Russ Berger, president of Russ Berger Design Group (RBDG), will be sharing his expertise in small room acoustics as part of the Surround Sound Live Seven symposium taking place on October 8, 2009, at the Manhattan Center in New York, one of several special events to be held during the Audio Engineering Society (AES) 2009 convention.

Surround Sound Live Seven brings together the authorities in surround sound for a candid and informative discussion with today’s audio professionals about issues relating to the capture, broadcast and monitoring of surround.

Berger will be helping to kick off the full-day symposium with his talk entitled “Surround Monitoring Challenges in Acoustically Small Spaces,” where he will highlight the practical criteria and solutions to help overcome the limitations of monitoring surround sound in acoustically small spaces not originally intended for that purpose.

“For live events, finding a critical listening space for use in monitoring and producing surround sound product is nearly impossible,” explains Berger. “Decisions are made not only about source material content and veracity, but also about how best to process and present the multichannel surround event in a manner that translates the aural experience of a live event to a wider audience.

“From our work on various surround spaces for broadcast and music recording, we have found there are methods that optimize an oftentimes less-than-ideal acoustical environment.”

Berger has been involved with the acoustical design development of broadcast and recording studios, specifically the behavior of sound in acoustically small spaces and the properties of acoustically coupled spaces.

Projects include Sony Music Entertainment, ABC-TV, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, more than 80 public radio facilities (including National Public Radio in D.C., WBUR-FM/Car Talk, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio and Southern California Public Radio), NFL Films, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Sweetwater, recording studios for Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey, Steve Miller and Whitney Houston, Paragon Studios, BiCoastal Music, MasterMix, TNN, Lakewood Church and recording/broadcast facilities for RadioShack and JCPenney.

For more information about Surround Sound Live Seven go to www.aes.org.