Multichannel Sound in Television—Technical and Aesthetic Approach

Kimio Hamasaki graduated and gained his Master of Arts and Engineering from Kyushu Institute of Design in 1982. The same year he joined NHK, the Japanese Broadcasting Corp. He has been engaged in sound production, especially as a balance engineer of classical music for many years. He has also been engaged in development of sound production for HDTV and R&D of digital sound facilities. His principal recording works are: • Music Fantasy “Carmen” 1989, for which he received the Prixitalia “Perugia” Award and was a finalist for International Emmy Awards. • Music Poem “Family Tree” by Toru Takemitsu, 1995. Many HDTV productions including the following works: • Bayerisher Staatsoper “Der Ring des Nibelungen” • Wiener Staatsoper “Die Fleder-maus” and “Die Zauberflote” • Hamburger Staatsoper “Tannhauser” • NHK Symphony Orchestra Opera production “Die Zauberflote” • Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra • Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra • London Philharmonic Orchestra • NHK Symphony Orchestra He is now an associate director of Three Dimensional Audio-visual Systems Research Division, Science & Technical Research Laboratories, NHK, and has been researching multichannel sound production and other sound issues. He is a member of AES, the Acoustical Society of Japan, and the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers.