As pretty much every reader of this foreword knows, the IEEE International Conference on Audio, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP) is the worldwide largest and most relevant conference in the field of signal and image processing at large – it is also the “flagship” event of IEEE Signal Processing Society. ICASSP has come now to its 41st annual edition since its inception, and for the first time ever it comes to Italy, heralding the activity of a large and well-structured scientific community working in the diverse fields of signal processing in Academia, in research Institutions, and in companies. And the conference is being held in a very special Italian town, one that holds a particular place in the history of European arts and science, and for sure a special place in the organizers’ heart: Firenze.

Firenze, internationally known as Florence, Tuscany, is one of the most widely known tourist spots in Italy and in Europe, and for a number of good reasons: the Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino wine, the genuine leather shops and jewelers on the Ponte Vecchio, the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, the fashion maisons Gucci and Ferragamo, and, above all, arts. The whole town is a living museum of art, with masterpieces from the Middle ages such as the Town Hall “Palazzo Vecchio” and the “Campanile (Bell Tower) of Giotto”, as well as landmarks of the Renaissance like the celebrated “Cupola (dome) del Brunelleschi” and the stunning statue “David” by Michelangelo. Art is everywhere, from the renown Uffizi Museum up to the church of San Miniato al Monte and the quite hills of Fiesole nearby, down to the most humble craftsman shop on the street.

This is why we have coined a motto for the 2014 edition of ICASSP edition, one that very much matches the spirit of the place: “The Art of Signal Processing”. In addition to all of the marvels above, you know that you will find a special kind of art at the “Fortezza da Basso”, a 16^th century fortress, and home of the main yearly fashion event in Italy: the skills, knowledge, and craftsman of a very large community of researchers interested and passionate about signal processing. So passionate and interested a community, that the conference witnessed an unprecedented response in terms of submission of scientific contributions as well as registrations. We wish to thank everybody about this.

During the days of the conference (all details at the website www.icassp2014.org ), participants will be intrigued by the program of plenary talks, Including topics like machine learning, signal processing for the preservation of cultural heritage (how could we help without?), networking science, or by the extensive offer of tutorials, special sessions, and workshops, not to mention the very many oral and poster sessions coming out of such a large response to the open call. The Technical Program Chairs Mauro Barni from the University of Siena, Italy,and Abdelakh Zoubir from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, had a hard time together with the SPS Technical Committees Chairs to select the best 1700 contributions going into the technical sessions and representing the “core” of the conference. But, ICASSP is also an occasion to showcase the technology of local as well as global companies working in the field of signal processing that will display their products and services in the exhibition area of the Fortezza da Basso.

If arts has to be the leitmotiv of the conference, arts be, even during the social events. So the conference features a magnificent conference banquet in the main hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, the “Salone dei Cinquecento” (Hall of the 500), surrounded by the frescos of Giovanni Vasari, and will offer a classical music concert in the traditional Theater “della Pergola” to the conference participants.

The readers may guess that organizing an event as large as ICASSP is not a feat that can be accomplished by single albeit active persons – what actually matters is building and motivating an efficient team. And the one of ICASSP 2014 is Superbwol-grade, starting with our distinguished technical chairs down to the last member of the Technical Program committee. We don’t have the time and space to mention them one by one, but the success of the conference is owed to their precious and uninterested cooperation – thank them all ! We also acknowledge the precious support from all of our sponsors and exhibitors, whose contribution to conference organization and to the creation of the “ICASSP flavor” was invaluable. Finally, a special thank goes to the officers of the IEEE Signal Processing Society who relentlessly worked with us, and helped us realizing all this.

During the last years we’ve heard a number of times people commenting like: “You’re doing ICASSP in Florence, wow, it’s a lot of work…”. Yes it is, but…someone has to do it, in the spirit of serving the community that nurtured us. We’ re just at the end of the path - we just hope that all participants will enjoy the conference as much as we enjoyed organizing it.

Arrivederci at ICASSP 2015,

Fulvio Gini, Marco Luise, ICASSP 2014 General Chairs