Call for Submissions

Fifth Annual Web Audio Conference - Call for Submissions

The fifth Web Audio Conference (WAC) will be held 4-6 December, 2019 at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. WAC is an international conference dedicated to web audio technologies and applications. The conference addresses academic research, artistic research, development, design, evaluation and standards concerned with emerging audio-related web technologies such as Web Audio API, Web RTC, WebSockets and Javascript. The conference welcomes web developers, music technologists, computer musicians, application designers, industry engineers, R&D scientists, academic researchers, artists, students and people interested in the fields of web development, music technology, computer music, audio applications and web standards. The previous Web Audio Conferences were held in 2015 at IRCAM and Mozilla in Paris, in 2016 at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, in 2017 at the Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London in London, and in 2018 at TU Berlin in Berlin.

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, students, 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, with an emphasis on bringing more diversity into audio.

Theme and Topics

The theme for the fifth edition of the Web Audio Conference is Diversity in Web Audio. We particularly encourage submissions focusing on inclusive computing, cultural computing, postcolonial computing, and collaborative and participatory interfaces across the web in the context of generation, production, distribution, consumption and delivery of audio material that especially promote diversity and inclusion.

Further areas of interest include:

• 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-based web applications.
• Web-based music composition, production, delivery, and experience.
• Client-side audio engines and audio processing/rendering (real-time or non real-time).
• Cloud/HPC for music production and live performances.
• Audio data and metadata formats and network delivery.
• Server-side audio processing and client access.
• Frameworks for audio synthesis, processing, and transformation.
• Web-based audio visualization and/or sonification.
• Multimedia integration.
• Web-based live coding and collaborative environments for audio and music generation.
• Web standards and use of standards within audio-based web projects.
• Hardware and tangible interfaces and human-computer interaction 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.

Submission Tracks

We welcome submissions in the following tracks: papers, talks, posters, demos, performances, and artworks. All submissions will be single-blind peer reviewed. The conference proceedings, which will include both papers (for papers and posters) and extended abstracts (for talks, demos, performances, and artworks), will be published open-access online with Creative Commons attribution, and with an ISSN number. **A selection of the best papers, as determined by a specialized jury, will be offered the opportunity to publish an extended version at the Journal of Audio Engineering Society.**

• Papers: Submit a 4-6 page paper to be given as an oral presentation.
• Talks: Submit a 1-2 page extended abstract to be given as an oral presentation.
• Posters: Submit a 2-4 page paper to be presented at a poster session.
• Demos: Submit a work to be presented at a hands-on demo session. Demo submissions should consist of a 1-2 page extended abstract including diagrams or images, and a complete list of technical requirements (including anything expected to be provided by the conference organizers).
• Performances: Submit a performance making creative use of web-based audio applications. Performances can include elements such as audience device participation and collaboration, web-based interfaces, Web MIDI, WebSockets, and/or other imaginative approaches to web technology. Submissions must include a title, a 1-2 page description of the performance, links to audio/video/image 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 performers.
• Artworks: Submit a sonic web artwork or interactive application which makes significant use of web audio standards such as Web Audio API or Web MIDI in conjunction with other technologies such as HTML5 graphics, WebGL, and Virtual Reality frameworks. 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, 1-2 page description of the work, a link to access the work, and names and one-paragraph biographies of the authors.
• Tutorials: If you are interested in running a tutorial session at the conference, please contact the organizers directly.

Important Dates

• March 26, 2019: Open call for submissions starts.
• June 23, 2019: Submissions deadline (updates possible until June 30, 2019, see below).
• September 2, 2019: Notification of acceptances and rejections.
• September 22, 2019: Early-bird registration deadline.
• October 6, 2019: Camera ready submission and presenter registration deadline.
• December 4-6, 2019: The conference.

Preliminary versions (with at least title and abstract) of all submissions are due on June 23, 2019. The submission system will stay open until June 30, 2019, allowing authors to update their submissions during that time. At least one author of each accepted submission must register for and attend the conference in order to present their work. A limited number of diversity tickets will be available.

Submission Templates and Submission System

• Templates: papers must be submitted in PDF format using the WAC 2019 templates (LaTeX or Word).
• Submission system: For accessing the submission system, visit CMT WAC 2019.

WAC 2019 Best Papers

The WAC 2019 awards honour exceptional submissions to the WAC 2019 edition. A total of 6 papers received a Best Paper Award, as selected by the WAC 2019 Best Paper Award Jury:

Jan Monschke (SoundCloud)
Garth Paine (Arizona State University)
Ariane Stolfi (Federal University of South Bahia)

The full list of Best Papers for WAC 2019 is included below.

Composing Spatial Music with Web Audio and WebVR 
Cem Çakmak (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and Rob Hamilton (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

Soundworks - A Framework for Networked Music Systems on the Web - State of Affairs and New Developments 
Benjamin Matuszewski (Ircam)

An AudioWorklet-based Signal Engine for a Live Coding Language Ecosystem 
Francisco Bernardo (University of Sussex), Chris Kiefer (University of Sussex) and Thor Magnusson (University of Sussex) 
 
Facilitating Team-Based Programming Learning with Web Audio 
Anna Xambó (NTNU), Robin Støckert (NTNU), Alexander Refsum Jensenius (University of Oslo) and Sigurd Saue (NTNU)
 
iMuSciCA: A Web Platform for Science Education Through Music Activities 
Kosmas Kritsis (Athena Research Center), Manuel Bouillon (University of Fribourg); Daniel Martín-Albo (Wiris), Carlos Acosta (Leopoly), Robert Piechaud and Vassilis Katsouros (Athena Research Center)

FAUST online IDE: dynamically compile and publish FAUST code as WebAudio Plugins
Stéphane Letz (GRAME), Shihong Ren (GRAME), Yann Orlarey (GRAME), Romain Michon (GRAME), Dominique Fober (GRAME), ElMehdi Aamari (I3S), Michel Buffa (Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, INRIA) and Jerome Lebrun (CNRS)

This selected best papers have the opportunity to publish an extended version at the Journal of Audio Engineering Society (JAES) to be published in 2020.

JAES WAC 2019 Special Issue

Authors of the WAC 2019 Best Papers Awards are invited to submit an extended version of their paper with 30% of new material to the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society.

Author Guidelines

Please submit a new version of your paper (up to 8-page papers including references) by *April 3, 2020*. This submission should be a revised version (including feedback after discussions at the conference) and extended or exchanging some parts of the content. The new version of the paper should include 30% of new content. All submissions will be peer-reviewed according to standard JAES review procedures. 

For additional information about the author guidelines, visit JAES Author Guidelines.

For accessing the journal's online submission system, visit JAES Submission System.

When submitting the paper, please choose the option "WAC Special Issue". This issue is planned to be published around September or October 2020, therefore a tight reviewing and revision schedule will be in place.

WAC 2019 Best Paper Award Jury 
Jan Monschke (SoundCloud)
Garth Paine (Arizona State University)
Ariane Stolfi (Federal University of South Bahia)

WAC 2019 Proceedings Editors (JAES WAC Special Issue Guest Editors) 
Anna Xambó (De Montfort University / NTNU)
Sara R. Martín (NTNU)
Gerard Roma (University of Huddersfield)