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Sound Focus Founders Plan to Replace Headphones with Balls of Sound (28/6/2004)

High-quality audio technology company Sound Focus won the top honors in information technology last week in the Governor's Business Plan Contest for a novel plan to commercialize its easy-to-install sound projection system.

Sound Focus' patent-pending technology creates "sonic holograms" -- personalized audio environments that let listeners enjoy music or hear important information that to others nearby is essentially inaudible. The sound can follow a listener, making headphones unnecessary.

Co-founders Jeffrey P. Milsap and Michael Underwood plan to deploy the technology into the home-theater market, as well as education, point-of-sale advertising, exhibition halls, commercial entertainment, and home and office communications. Because the system can produce extremely high-quality audio, it is a natural choice for professional audio sound reinforcement and high-end audio systems.

"We are developing a technology platform that will stimulate the creation of new applications for audio technology. Applications could include individualized volume control with out the use of head phone in home entertainment, as well as professional and commercial applications," said Jeffrey Milsap, founder and chief Technology Officer.

Sound Focus expects to have its first product ready to market within six months. Its planned distribution channel is value-added resellers such as the members of the Consumer Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) and high-end professional retail vendors.

The initial product Sound Focus is developing will provide highly optimized 5.1- or 7.1-channel sound to every identified listening location in a home theater. The system will even provide the unusual convenience and personal freedom of individualized volume control for each location. It will work with any currently installed audio source, so it is an upgrade to the existing equipment, not a replacement.

Sound Focus already has a proof-of-concept prototype of an eight-bit audible sound system, and expects rapid entry into the high-end home theater market, followed by entry into the mid-range market through cost-reduction efforts in 12 to 18 months.

One of the speaker system's key advantages is that the speakers themselves are only expected to be half an inch thick and can be placed virtually anywhere in the room, including the ceiling. They can provide optimized audio quality regardless of the room acoustics. This allows the room furniture to be arranged as it would in a normal living space not, the artificial rows and columns of a movie theater or "media room."

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's contest involved a six-month process of mentoring and judging, during which more than 300 well-honed plans for new companies vied for recognition and award money. The awards were announced at a dinner ceremony June 2 in Milwaukee.

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