Press Releases
April 7, 2008 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JAMES D. “JJ” JOHNSTON JOINS NEURAL AUDIO AS
CHIEF SCIENTIST
Kirkland,
Wash., April 7, 2008 – Neural Audio Corp., a
market leader in developing advanced audio and
surround sound technologies, announced today it
has appointed James D. “JJ” Johnston as its
chief scientist. Johnston joins Neural Audio
from Microsoft® Corporation, where he was audio
architect.
“Neural Audio is focused on providing customers
with innovative, easy to use, great sounding
audio solutions,” said Geir R Skaaden, Neural
Audio’s CEO. “We are excited to have JJ join our
team. He shares our passion for sound, and his
experience and depth of knowledge will solidify
our ambition to be the undisputed technology
leader in audio.”
Johnston has been called the “Father of
Perceptual Audio Coding” for his pioneering
contributions that revolutionized digital audio.
His accomplishments during a 26-year career at
AT&T Bell Labs, among other achievements,
allowed for the distribution of digital music
and digital audio over the Internet. As a
technology leader at AT&T Research Labs,
Johnston invented a number of basic techniques
used in perceptual audio coding, especially in
MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3), MPEG-2 Part 7 and
MPEG-4 Part 3 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). He
also was responsible for creating the standards
used for coding audio-visual information in
movies, video and music formats in a digital
compressed format.
Johnston retired from AT&T Labs in 2002 and
joined Microsoft Corporation in Redmond,
Washington as audio architect, where he designed
and implemented all audio post processing
functions for the Windows Vista operating
platform.
Johnston is an IEEE Fellow, the recipient of the
2006 James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio
Processing Award and a co-recipient of the IEEE
Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award. He also is a
Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society, has
published more than 50 technical papers, and has
been awarded more than 20 U.S. patents. He
received his bachelor's and master's degrees
from Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh,
both in electrical engineering.
ABOUT NEURAL AUDIO
Neural Audio, through its Neural-THX® Surround
technology and unique audio optimization
technologies, has become the key enabler in the
delivery of high quality content for the TV,
radio, game, Internet, home theatre and mobile
markets. Key broadcast partners and customers
such as XM Satellite Radio, Yamaha Corporation,
Sony Corporation, Pioneer Electronics, Onkyo
Corporation, Denon Electronics, Marantz America
and Harris Corporation have adopted Neural Audio
technologies to provide the best quality audio
available today to their customers. For more
information, please visit
www.neuralaudio.com or
www.neuralsurround.com.
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MEDIA CONTACTS
Jackie Broo
Communications Manager, Neural Audio Corporation
Email: jackie@neuralaudio.com
Office: +1-425.814.3200, ext. 116
Mobile: +1-513-304-9514
Dakx Turcotte
Director, Marketing and Business Development - Neural Audio Corporation
Email: dakx@neuralaudio.com
Office: +1-425-522-0635
Mobile: +1-206-499-5855