The AES Standards Committee is soliciting industry support through a new program called "AES Standards Sustainers."

Besides developing standards that underlie fundamental technology in the audio industry, the program provides participants with free access to published standards (the number of users scales with contribution level), offering ‘significant’ marketing and PR exposure.

Numerous standards in development are driving an expansion of the AES standards operation. “That necessitates an expanded base of funding,” said AES Standards manager Dr. Richard Cabot. “Unlike other technical societies with standards programs, the AES does not charge participation fees. The Society believes that a completely open process ultimately produces better and more widely accepted standards.”

All Standards Sustainers will have their contributions recognised on the inside covers of all AES Standards and with online logos on the AES Standards home page, along with Standards Sustainer web links.

Standards Sustainers may contribute at four different levels: a $1,000 basic level, $2,000 Silver level, $5,000 Gold level or a $10,000 Platinum level. Founding Standards Sustainers include Netflix as a Gold Standards Sustainer; and Eventide, Coveloz, Adamson Systems, The Telos Alliance, Audio Precision and Bose as Silver Sustainers. Other founding Standards Sustainers include Audyssey Laboratories, NTi Audio, MQA, KLIPPEL, Clair Global, Fraunhofer, Audio-Technica, NBC Universal, Metric Halo, Dolby Laboratories, USound, Control4, and Weiss Engineering.

As end-user experience proves, standards like the polarity specification for analogue XLR connectors (AES14), two-channel digital interface on XLR (AES3) and multichannel MADI (AES10) enable confident operation of compliant gear. The rapidly adopted audio-over-IP standard, AES67, and its control companion standard, AES70, are enabling interconnection between hardware using a number of proprietary standards by providing common audio carrier and control topologies.

Further details on participating in the Standards Sustainer program may be found at www.aes.org/standards/support/.