Jury

Jury 2020

 

We are very happy and honoured to have international experts that will evaluate all submissions and award the best works and projects.

 

Audrey Arbeeny – Audiobrain

Audrey Arbeeny is CEO/ Executive Producer of Audiobrain, founded in 2003. Audiobrain’s sonic branding includes Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Google, Holland America Line, IBM, KIA Motors Corp, Microsoft, Merck, Logitech, Whirlpool, Toshiba, and more. She also has significant background in psychology, biomusicology, and psychoacoustics, and conducts research in these areas. Projects range from Heart/Health wearables to surgical robotics. She has been Music Supervisor for 9 Olympic Broadcasts with NBC, for which she received 2 Emmy Awards. With over 25 years specializing in sonic branding, Audiobrain is at the forefront of emerging technologies, and their sonic imprints are heard millions of times a day worldwide. Audrey teaches and lectures on sonic branding at Pratt Institute and the Masters In Branding Program at School of Visual Arts, and has appeared in many publications, podcasts on the use of intentional music sound and voice.

Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg – Brandenburg Labs GmbH

Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg has been a driving force behind some of today’s most innovative digital audio technology, notably the mp3 and MPEG audio standards. He is acclaimed for pioneering work in digital audio coding and psychoacoustics. His honors include the AES Silver Medal, the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronic Award, the German Future Award, which he shared with his colleagues and the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Furthermore he is member in the Hall of Fame of the Consumer Electronics Association. In April 2014, Brandenburg was inducted as an innovator into the Internet Hall of Fame. He holds three honorary Ph.D. degrees. Dr. Brandenburg holds about 100 patents. He is CEO of the Brandenburg Labs GmbH, a senior professor at the Institute for Media Technology at Technische Universität Ilmenau and former director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Ilmenau, Germany.

Fabian Frese – Kolle Rebbe / Accenture Interactive

Fabian Frese began his advertising career as a copywriter at BBDO in Düsseldorf in 2001. Three years later he joined Jung von Matt where he became ECD in 2010, working for clients such as Mercedes-Benz, Nintendo, eBay and Vodafone. During his time at Jung von Matt, it was recognized as Germany’s “Agency of the year” and “Independent agency of the year” at the Cannes Festival. In 2013, Fabian took a “Digital Sabbatical”, where he founded start-ups and toured as an intern through various digital companies, which made him much poorer but a lot smarter. In 2014, he joined Kolle Rebbe in Hamburg as Managing Director and Partner, being responsible for clients like Netflix and the global Lufthansa account. Fabian has won an impressive number of national and international awards. Although, this may be due to the fact that he usually sat in the jury himself, for example several times at the Cannes Lions.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Genuit – HEAD acoustics GmbH

Klaus Genuit received his PhD in 1984. He developed a new, improved binaural measurement system for the advanced diagnosis and analysis of sound. He founded the company HEAD acoustics GmbH in 1986 which is today a leading contributor in areas of binaural signal processing, sound design and analysis, virtual reality, and telecommunication measurements. Klaus Genuit has published more than 300 scientific papers. He is a member of various associations, such as AES, JAES, JSAE, SAE, DEGA and ASA where he was elected as a fellow in 2004. He participates in several working groups dealing with the standardization of measurement regulations and psychoacoustic parameters. He has participated in different EU-supported research all of them focusing on improving sound quality of vehicle exterior noise. More than 15 years ago he started his investigations with respect to soundscape. Klaus Genuit is honorary professor at the RWTH Aachen University. He has established the HEAD-Genuit-Foundation at 2008.

Chris Hegstrom – Amazon

Chris has been creating audio for user experience and interactive media for over 20 years. After studying Music Synthesis at Berklee College of Music, he began his career by doing live sound for Blue Man Group. He then moved into web audio which led to over a decade of designing sound for video games, including franchises such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Burnout, and God of War. In 2012, he made the transition into product sound with Microsoft HoloLens. At HoloLens, he designed UX sound, sonic branding, and 3D audio. With this experience, he started his own company, Symmetry Audio, in 2015. As Symmetry Audio, he’s designed VR audio for Unity, HBO, and Technicolor, as well as creating UX sound for Google. Lastly, in 2017, he joined Amazon as Senior UX Sound Designer, where he now works on the audio identity of Alexa, Fire TV, and Fire OS.

