Audio Video News

Audio industry pioneer Jim Fosgate has joined an elite group of engineers and scientists who have made significant contributions to the advancement of television technology.

Fosgate is a co-recipient of the Development of Surround Sound for Television award, presented by the National Television Academy (NTA) for his continuing efforts to develop and refine surround technologies for television broadcast. Fosgate received a special Emmy Award during the 2003 Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards dinner at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on October 23.

Fosgate, best known for establishing the Fosgate Audionics brand, is the holder of more than 14 patents for surround audio. Widely acknowledged as one of the forefathers of the surround concept, Fosgate also has three patents pending.

He began work on surround technologies in 1978, leading to the introduction of the Fosgate Research TATE 101A surround processor three years later. "The TATE 101A is recognized as the cornerstone of high performance, multichannel home audio," according to a press release from Tempe, AZ-based Rockford Corporation. The company went on to demonstrate the first consumer-focused high-separation sound demo at the January 1982 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Fosgate more recently developed the surround decoding technology that is now known as Dolby Pro Logic II.

"Everyone at Rockford is immensely proud of Jim and honored to be associated with the company he first started in the seventies," said Gary Suttle, President and CEO, Rockford Corporation, parent company of Fosgate Audionics. "It's due to his hard work and dedication that millions of people enjoy surround sound from their home theater systems. He literally changed the way we experience music and movie soundtracks."