Surroundscapes

The future of festivals and live concerts. Simon has been a live sound engineer for over 40 years covering events from 100-stage festivals and some of the largest classical events, to the closing ceremony of the London Paralympics and much more. He talks about how things are likely to change as live events finally are able to be staged again.

The future of trade shows and the state of the AV industry. Avixa is the AV industry trade organization as well as the organizer of the largest trade shows worldwide for our industry.

Representing the view of the architect in the design of the workspace. Architects have been thought to be the enemy of the AV industry, prioritizing aesthetics over acoustics and seeing building technology as a necessary evil. This is far from the truth and Michael argues for a closer integration of our disciplines as we look to what the workplace will look like and more importantly how it will facilitate wok in the information age and beyond.

Bernd runs a small but immensely innovative AV company in Germany, working for many large corporations. He talks about how his work has evolved from single-room AV design, through large integrated facilities to the current projects that he is involved in which feature rapid deployment of many sites with central monitoring and control.

Salomé is a true polymath and has had a wide-ranging career as a designer for Arup, working on architectural lighting, 3D printed structural building elements and the way people interact within companies. She is now Deputy Program Director for the Circular Economy in the city of Amsterdam. She talks to us about how we can come back from this pandemic stronger – in the workplace, at home and in the built environment in general. https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/policy/sustainability/circular-economy/ https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/ https://doughnuteconomics.org/

Evan headed the Habitat team at Plantronics before founding Moodsonic with Julian Treasure. He talks about the effect of adding soundscapes composed of natural sounds into the workspace in order to increase productivity, enhance privacy and provide wellbeing.

Craig is the founder of the large, innovative AV consultancy Idibri. He talks to us about changes in the way people present information and work, as well as commonalities between different market sectors.

Christine Congdon (Editor 360 Magazine & Director, Global Research Communications, Steelcase) and Rebecca Charbauski (Brand Communications Project Leader, Steelcase) Steelcase are arguably the world’s leading supplier of office environments and have long been respected for their innovation in helping define the future of the spaces that we work in. We talk about this work in the past, the effect of the current pandemic and how the workspace will look, sound and feel once we move back into it.

Arup Foresight department researches global trends affecting all aspects of life. Josef talks to us about how these megatrends are affecting how people are working and where this work is getting done. foresight.arup.com inspire.arup.com

Dave Rahn founded Custom Channels, one of the earliest streaming business music services in the world. Rahn talks about his personal history in radio and music programming, and his path as music distribution evolved in the age of the internet. Rahn also discusses the role of human curation in creating the right music experience for both employees and customers in a commercial environment.

Patten Studio is a leader in creating remarkable experiences fusing technology and art to create installations such as a 100-foot interactive video wall for Intel’s CES booth, kinetic instruments for Björk, a SuperBowl halftime show and much more. Dr James Patten talks about his time at MIT Media Lab and how it led to the creation of a company delivering experiences melding sound, light and movement with technology throughout the world.

Matteo Luppi, the founder and CEO of the business music service SoundMachine talks about music licensing in commercial environments and creating branded experiences in thoughtful ways. An important part of the discussion will cover the role of SoundMachine in helping businesses to rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rob Anders is the founder and CEO of Niio, the leader in the curation and deployment of video art, from digital photography through to augmented and virtual reality experiences. Niio hosts the world’s largest collection of video art and Rob talks about the importance of adapting to ever-changing consumer standards and his vision to eliminate black screens in public spaces and replace them with inspiring content.

Qsic is a highly innovative business music service from Australia and Nick Larkins, its Co-founder talks about how it came to be and especially how it is different from other business music services. Larkins discusses the ability of cloud processing technologies and data analytics to serve unique customer experiences to each store within a chain, while keeping within brand guidelines.

The first episode of the mini-series features five-time TED Talk speaker, Julian Treasure, who explores the use of sound in business. The conversation moves through a number of topics covering everything from audio branding, the practicalities of voice control in commercial environments, and the psychological impacts of certain frequencies and tempos of music on consumer behavior.