AES Europe 2026

This is the official Opening Ceremony of the 160th AES Convention in Copenhagen.


AGENDA

WELCOME
Colleen Harper, AES Executive Director
Brecht De Man, AES President
Jan Abildgaard Pedersen, AES 160th Convention Chair

PRESENTATION OF AWARDS
Cesar Lamschtein, AES President Elect
Finn T. Agerkvist and Lars Tirsbæk, Papers Co-Chairs

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Jan Abildgaard Pedersen, Committee Chair
Geoff Martin : “The Perceptual Irrelevance of Physical Measurements”

CLOSING REMARKS
Jan Abildgaard Pedersen, AES 160th Convention Chair

Have you ever wondered how AES works? Let's meet up and
talk about the benefits of volunteering and the path to
leadership in AES! You could be our next Chair, Vice
President, or even AES President!

This years famous Richard Heyser Momorial Lecture will be given by Professor Dorte Hammershøi from Aalborg University.

Throughout a distinguished academic career, the lecturer’s work in measuring outer ear transfer functions and headphone characteristics served not only to develop and refine methods for binaural recording and reproduction, but eventually provided a stepping stone into the field of technical audiology and hearing-aid rehabilitation. In 2026, an earphone is rarely just a sound reproduction device, and a hearing aid is rarely just a medical device. The talk will give highlights from 36 years of work in the field, and discuss what the presenter considers to be the contemporary challenges when earphones become hearing aids and vice versa. Finally, the presenter may address the challenges of creating audio-only virtual reality for blind gamers.

Step into Immersive Sound with the High-Res Immersive Audio @ Dynaudio Reference Studio.

Join us for an evening of immersive sound.
Connect, listen and experience!

Black Tornado Studios
Refshalevej 209, 1432 København, Denmark

28 May, 2026 from 6pm

30 minutes car journey from the AES Europe 2026 Convention at DTU.

Sponsored by Auro-3D and Dynaudio

This is the social start of the convention - following directly after the famous "Richard Heyser Memorial Lecture" held by Professor Dorte Hammershøiwith the title: "From head-related transfer functions to risk of damage and hearing rehabilitation"

The will be Drinks, snacks and live music with vocal ensemble "Tonika"!

Come and join us - catch up with your connections and make new connections!

If you registered for the Official Reception at Copenhagen City Hall (during registration for the Convention) then busses will take you to the City Hall in the City Center off Copenhagen.

The LAST Bus will leave at 3.00pm - EXACTLY!!!

The busses will start to board at 2:30pm and the first bus will leave at 2:40pm - so if you are ready - please come and start boarding the busses from 2:30pm !


There will be no possibility to go to City Hall AFTER 3.00pm !!!!


3.00pm will be the very LAST Bus to City Hall !

If you registered for the Official Reception at Copenhagen City Hall (separate registration during registration for the Convention) then you can participate in this unique Official Reception at City Hall in Copenhagen.

We are pleased to invite AES Europe 2026 participants to a special reception at Copenhagen City Hall, offering a warm and official welcome to Denmark’s capital. Located in the very heart of the city, Copenhagen City Hall is one of the city’s most iconic landmarks. Designed by architect Martin Nyrop and inaugurated in 1905, the building is inspired by the medieval town hall of Siena, Italy. Its impressive interiors and renowned clock tower make it a fitting and memorable setting for this occasion.
At the reception, guests will be welcomed by the City of Copenhagen and enjoy a relaxed afternoon of networking with fellow conference participants. Refreshments will be served alongside the city’s much-loved specialty, the traditional Town Hall Pancake. We will hear a speech by an official person from the City Council followed by an interesting technical talk by Lars Risbo, CTO of Purifi, who will share a brilliant example of the danish contributions to the audio world:

Unreasonable Audio Innovation
The HiFi community is split into two camps we call “subjectivist” and “objectivist”. Subjectivists reject all measurements and only trust their ears. No explanation is too absurd so long as it doesn’t involve actual data. One of our products once drew this comment from a reviewer: “sounds surprisingly good for something that measures this well”. Objectivists obsess over spot measurements and double-blinded trials. If they are to be believed, almost nothing is audible. In spite of which they mindlessly seek to improve a handful of fixed metrics that too often are bad surrogate markers: “we’ve a recipe for this measurement, so that’s what we measure,” no matter the relevance to the end point of how it sounds. The human ear is amazing and complex: to some defects it is nearly deaf while to others it is mind-bendingly sensitive. Standard metrics do not cover that complexity. The two camps are so entrenched that neither is open to new ideas. This is even recognised in patent law: “technical prejudice” means you can prove an invention is not “obvious” because it goes against common but flawed beliefs. Shall we still depend on G. B. Shaw’s unreasonable man for making any progress or can we do better? To the subjectivist, audio is art. To the objectivist, it is science. We propose it is neither. Audio is engineering. Our task as engineers is building equipment and doing so in a rational manner. Doing a full blown DBT is only rational if the decision that’s at stake is an expensive one. It’s often cheaper and faster to fix a defect than to prove it’s audible. Standard measurements often miss glaring problems, so measurements must be designed with the specifics of the DUT in mind. It’s only after looking hard for bad news and not finding it that we can have some confidence that the news is good. This subtlety of approach can’t be arrived at simply by compromising between the objectivist and subjectivist positions. The pendulum must stop because the truth isn’t even in the middle. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw

Self-organised Dinners at Restaurant in the Heart of Copenhagen of self-organised transport to your Hotels.

We recommend that people find a group of interesting fellow participants during this reception and go for a dinner in one of the many restaurants around Copenhagen City Hall in the heart of Copenhagen (at your own expense).