I just found the time to go through the Technology Trends in Audio Engineering essay written by the leaders of 17 AES technical committees and released half a year ago.
While reading this 18 page document I was positively surprised to see how many different interest groups have an interest in spatial audio related issues.
The 10 groups which mention spatial audio are:
- Games
- Audio Recording and Mastering Systems
- Automotive Audio
- Coding of Audio Signals
- High Resolution Audio
- Signal Processing for Audio
- Spatial Audio (obviously)
- Audio for Telecommunications
- Transmission and Broadcasting
- Microphones and Applications
The 7 groups that do not seem to think much about spatial audio are:
- Semantic Audio Analysis
- Network Audio Systems
- Human Factors in Audio Systems
- Hearing and Hearing Loss Prevention
- Fiber Optics for Audio
- Audio Forensics
- Archiving, Restoration, and Digital Libraries