The AMP Summit

Today I attended the Alliance Music Partnership's AMP Summit.  This was the 2nd annual gathering of audio people from Microsoft and the PC industry.  We met at the Experience Music Project (EMP) here in Seattle.  There were people from all parts of the industry in attendance.  There were those who make audio chips, people who create MIDI hardware, representatives from major OEMs, and those from audio software companies.  Yesterday was a general session with high-level information for everyone.  Today there were breakout sessions for business & marketing, software developers, and hardware developers.  I wandered between the hardware and software tracks.  I saw presentations on MMCSS, User Mode Audio, Audio Endpoints, Pull-Mode Audio, MIDI, etc.  Even though I work in the area, I still learned a lot from the sessions.  It was also a great opportunity to mix with people from the industry.  It was a chance to hear their needs and their concerns.  I will use this information to help shape the planning process for what we do next.  As a bonus, I was able to catch up with several of the friends I made at Project BBQ last summer.