January's meeting was a tour of the XM Satellite Radio facility. XM is located in northeast Washington at Eckington Place.

There were enough people present that it took a couple of XM people to usher us around the various areas, with interesting information along the way. One of the more interesting stops was the data storage area, where the power per square foot density is higher than most other technical facilities. They have already upgraded their storage capacity well beyond the few terrabytes of the original design. Of course, hard drive capacities have also increased by an order of magnitude since the original construction. One of our Board members, Eric Hoehn led most of the discussion. Their premier recording room was not completed the last time we visited, so it was exciting to see what they did with that room. It included some impressive sound treatment, and an enormous Sony recording console.

This was a joint meeting with the AES Society, and it was good to hear that they have recently reorganized, and have been trying to grow their group.

February's program fell through at the last minute, so we did not have a meeting for the second month of the year.