Embarking on my professional journey as a young DSP engineer at Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen, Germany, in 1989, I quickly encountered a profound insight that would shape my entire career in audio: audio is not merely data like any other set of numbers; its significance lies in how it sounds to us as human listeners. The sonic quality of audio signals cannot be captured by simple metrics like ‘signal-to-noise ratio.’ Instead, the true goal of any skilled audio engineer should be to enhance quality in ways that are genuinely perceptible through listening, rather than relying solely on mathematical diagnostics.
This foundational concept has been a catalyst for innovation throughout my career, from pioneering popular perceptual audio codecs like MP3 and AAC to exploring audio for VR/AR and AI-driven audio coding.
Join me in this lecture as I share my personal 36-year research journey, that led me to believe that in the world of media, it’s all about perception!
