South by Southwest has something for everyone, from the wild first few days of Interactive to the hidden gems in East Austin during Music, there’s much more to do than any mere mortal could possibly contend with.
After a great weekend of meeting some longtime Dolby fans and winning some new ones with the Dolby Digital Plus audio on the Kindle Fire HD, most of the Dolby crew took the show back to San Francisco, while I stuck around in Austin for a few more days of sights and sounds.
The week began with a mellow enough Monday, a little bit of wandering, and a lot of sensory overload. As the sun set in Austin I headed back to toward downtown after checking out some of the venues that would play host to music festivities in East Austin. I grabbed a bite and headed to One Night With Mike - the Mike in question being Mike Relm, who recently worked with Dolby on this video mashup featuring this year’s Best Picture nominees.
Relm absolutely killed it, playing his signature mix of heavy bass and lighthearted clips, getting laughs and groans as he dropped heavy dubstep beats in time with YouTube videos of people trying to do various acrobatic tricks and failing miserably. It was almost difficult to decide whether to stand and watch or dance!
That’s been a theme this week.
Whether it’s the sounds of Fort Lean or CHVRCHES in the stunningly lit Hype Hotel or the soulful rock of Divine Fits at Viceland, it’s been important to pace myself, take it all in, cut the occasional rug, and take a minute for the unexpected opportunity.
One such opportunity arose on Tuesday, when, after stopping by the Sennheiser + Paste house and the Hype Hotel, a friend of mine invited me to the MTV party where he walked me through some of his projection mapping wizardry. As an A/V geek I couldn’t help but be awed by what he was doing, reinterpreting sounds into visual art splashed across the walls in bright light.
That’s a good example of what awaits attendees at SXSW, though. As I said before, there’s something for everyone, and I’ve been enjoying all of it.
Today included a lively discussion called Music in Devices - Does Audio Quality Matter? The answer to that question, posed to a panel including Dolby’s Gunnar Larsen, was a resounding yes, but the panel had a wide range of ideas on just how much it mattered, and to whom.
The moderator mentioned a podcast coming out of the panel, which I’m looking forward to sharing with you at a later date. Thanks to everyone who followed along with the panel on Dolby’s Twitter feed, your responses were every bit as intriguing as those coming from the live audience. After the panel, the audiophiles in attendance swarmed the panelists. Is there any sound better than enthusiatic people talking about audio?
If there is, I have a feeling I’ll be able to find it in Austin!
- Thom Brekke is Dolby’s Community Manager and the guy you are likely to hear from on Facebook and Twitter. He is also a computer musician, Oregon Ducks football fan, and dance floor freak.
gamechangershow
romaincrisis
pixelskylines
vaporwave
blakekathryn
andulkaphoto