Euphonix
Euphonix was a professional audio engineering company based in Mountain View , United States . Euphonix produced the first successful line of large, digitally controlled analog audio mixers in the late 1980s and has since expanded into all-digital systems. In 2010 the company was taken over by Avid .
history
Foundation through IPO
Euphonix's approach of using digital logic to process multiple analog signal inputs originally stems from the ideas of Scott Silfvast. Employed by Stanford Research Systems (SRS) during the day, during the night he developed the precursor concepts for what would later become Euphonix's first product, the Crescendo. Designer Adam Reif, also an employee of SRS, joined Scott in 1988 to start Euphonix in a garage in Palo Alto behind Scott's residence. At the same time, younger brother Rob Silfvast was designing Crescendo's four-channel equalizer, one of their signature technologies, as his graduation thesis at the University of Arizona . Shortly thereafter, Andrew Kalman (who had also worked with Scott and Adam at SRS) and his Stanford University roommate Russ Kadota joined the team to develop the firmware and software again for the crescendo.
Initially, Euphonix was privately financed. Many of the early investors were friends and family of the employees. As the payroll increased and the rate of cash flow increased, private investment was secured. Industry veterans were hired when the company grew out of the garage and moved to a larger building - under the same roof as Fry's Electronics in Palo Alto, California.
The name Euphonix
While still at SRS, Scott considered different names for the future company and was very fond of the word "euphonic", which meant "of good sound". Eventually the name "Euphonix" was adopted. In 2004, Euphonix got into a trademark dispute with Euphonic Audio, Inc.
IPO
Euphonix went public on the NASDAQ (EUPH) in 1995. Like many other companies in Silicon Valley, their market value fell over the next few years and, accordingly, Euphonix was again delisted.
today
Euphonix's customer, Dieter Meier from the band Yello , ultimately acquired a decisive stake in the company and took it over into the private sector. In April 2010, Euphonix was acquired by Avid . The company has been able to continue as a premium supplier of audio electronics for a large number of other industrial areas to this day.
Effect in the phonogram industry
Euphonix 'entry into the professional phonograms market implemented a technology that significantly improved the working methods and also the profitability of music productions and productions of sound for film and television. The fundamentally new design from Euphonix won several industry awards. System integration has always been an important aspect of the development of Euphonix products.
Mixing consoles
development
The first crescendo system was shipped to Poolside Studios (now Outpost Studios) in San Francisco in 1990. Crescendo changed into CSII and finally into CS2000 and CS3000. In this way, it gained a faster interface (10 Mbit / s) to the computer with the Z180-based APU module, became fully automatic, was equipped with flat screen displays and motorized faders, grew in size to 102 channels via two audio mainframes and a broader mix controller scheme, has undergone many cosmetic and packaging improvements and has been expanded with external modules (for example the Cube and the ES108 dynamic processor).
Users
Euphonix's analog desk quickly found friends among musicians , composers , television stations , post-production houses, opera houses and other promoters around the world. Well-known early adopters are the film composers Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman .
End of the product life cycle
From 1999 the Crescendo / CSII / CS2000 / CS3000 line was phased out piece by piece and replaced by Euphonix 'System 5 fully digital console. Several hundred Crescendo / CSII / CS2000 / CS3000 consoles are still in use today.