'Its About Time' presented by Tony Andrews, at PLASA Focus: Leeds 2013

Nature has many octaves of vibration -- photons, radio, audio, surf -- but the contrast between audio perception and the other senses is telling: sound spans 10 octaves, unlike sight which is just one octave (the rainbow). Our hearing is also 360°, 24/7; sight may be 3D but it's planar and very often switched off. The human ear, on the other hand, can discern separate events as little as 15 millionths of a second apart. So, human hearing has an incredible resolution of time events. This means, of course, that audio technology has got a lot of work to do to keep up! And digital audio has more to do than analogue, because it already dissects this natural resolution with a series of binary compromises -- most of which use up a lot of time... Tony Andrews will discuss these issues -- and the challenges facing pro audio -- with journalist Phil Ward.