Draft:George Augspurger

George Lee Augspurger (born circa 1930) to George and Alvina Augspurger, is an acoustic engineer and studio designer. Augspurger spent his early years living and growing up in Illinois, USA. In this time, he has been a part of researching, building and enhancing recording studios, including Disney, Capitol Records, Sony Music NYC, and Electric Lady NYC. After spending more than 10 years working for James B Lansing Sound (JBL), Augspurger created his own company, Perception Inc., as a private consulting practice, with clients ranging from the Hollywood Bowl, to Sunset Sound. Augspurger is noted for loudspeaker design and application, as well as reviewing and contributing to more than 4000 patents in the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) journals.

Career
Augspurger earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arizona State University (ASU) in 1953, and soon after a Master of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1959. His Masters project was “The Influence of Stage Set Construction on Audience Intelligibility”, which he followed with additional postgraduate work at Northwestern University.

James B. Lansing Sound
Augspurger started his acoustic working career at JBL in 1958, as a Technical Service Manager providing applications support under Ray Pepe. In his decade at JBL, he established the JBL Professional Products Division, which he led as Technical Director, starting in 1968. In this new role, he was responsible for being the liaison between the sales and engineering department. As JBL was a smaller company at the time, Augspurger was able to directly work with Bart Locanthi and Ed May in their development of new professional loudspeaker systems.

Perception Inc.
In 1970, Augspurger left JBL to create his own company, Perception Inc., specializing in architectural acoustics and sound system design. As a consultant, he continues to design acoustical architectural practices, while also iterating on loudspeaker and transducer technology in electroacoustic engineering.

Work
Augspurger’s work history covers a range of contributions to the art and practice of studio and sound architecture. The design of monitor loudspeakers, the double-chamber loudspeaker enclosure, and the creation of transmission line analysis software are notable.

A part of Augspurger’s approach to designing a studio or mixdown room is to experiment and play with the location and alignment of speakers and consoles. When room size is a factor, moving the gear a foot in either direction can make a noticeable difference.

Augspurger’s monitor loudspeakers have been in demand from the 1960’s through today. There are more than 100 installations in professional recording studios across the globe.

An early example of his involvement in loudspeaker design was a double-chamber speaker enclosure created in 1961. It was described in the December 1961 publication of Electronics World.

The transmission line loudspeaker software was written and offered by Augspurger, which analyzes unusual speaker and enclosure configurations for optimum output. It utilizes an approach which can model complex pipe geometries and densities, and then output recommended specific dampening coefficients.

Teaching and Presenting
Augspurger is also an active contributor to these fields as a teacher in electrical engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). His course, “Loudspeaker and Sound-System Design”, teaches students in a project-based format to measure transfer functions, acoustical performance, distortion, and power handling, among other subjects.

Augspurger has presented at several national conferences and conventions, including speaking engagements at local and national ASA and Audio Engineering Society (AES) chapters. He has chaired Architectural Acoustic sessions at ASA national meetings, such as the 1980 “Sound Recording and Reproduction, the Listening Interface” in 1980, and a session on acoustical patents in October 2005.

At the 137th Annual AES Convention, Augspurger was part of a presentation on the Evolution of Acoustic Studio Design, which included other distinguished studio designers on the panel; Russ Berger, John Storyk, and Chip Davis. The presentation discussed each designer’s modern design principles, demonstrated through key components of their projects, which was then followed by panel interaction and audience questions.

Member Affiliations
Augspurger is a member of the Acoustical Society of America, with a fellowship awarded in 2003. Similarly, he is a member of the Audio Engineering Society, and was awarded a fellowship in 1997. He is also a member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology.

Awards
Augspurger has been the recipient of several awards during his career, including the 2020 Technical Grammy and the ASA Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal in Architectural Acoustics and Engineering Acoustics.

The Grammy’s define this award as being “... presented by vote of the Producers & Engineers Wing Advisory Council and Chapter Committees and ratification by the Recording Academy's National Trustees to individuals and/or companies/organizations/institutions who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.”

The Silver Medal, awarded by the ASA, is described as being “... presented to individuals, without age limitation, for contributions to the advancement of science, engineering, or human welfare through the application of acoustic principles, or through research accomplishment in acoustics.”