LOS ANGELES – March 7, 2026 — The Cinema Audio Society presented Zaxcom with its 2026 inaugural Jeffrey S. Wexler Award for Advancement in Sound Technology. The 62nd CAS Awards, held at the Beverly Hilton, recognized Glenn Sanders, founder of Zaxcom and Howie Stark, chief engineer at Zaxcom with the award which honors individuals, companies, or products whose innovations have significantly improved existing methods or are so innovative in nature that they have materially changed how sound is recorded, edited, mixed, or delivered. Other recipients included Evan Brooks and Peter Gotcher of Digidesign.
“When your job is to invent things, you need a Jeff Wexler in your life,” Glenn Sanders said during Zaxcom’s acceptance speech. “When the sound community was resistant to change, Jeff stood beside us. He believed in what we were trying to do. Jeff and Don together were an extraordinary force, and we all feel their absence deeply. As for this award, I am profoundly grateful for the recognition from the CAS. The move from linear tape to non-linear recording was a natural evolution for location sound. The real challenge wasn’t the technology, it was earning the trust of a community that had relied on linear tape for decades. We had to prove that digital could be just as reliable. So we built redundancy, recording to two media at once, and developed tools like audio metadata and pre-record to make the workflow stronger, faster, and safer.”
The award is named in honor of the late Jeffrey S. Wexler CAS, the revered production mixer, leader, educator, and consummate sound professional whose career exemplified both technical excellence and forward-looking innovation. He passed away on December 9, 2025. His career spanned more than forty years and included an impressive resume of more than 70 feature films, hundreds of commercials and numerous documentaries. Wexler was honored with a BAFTA Film Award for Best Sound for Almost Famous and was a two-time Academy Award nominee, as well as an Emmy and CAS Award nominee for his work on The Last Samurai, Independence Day and the HBO film 61. In 2011, he was the recipient of the CAS Career Achievement Award.
Wexler was among the first to use digital audio tape (DAT) and was at the forefront of file-based production recorders, which ushered in the next major technical transition in motion picture sound recording and the way virtually all sound is recorded today.
Peter Kurland, President of CAS, noted, “Honoring Jeff with an award that celebrates technological advancement is especially fitting. Throughout his long and deeply respected career, Jeff was always on the cutting edge, embracing new tools, improving established practices, and adopting new and better ways of working. Innovation is the foundation of this award, and we are proud to recognize four individuals who embody that same ingenuity. Congratulations Evan, Peter, Glenn and Howy. Your contributions have elevated audio quality and revolutionized the workflow of every sound professional.”
Jeffrey S. Wexler’s children, Vanessa Withers and David Wexler, commented on the award. “Our father would be delighted to be recognized in this way by his friends and colleagues at CAS. His curiosity, creativity, and deep commitment to his work was inspiring to so many. Our family wants to thank the Committee and CAS for memorializing his legacy within the sound community; to see his name on an award that honors his ingenuity is deeply moving to us.”
Additional awards were handed out in seven categories highlighting the outstanding contributions of sound mixers, recognizing excellence in the specialized craft of sound mixing for both motion pictures and television. Winners included, Apple’s F1, KPop: Demon Hunters, Becoming Led Zeppelin on the motion picture side and Netflix’s Adolescence, The Pitt, The Studio, and Billy Joel: And So It Goes on the television front.
Two special honors were presented by show host Chris Hardwick. Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro received the CAS Filmmaker Award and Oscar-winning re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay accepted the CAS Career Achievement Award.
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ABOUT THE CAS AWARDS
The 62nd CAS Awards will honor Outstanding Achievements in Sound Mixing in seven categories: Motion Pictures – Live Action, Motion Pictures – Animated, Motion Pictures – Documentary, Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures or Limited Series, Television Series – One Hour, Television Series – Half Hour and Television Non-Fiction, Variety or Music – Series or Specials. The CAS Student Recognition Award, Career Achievement Award, and Filmmaker Awards will also be presented.
ABOUT THE CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY
The Cinema Audio Society was formed in 1964 for the purpose of sharing information with Sound Professionals in the Motion Picture and Television Industry.
The objectives of the CAS are: to educate and inform the general public and the motion picture and television industry that effective sound is achieved by a creative, artistic and technical blending of diverse sound elements; to provide the motion picture & television industry with a progressive society of master craftsmen specialized in the art of creative cinematic sound recording; to advance the specialized field of cinematic sound recording by exchange of ideas, methods, and information; to advance the art of auditory appreciation and to philanthropically support those causes dedicated to the sense of hearing; to institute and maintain high standards of conduct and craftsmanship among our members; to aid the motion picture & television industry in the selection and training of qualified personnel in the unique field of cinematic sound recording and to achieve for our members deserved recognition as major contributors to the field of motion picture & television entertainment.
Visit CinemaAudioSociety.org for more information.
ABOUT ZAXCOM, INC.
Since 1986 Zaxcom, Inc. has been creating innovative audio technology for the feature film, television broadcast, live performance, and post-production industries. With a focus on high-quality audio products in multi-track recording, mixing, and digital wireless, Zaxcom is proud to be honored with technical achievements from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Television Academy, and Cinema Audio Society. Zaxcom operates its production facilities in Pompton Plains, NJ, and continues to set the standard for sound professionals worldwide. For more information, visit www.zaxcom.com.