Getting a Jumpstart from January
Happy New Year – and welcome back! – to all our friends, associates, clients, and SAI Blog readers throughout the audio industry. Even though 2026 has only just begun, its first month has flown by for Shively Acoustics International (SAI) after an already stellar 2025. As January temperatures have been dropping harshly in many places, SAI convened with industry in a milder setting.
For us and others in Audio, a new year begins at the annual Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES has long been a favorite stop for Roger, and the four days from January 6 to 9 this year were a happy return to check in on trends, discover new demos, and talk shop. It’s a dynamic trade show, with innovation and visions of the future front and center, as Roger put it. He noted how consumer audio continued its decline as a central focus, giving way to healthcare and AI applications, a shift that has been happening at the show since the turn of the decade. But in the SAI chief’s experience, “Audio is there, and when you find it, it is usually worth your while.”
We showed up: among other things, CES gave us the shot for a future Shively Acoustics & Friends album cover (Photo: SAI)
As usual, Roger attended in multiple capacities, not only for Shively Acoustics, but also as member of the Audio Product Development Alliance (APDA) and as head of Silentium’s North American business. He was also there on behalf of our media partner audioXpress and will be providing coverage for an upcoming edition of its newsletter, The Audio Voice. Among the CES highlights in his event coverage will be a focus on Automotive and software-defined vehicles (SDVs) in particular. So, stay tuned for an in-depth look!
Roger visiting the Silentium booth with Silentium CTO Tzvika Fridman (c.) and Eric Arntzen (r.) of Analog Devices (Photo: SAI)
On the business side of things, CES was productive for Shively Acoustics & co. despite the lower general turnout for Audio. Roger’s eager explorations of the Las Vegas Convention Center’s West and Central Halls included demos and convos at Dolby, the Audio Foundry, and Analog Devices, among others. Roger met with Rivian to discuss sound-quality improvements in the soon-to-be-released R2 model and with Pioneer about next stages for an OEM car audio project. He also stopped by to see how the SDV is evolving at OEMs for audio, all along happily watching Silentium “emerge as a leading active acoustics provider”. For SAI’s partner, indeed just like last year, you can’t spell ‘success’ without C-E-S. 😉
There were also meetings with Mirek Stiles, Head of Audio Products at Abbey Road Studios, who was giving demos of new audio-tuning software designed for consumer tech. Importantly, Mirek is set to be a keynote speaker at the upcoming AES 6th International Automotive Audio Conference, taking place in Detroit this year from July 29 to 31. After his discussions with Mirek, Roger is really looking forward to the talk planned for Detroit. “It’s gonna be a great keynote,” the returning conference chairman reports. Something to look forward to!
Which reminds us… the Audio Engineering Society’s conference on automotive audio, held every two years, is now only months away. For the rest of the first half of 2026, all roads lead to Detroit. Right now, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the submission deadline for technical papers, workshops, and tutorials is quickly approaching – March 17 – so don’t miss your chance and submit now!
AES Automotive Audio 2026
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Papers, Workshops, Tutorials
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submission deadline: MARCH 17
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AES Automotive Audio 2026 〰️ Papers, Workshops, Tutorials 〰️ submission deadline: MARCH 17 〰️
For an idea of what to expect, Roger had this to say about the upcoming conference he is helping to organize:
This year’s conference will have a theme of “Automotive Audio in the AI Era: Sounds of Future Cars”. The conference will give an overview of the present state of the art in the exciting field of automotive audio and address many of the new scientific disciplines involved in this still emerging field, such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, hardware and system architecture, sound reproduction and tuning, active sound management, signal processing (DSP), sound evaluation, and more.
Sound interesting? Keep your eye on the event webpage for registration details still on the way – and see you in Detroit this summer!
A final announcement for January has us seeing double: as readers will recall, a previously unpublished technical paper about “Digital Twin” virtual models featured as an article in the October 2025 issue of audioXpress. We are happy to announce that earlier this month, “Subjective Evaluation of Production Vehicle Audio System Variance” is now available to read online for free on audioXpress. You can also find it in The Audio Voice #543. Happy reading!🎧
That’s all for Jan, blogheads. Looking ahead to a fab Feb! ■
Shively Acoustics International — Modern Audio Solutions, Worldwide