ASRA Conference 1999

The ASRA Conference of 1999 was a great success. Conference was held in Canberra, from the 1st to the 3rd of July, 1999 (inclusive). The conference encouraged examination of the roll of audio within multimedia, touching upon issues such as:

• Digitising and technical developments
• The delivery of sound in the 21st century
• Sourcing digitised heritage sound materials
• Audio on CD ROM and the WWW
• Success stories on CD
• Australia's Cultural Network
• The re-issue of heritage material

Digital recording facilities, at the Llewellyn Hall (often the site of Canberra ABC broadcasts), were used as a focus for some of these activities. The new National Film and Sound Archive building (and its studios) were visited as part of the proceedings.

Guest speakers included:

• John Spence and Ben Whitten, ABC
• Ian Gilmore, ScreenSound (formerly NFSA)
• Jan Fullerton, new Director of the National Library of Australia
• Gabrielle Hyslop, National Archives of Australia
• George Imashev and Bill Brassel, Australian War Memorial
• Dr Richard Reid, Department of Veterans' Affairs
• Beth Robertson, State Library of South Australia
• Dr David Rentz, CSIRO
• Michael Grafton Green, Canberra School of Music (ANU)
• Robyn Holmes, Canberra School of Music (ANU)
• James McCarthy, Wanda Lazar, Mathew Davies, Mary Miliano, Dr Jeff Brownrigg
• James Steele, Interactive Multimedia (part of the ICON group)
• Dr Stephen Foster, Australian Heritage Project

ASRA wishes to thank all presenters as well as the Canberra School of Music, especially Professor Nicolette Fraillon for her generous support. Once again ASRA is grateful for continuing support from Ron Brent, ScreenSound and The National Library of Australia.