CESMA Press
A series of technical textbooks that grow, in large part, out of more than fifteen years of teaching and research at CESMA — in audio, video, music, and electronic and computer engineering — carried out by internationally recognized specialists in these fields. Several of the volumes draw directly on their authors’ work as university-level teachers. The books are published in Italian, French, German and English.
Dialogo sopra l'Elettroacustica
This technical, teaching-oriented manual is for anyone who wants to understand what really happens when an audio signal travels through devices, cables, circuits and interconnections. Its hallmark is the dialogue form: two voices lead the reader through a progressive, lively and occasionally ironic conversation, where questions, examples and clarifications make even demanding ideas accessible — a reasoned route to understanding rather than a dry academic treatise. Across nearly 500 full-colour, large-format pages it builds the fundamentals: from electrical quantities, Ohm's law and impedance to audio levels and decibels, loudness, noise and distortion, magnetism and induction, pickups, passive components, analog filters and equalizers, audio connections and cabling, phantom power, ground loops, transformers and DI boxes. The original illustrations, schematics, graphs and tables are not a supplement but part of the explanation itself, making electrical, circuit and acoustic phenomena easy to picture — written for students of electronic music, sound engineers, live-audio professionals and hi-fi enthusiasts alike.
Alberto Gaetti is an engineer, electroacoustics teacher and sound system designer, and an AES Full Member. He has taught electroacoustics to musicians and sound engineers since 2004 — in private schools, conservatories, universities and industry — and works as a freelance consultant with manufacturers such as Powersoft, K-array and MUSST design on electroacoustic system design. He has also collaborated on the preservation and restoration of historical sound recordings.
Inside the book ›
Audiovisual Engineering Handbook
A comprehensive reference for the engineering of contemporary audiovisual systems. It follows the whole signal chain — digital audio and video, audio- and video-over-IP, system design and integration, installed systems and their day-to-day operation — together with the standards that hold them together, addressed to the engineers and integrators who build and run professional and broadcast infrastructure.
Simone Corelli — a leading name in sound for film and television. A freelance re-recording mixer (AIFM) with over twenty years in the audiovisual industry, he graduated in Computer Science in his native Milan before moving to Rome and the Pro Tools revolution in post-production — first as a dialogue editor, then as the re-recording mixer he remains today for feature films and dubbing. He teaches and consults for the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, MIS Tor Vergata and CESMA, and is the author of the acclaimed Dialoghi, Musica, Effetti: il Suono nell'Audiovisivo.
Marco Montanari — graduated in nuclear and electronic engineering at the Politecnico di Milano and began his career designing military electro-optical systems in his native Milan. In 1991 he joined the European Patent Office as a video-systems examiner, a field he worked in for twenty-seven years in the Netherlands and Munich, becoming the first Senior Expert in his technical area. A lecturer on patent examination for over two decades across Europe and the Far East, he now works with CESMA on teaching and applied research in electronics and music.
Alberto Pinto — founder and director of CESMA; holds a PhD in Computer Science and an MSc in Mathematics, has carried out research at the universities of Milan, Stanford and Utrecht, sits on the federal examination commission for sound engineering, and leads the development of a new federal examination for audiovisual systems integration.
A. Repossi — born in Milan in 1964, graduated in Physics with top marks from the University of Milan with a thesis on the acoustics of a grand-piano soundboard. He has taught acoustics at the University of Insubria, SUPSI and the University of Bologna, and for nearly twenty years has run his own applied-acoustics practice in Gavirate. A choral conductor and composer as well as a physicist, he teaches acoustic physics, optics and music at CESMA.
Inside the book ›
Broadcast Audio
The principles and practice of audio for broadcast — from studio and live production chains to loudness and metering standards, transmission, and the ongoing move to IP-based broadcast infrastructure. A practical volume for the engineers responsible for keeping sound on air.
Alessandro Sdrigotti — trained at the Udine Conservatory before qualifying as a sound engineer, and has since specialised in classical music and broadcast audio. He has worked for RAI, Mediaset, SKY, RSI, Eurosport, OBS and many other networks, and was a sound engineer at four Olympic Games — London 2012, Sochi 2014, Rio 2016 and PyeongChang 2018. A founding member of INAB (International Net of Audio Broadcast) and a regular contributor to Audiofader, he leads broadcaster workshops on immersive audio and has recorded and mixed numerous classical releases for labels including Decca, Naxos and ArthausMusik.
