At the invitation of the University of Oldenburg, the top international scientists in the field of acoustic signal processing met on 7 October 2011. Numerous areas of application were discussed and visions for the future were formulated. Signal processing plays a role in many modern technologies, with an important application focus in the field of hearing aid system technology. Thanks to signal processing, sophisticated systems are able to recognise and process sounds. This enables the systems to differentiate between background noise and speech, for example, and make communication easier for people with impaired hearing. Very similar techniques can also be used for audio restoration, in which old recordings or security-relevant voice recordings are de-noised, for example. "We are delighted that we have attracted numerous international guests to the first Oldenburg Symposium for Acoustic Signal Processing," explains Prof. Dr Simon Doclo, head of the Signal Processing working group at the University of Oldenburg. "We were able to attract high-calibre speakers from the USA, the Netherlands, Israel and England to enrich various topics with an international perspective in the run-up to the 52nd meeting of the ITG specialist group "Algorithms for Signal Processing"." This specialist group is made up of experts from all areas of digital signal processing; around half of them come from universities and the other half from the relevant industry. This greatly supports the special concern of the specialist group to promote the transfer of knowledge between basic and application-orientated research. It was not without reason that Oldenburg was chosen as the venue for the conference of the expert committee and the symposium. Prof Doclo's working group, together with partners from the Oldenburg and Hanover sites, is currently in the Cluster of Excellence competition organised by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. With its proposal "Hearing4all", the cluster is one of the 27 finalists who were allowed to submit a full proposal at the end of August and now have to wait until summer 2012 for a decision. "The proposal contains various work packages that could lead to decisive progress in signal processing," explains Prof. Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier, spokesperson for the "Hearing4all" cluster. However, the activities of the Lower Saxons to date have also been recognised internationally, as Prof. Dr Philipos C. Loizou from the University of Texas at Dallas enthuses. "Hearing research in Oldenburg is known for its scientific successes in the fields of acoustics, psychoacoustics and speech processing. I was therefore keen to meet Prof Kollmeier and his colleagues in person. I am very impressed by The Haus des Hörens - especially the unique exhibits in the Hörgarten, which I would love to take back to Texas with me."