Jason Freeman

2nd Annual Web Audio Conference - Preliminary Announcement

The 2nd Web Audio Conference (WAC) will be held April 4-6, 2016 at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. WAC is an international conference dedicated to web audio technologies and applications. The conference welcomes web developers, music technologists, computer musicians, application designers, researchers, and people involved in web standards. The conference addresses research, development, design, and standards concerned with emerging audio-related web technologies such as Web Audio API, Web RTC, WebSockets and Javascript. It is open to industry engineers, R&D scientists, academic researchers, artists, and students. The first Web Audio Conference was held in January 2015 at IRCAM and Mozilla in Paris, France.

The Internet has become much more than a simple storage and delivery network for audio files, as modern web browsers on desktop and mobile devices bring new user experiences and interaction opportunities. New and emerging web technologies and standards now allow applications to create and manipulate sound in real-time at near-native speeds, enabling the creation of a new generation of web-based applications that mimic the capabilities of desktop software while leveraging unique opportunities afforded by the web in areas such as social collaboration, user experience, cloud computing, and portability. The Web Audio Conference focuses on innovative work by artists, researchers, and engineers in industry and academia, highlighting new standards, tools, APIs, and practices as well as innovative web audio applications for musical performance, education, research, collaboration, and production.

Contributions to the second edition of the Web Audio Conference are encouraged in the following areas:

Web Audio API, Web MIDI, Web RTC, and other existing or emerging web standards for audio and music

Development tools, practices, and strategies of web audio applications

Innovative audio and music based web applications

Client-side audio processing (real-time or non real-time)

Audio data and metadata formats and network delivery

Server-side audio processing and client access

Client-side audio engine and audio rendering

Frameworks for audio synthesis, processing, and transformation

Web-based audio visualization and/or sonification

Web-based live coding environments for music

Web standards and use of standards within audio based web projects

Hardware and tangible interfaces in web applications

Codecs and standards for remote audio transmission

Any other innovative work related to web audio that does not fall into the above categories

We welcome submissions in the following tracks: paper, poster, demo, performance, and artwork. All submissions will be double-blind peer reviewed. The conference proceedings, which will include both papers (for papers and posters) and abstracts (for demos, performances, and artworks), will be published online and in SmartTech, Georgia Tech’s archival open-access repository.

Papers: Authors are invited to submit 4-6 page papers. Accepted papers will be presented at the conference as an oral presentation.

Posters: Authors are invited to submit posters with an accompanying 2-4 page paper. Accepted posters will be presented at the conference as a poster presentation. We encourage authors to submit their work simultaneously to both the poster and demo track

Demos: Authors are invited to submit demos. Accepted demos will be presented at the conference in a hands-on demo session. We encourage authors to submit their work simultaneously to both the poster and demo track. Demo submissions should include a title, a one-paragraph abstract and a complete list of technical requirements (including anything expected to be provided by the conference organizers).

Performances: We invite proposals for performances making creative use of web-based audio applications. Performances can include elements such as audience device participation, web-based interfaces, WebMIDI, WebSockets, and/or other imaginative approaches to web technology. Submissions must include a title, a one-paragraph abstract of the performance, a link to video documentation of the work, a complete list of technical requirements (including anything expected to be provided by conference organizers), and names and one-paragraph biographies of all musicians involved in the performance.

Artworks: We invite proposals for sonic web artworks and interactive applications which make significant use of web audio standards such as Web Audio API or WebMIDI in conjunction with other technologies such as HTML5 graphics, WebGL, and/or interactivity. Works must be suitable for presentation on a computer kiosk with headphones. They will be featured at the conference venue throughout the conference and on the conference web site. Submissions must include a title, one-paragraph abstract of the work, a link to access the work, and names and one-paragraph biographies of the author(s).

March 1, 2016: camera-ready papers and abstracts due

At least one author of each accepted submission must register for and attend the conference in order to present their work.

Submission Templates and Submission System

April 4-6, 2016
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Web standards and use of standards within audio based web projects 

Important Dates
July 1, 2015: submission system opens

Submission Templates and Submission System
Coming soon.


[ot] 2nd Annual Web Audio Conference: preliminary announcement