LOS ANGELES, CA – Iron Mountain Incorporated® Entertainment Services had a strong presence at the recent 141st AES Convention in Los Angeles, September 29 – October 2, 2016. Iron Mountain was involved in several events throughout the convention’s four days, offering unique insight into not only its initiatives and approaches, but trends in the industry at large.
On the convention’s opening night, The Recording Academy® Producers & Engineers Wing® presented Iron Mountain with a special certificate of appreciation, recognizing Iron Mountain’s decades of top-notch technological efforts and dedication to excellence in audio preservation, archiving and restoration, at a special ceremony on the rooftop of Iron Mountain Entertainment Service’s historic L.A. building. Iron Mountain also announced the renewal of its ongoing support of the P&E Wing’s initiatives and membership for 2016-2017.
On Saturday, October 1, the panel “Breaking the Audio Ceiling” took place as part of the convention’s roster of Special Events. Eileen Sweeney, Iron Mountain Senior Vice President and General Manager, Data Management, served as co-moderator with audio student Kai Scheer, along with panelists Leslie Lewis (President, Leslie Lewis Consulting and Producer, GRAMMY® Nominees Album Series) Less Lincoln II (Google, Operations Mgr – Alphabet) and EveAnna Manley (President, Manley Labs). This panel addressed the invisible barriers and challenges that keep an individual from rising beyond a certain level in their career — the so-called “glass ceilings” encountered by women, minorities and industry outsiders of all types. AES Managing Director Bob Moses gave a special introduction to the panel.
Later on Saturday, the panel “Restoration Audio: Music Today and Tomorrow” also saw participation from Iron Mountain, as Bob Koszela, Studio Manager at Iron Mountain Digital Studios served as moderator, and Brett Zinn, Audio Engineer and Media Production Services at Iron Mountain Digital Studios, served as a panelist. Koszela and Zinn were joined by the following panelists: engineer Nathaniel Kunkel (B.B. King, James Taylor, Sting), David McEowen (Universal Music Group), veteran producer/engineer Eddie Kramer (Kiss, Led Zeppelin) and Joe Travers (Vaultmeister for the Zappa Family Trust). Advancements in audio technology and tremendous changes in how the entertainment industry creates and monetizes content have challenged engineers to accommodate requests to migrate, mix, master, store and distribute content securely. This panel addressed the challenges to restore degraded or damaged media assets including those affected by binder hydrolysis (sticky shed), tape binding adhesion (NOT sticky shed), mold, water damage, bent flanges, de-spooled pancake, salt residue, glue seep, splice repair, lubricant loss, static discharge and acetate spoking.
Earlier in the convention, on Thursday, Sept. 29, Iron Mountain hosted one of the convention’s Technical Tours (limited to 25 lucky guests) at its Los Angeles facility, a fourteen-story architectural gem that houses state-of-the-art preservation and restoration for millions of audio and image assets. With over 200,000 square-feet of archives, a data center and 10,000-square-foot digital studio. Iron Mountain Entertainment Services works with film and television studios, record companies and industry professionals to promote best practices for preserving assets, from original masters to fully digitized copies with complete metadata. Explored on the Tech Tour was their vast collection of vintage machines which can play every format, from the earliest wire recordings. This tour also included the history of their storied 1921 art deco building, and studio tours for audio, video, film, and photo facilities.
Jeff Anthony, SVP/Business Unit Leader, Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, remarks, “Our organization was pleased to be able to participate in AES Los Angeles and to contribute to the ongoing dialogue about preservation and restoration. It was a great convention, and it was great to see all our industry friends and make some new ones. We have been privileged to be at the forefront of our discipline, and it makes sense that we share our expertise and perspective with the wider audio community. AES Los Angeles was the perfect venue for that, and right in the neighborhood of our Hollywood facility.”
Photo Caption 1: The “Breaking the Audio Ceiling” panel on Saturday, October 1, at 141st AES Convention in Los Angeles. Pictured L-R: Eileen Sweeney, Iron Mountain Senior Vice President and General Manager, Data Management (panel co-moderator); audio student Kai Scheer (panel co-moderator); EveAnna Manley, President, Manley Labs; Leslie Lewis, President, Leslie Lewis Consulting and Producer, GRAMMY® Nominees Album Series; and Less Lincoln II, Google, Operations Mgr – Alphabet. Photo by John Staley Photography. © 2016.