Rainer Hirt – audity

Studies in communication design at the University of Applied Sciences, Konstanz (Master of Arts). Co-Founder of audity, a company specialised in functional sounds for brands and products. Author and co-producer of the compendium »Audio Branding«. Rainer is supervising various research projects with several universities and has been, since 2008, juror of the international Red Dot Design Award. Lecturer for Audible Design at the HTWG Konstanz.

Cherie Hu 

Cherie Hu is an award-winning writer who specializes in analyzing, tracking and critiquing innovation in the global music business. You can find her work in Billboard, Forbes, NPR Music, Music Business Worldwide, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and many other publications. Her music-tech newsletter Water & Music reaches over 6,000 subscribers weekly, from budding artists and managers to C-Suite executives at major music corporations. She has spoken as an expert commentator on CNBC, CGTN America and SiriusXM; as a guest lecturer at institutions like New York University, Northeastern University and the University of Oregon; and as a moderator, panelist or keynoter at over 25 conferences around the world. Other awards initiatives for which she has served as a jury member include the Reeperbahn Festival ANCHOR Award and the Webby Awards. She is currently working on a book for Bloomsbury about the parallels between independent music careers and tech entrepreneurship.

Dr. Daniel Hug – Zurich University of the Arts

Since the late nineties, Daniel Hug is exploring sound and interaction design through artistic installations, design works and research. He is teaching sound studies and sound design in Interaction and Game Design and is co-head of the new MA Sound Design at Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland. Hug is also lecturer and researcher at the chair for music education at the University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland, with a focus on innovation and interactive technology in sound and music education. Hug is visiting lecturer for interaction and game sound at various Universities in Switzerland, Austria and Finland and holds a doctorate from the University of the Arts and Industrial Design Linz. As founder of the sound design and consulting company “Hear Me Interact!” and as member of the steering committee of “Audio Mostly – Conference on Interaction with Sound”, his aim is to further contribute to the investigation and creation of the “sounds of tomorrow”.

 

Katariina Kari – Zalando Tech Hub

Katariina Kari (née Nyberg) is a research engineer at the Zalando Tech Hub in Helsinki. Katariina holds a Master in Science and Master in Music and is specialised in semantic web and guiding the art business to the digital age. At Zalando she is modelling the Fashion Knowledge Graph, a common vocabulary for fashion with which Zalando improves its customer experience. Katariina also consults art institutions to embrace the digital age in their business and see its opportunities.

Steve Keller – Pandora

Steve Keller is the Sonic Strategy Director for Studio Resonate at Pandora, an audio-first consultancy that “makes stuff.” Recognized as one of the leading experts in the field of sonic branding and identity, he blends art and science into award-winning sonic strategies and creative content for a variety of global agencies and brands. With a degree in psychology and over 30 years of experience in the music and advertising industries, Steve’s work explores the ways music and sound impact consumer perception and behavior. Recent research has examined crossmodal connections between sound and taste, the existence of audio archetypes, how bias impacts the aesthetic judgements of advertising professionals, and how music, soundscapes and noise in healthcare environments affect patience outcomes and satisfaction. He is the recipient of the iHeartMedia Scholarship for Leadership in Audio Innovation.

Anna Kind – Radja

Anna Kind is the owner of Radja, founded in 2007. With a network of established composers and offbeat artists the agency collaborates with architects, designers, technology and marketing experts to develop sound concepts. Anna’s broad knowledge combined with a passion for spotting creative solutions has resulted in a steady flow of award-winning projects. In parallel with assignments in the Middle East, Asia and Europe, Anna also has a contract as a producer at one of Scandinavia’s premier opera houses. Her goal to create a broad knowledge of some of the music world’s finest talent has led her to not only work with leading brands such as Ikea, Sony, Absolut Vodka, H&M and Einride – but also with distinguished people in performing arts, all with the same assignment – to create musical experiences that are extraordinary.

Steve Mayall – Music Ally

Steve Mayall is the co-founder and managing director of Music Ally, a music business knowledge and skills company. Music Ally launched in 2002 with a vision to help the global music business understand and work in partnership with new digital technologies and culture; and now focuses on providing the essential information and skills for the modern music industry.

