mastering High Resolution Audio Delivery”, was released in 2013. He has also written numerous articles and equipment reviews and presented many seminars. He is currently a contributing writer for Positive Feedback Magazine.

He has created two digital audio products and has invented, patented and licensed the K-stereo and K-Surround Processes.
In 2016, Bob Katz was presented with the AES Fellowship Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the advancement of professional audio worldwide, over a sustained number of years.

Specialties: Live concert recording and broadcast, Studio recording and mixing, Editing

Dr. Gilbert Soulodre has many years of experience in the field of audio as a research scientist, a product developer, and a mixing engineer. He has written numerous scientific papers in the areas of concert hall acoustics, psychoacoustics and spatial perception, subjective testing, loudness metering, digital signal processing, and multi-channel audio. As the founder and CEO of Camden Labs, he has invented a variety of signal processing algorithms and has authored many patents. His product development work stretches across a wide range of areas including; automotive audio, mobile phones and tablets, consumer electronics, immersive cinema surround sound, virtual reality, microphone array processing, speech processing, the music recording industry, audio restoration, and audio compression.

Gil was the head of the Audio Perception Lab at the CRC in Ottawa where he developed the subjective testing methods that are used in the ITU-R BS.1116 and BS.1534 (MUSHRA) standards. He was formerly a professor in the Sound Recording program at McGill University and in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University. Gil is a Fellow of the AES and has received recognition and awards from the Acoustical Society of America, the American Institute of Physics, the IEEE, and the Canadian Government. He received the AES Publications Award for his work on spatial perception in immersive sound environments. In 2022, he presented the Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecture at the 153rd AES Convention in NYC.

Gil developed a method for accurately measuring and predicting the perceived loudness of audio signals. This technology was adopted as an international standard (EBU R-128) and is now used extensively around the world. In 2012, Gil received a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for this work.

“Nuno is a fiery Mediterranean full of energy and passion. His keen understanding of human nature and the ability to get what he needs ( and wants) from an international crew.

He loves equipment, new ideas and  challenges. He has an incessant drive to test and prove that new technologies are greater than the bells and whistles of the marketing .

He knows it has to work every time, no matter what. He is a colleague and a friend.”

By Dennis Baxter – Olympic Sound Designer