As an 11 year old, Matthew Simmons had a small-time business fixing stereo speakers. He cycled around radio shops asking for old and broken equipment and quickly gained a reputation for an ability to fix items previously deemed beyond repair.
Now, the 36 year old Christchurch entrepreneur has his revolutionary acoustic technology installed in cinemas throughout the world. His latest coup is a deal to supply sound systems to motion picture imaging giant Kodak for its Los Angeles test studio.
This is no ordinary sound system. The Hypacoustic™ system is the result of years of research and development, some of it helped with investment from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.
The work involved testing various techniques to learn how sound can be produced to trigger greater emotional response from cinema audiences.
Learning how the ear and mind work together provided important information for Hypacoustic to design and build speaker systems that allow the brain to believe the film environment is real.
“So much production effort goes into making the imagery real and there’s been huge development of digital sound onto the sound track but the raw loud speaker technology of cinema speakers has not changed in many decades,” says Mr Simmons.
As the home theatre and DVD market increased, Hypacoustic wanted to create an experience superior to what home theatre audiences were enjoying.
Mr Simmons business partner and wife, Julie, says it’s an opportunity they’ve worked on for six years.
The global expansion of Hypacoustic is providing other New Zealand companies with growth opportunities as all its system components are designed, engineered and manufactured in New Zealand.
Hypacoustic equipment is being progressively installed in cinemas throughout New Zealand and Australia, and discussions are underway with European operators. Negotiations with some of the world’s biggest sound and acoustic producers for co-branding arrangements are also being completed.
Some common advice we’ve all heard is, “Don’t fix it if it’s not broken.” Some may think that Matthew wasn’t following that advice when he created his sound system, but I think more are likely to agree that he saw the problems that many of us just didn’t really look at. The best part is that Matthew was able to show the people around him and beyond that it is possible to take a childhood talent and turn it into something very profitable.
Logo from Hypacoustic.
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