 

Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen – Goldsmiths, University of London

Daniel Müllensiefen studied Systematic Musicology, Historic Musicology and Journalism at the universities of Hamburg (Germany) and Salamanca (Spain). He did his doctoral dissertation in Systematic Musicology on memory for melodies at the University of Hamburg. Since 2006 he has been working at Goldsmiths, University of London, now a Reader in Psychology and co-director of the Master’s course in Music Mind and Brain. In 2010 he was appointed as Scientist in Residence with the London-based advertising agency adam&eveDDB where he acted as a consultant and researcher, mainly on questions regarding the role of music in advertising and other commercial settings. In 2016 he received the prestigious Anneliese-Maier research prize from the Humboldt foundation and since then he is also affiliated with the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover.

Prof. Dr. Emma Rodero – Pompeu Fabra University

Emma Rodero is a researcher and professor in the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University UPF (Spain), PhD. in Communication, PhD. in Psychology, Master in Pathology of Voice and Master in Psychology of Cognition. She obtained a Marie Curie fellowship (European Union) to conduct research in US about cognitive processing of radio commercials. She is author of more than ten books and fifty scientific papers about radio. Rodero usually teaches Public Speaking and Sound Advertising at UPF. She has over a decade of experience in the radio industry. She is currently a voice-over artist and has received awards for some radio dramas.;

Claudia Schwarz – MusicTech Germany

Strategic Tech Advisor & Project Manager for the Creative Industries with a focus on Music Tech, Film Tech, Future of Synch & Licensing, Blockchain & Smart Contract Applications, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Leaming, Ethics in Technology, New Realities & lmmersive Content, Digital Media & Education Technology, including Conference and Festival Curation and Management. Co-founder and Vice President of MusicTech Germany, co-founder of WickedWork, an Innovation Catalyst for Creative Technologies, and Music Unchained, a series of events focussed on New Technologies for the Music Industry, all based in Berlin. Selected as an exceptional innovator for the EU-funded Keychange program and founder of the international Magna Initiative (Diversity in Music & Technology), Claudia is dedicated to the promotion of diversity within the Creative Industries, particularly of Women at the intersections of music, art, and technology.

Julian Treasure – The Sound Agency

Julian Treasure is author of the books Sound Business and How To Be Heard. He is a highly-rated international public speaker on business sound and personal communication skills – particularly conscious listening and powerful speaking. His five TED talks have been viewed over 80 million times, and his latest is in the top 10 TED talks of all time. Julian’s company, The Sound Agency, works with major brands worldwide proving that good sound is good business and pioneering the use of generative soundscapes instead of mindless music in spaces like airports, shopping malls and offices.

Hugo Verweij – Apple

Hugo Verweij leads sound design efforts on Apple’s Design Team. His work can be heard across a number of Apple platforms. Hugo has a deep appreciation for functional sound design that helps, guides, and delights the user – whether it’s through a notification sound or a subtle button click. Prior to joining Apple, Hugo taught sound design and music production at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht in the Netherlands. Underwhelmed by ringtones available at the time, Hugo launched Cleartones – a marketplace for unobtrusive, minimalist ringtones. Apple caught wind of Hugo’s project and hired him to work on sounds for iOS 7. Hugo’s talk Designing Sound at the World Wide Developers Conference gives a peek behind the curtain of the design process of Apple’s iconic sounds that can be heard all around the world. 

Prof. Dr. Stefan Weinzierl – Technische Universität Berlin

Dr. Stefan Weinzierl is head of the Audio Communication Group at the Technische Universität Berlin. With a diploma in physics and as a Tonmeister from Technische Universität (TU) and University of the Arts (UdK) Berlin, he received his Ph.D. in musical acoustics. His research is dedicated to acoustics and audio technology, with a special focus on virtual acoustic reality. In recent years he has coordinated several large national and international research units, including a DFG research unit on “Simulation and Evaluation of Acoustical Environments (SEACEN)” a European consortium on Audio Branding (ABC_DJ) and a national consortium for Computational Design (SHAPING SPACE). He is coordinating a master program in Audio Communication and Technology at TU Berlin and teaches acoustics and audio technology for the Tonmeister program at UdK Berlin.