Jim Addie has more than 33 years in the audio industry, and 25 years in the video industry. His engineering specialties are: custom equipment design, acoustic design and calibration, and system integration.
He’s worked for a number of radio stations, both FM and AM, serving as Chief Engineer for several. He was chairman of the John Hancock Center FM Committee for 10 years, during which he developed specifications for a radical new $1.5m combiner system for that facility, integrating the transmission of 10 radio stations to the Hancock broadcast antenna towers. He has worked for such companies as CBS, Viacom, Infinity, and WGN Radio where he helped to install a new 50kW transmitter.
Jim worked for 15 years for WFMT, Chicago’s premiere classical music station (1977-1992), and designed and oversaw construction of a state-of-the-art classical music broadcast facility, including designing the consoles and equipment within the studios. While at WFMT, he developed the first digital audio studio-transmitter link, and was the first to apply custom equalization and Dolby SR noise reduction to low cost telephone lines to permit high quality audio transmission. Jim was unofficially named “Engineer in Charge of Excellence” by one of the WFMT staff, who first used the title in an on-air interview. WFMT’s studios won the Best Station Award in 1981, as well as the coveted Peabody Award for Excellence in Engineering.
Jim’s interest in video began with early home Betamax VCRs. At one time he was responsible for maintaining nearly 30 units used for recording digital audio at WFMT using the Sony PCM-F1 and related converters. Jim entered the video production field in 1992 with a full-length documentary production, and has since produced 5 additional full-length documentaries—two about actor/activist Christopher Reeve—and countless other industrial and instructional videos. He’s well versed in all aspects of video and film, from camera to projector, and all steps in between. He personally owns a theatrical 35mm projector and film transport (which he designed and built) that he offers for festival showings.
He has designed circuits used in custom audio consoles, recording and broadcast equipment, In 1980 he designed a 3D sound device for recovering lost stereo imaging, and manufactured and sold many units as custom pieces. In 1982, with the advent of hifi audio tracks on VCRs, he built the first consumer surround decoder, again, on a custom order basis. The equalization curve he developed closely matches the THX ReEQ curve Tom Holman included in the Home THX specification.
In 1978, Jim began association and friendship with THX inventor, Tomlinson Holman. Tom began working for Lucasfilm, and developed the theater sound system standards to be installed in theaters across the country, to reproduce the surround soundtracks for Star Wars films. Jim and Tom have worked together on several projects over the years. Jim is THX certified and is the only TMH certified home theater technician in the country. TMH is the result of the past 10 years of research in sound reproduction technology.
Jim has turned his attention to creating home theater environments, believing his long careerand background have made him singly qualified to bring all the elements of excellence in engineering to the home market.
