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Jayshri

Jayshri is an Electronics Engineer, but her passion towards writing made her to be in this field. Apart from content writing, she loves reading, writing and surfing on various topics. In her free time, she likes to watch TV series and news. Sherlock Holmes is her all time favorite show. Jayshri loves cooking various Indian-western dishes.

Dolby Laboratories

Ray Dolby: A Story Of Dolby Laboratories Founder Who Changed The Audio Industry

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Today, we experience high definition audio. Also, several ways of sound mixings are available to satisfy our ears. Expectations continue to rise, but we should be grateful to the legend, who made this happen. Ray Dolby, a man of innovation and a pioneer, who is a founder of Dolby Laboratories. His remarkable work in noise reduction is responsible for the birth of the entire audio industry, delivering an unexpected modification in sound.

Presently, Dolby Laboratories enable the best audio quality. And more immersive ways to enjoy high definition sound. Admirably, it is the resultant of the efforts and dedication of an inspiring and passionate engineer. Ray Dolby a person who changes the future of the audio industry.

The Early Life Of Ray Dolby

Ray Dolby was born on 18 January 1933, in Portland, Oregon to Earl Milton Dolby and Esther Eufemia. Due to his family relocation, he spent very less time of childhood in there. As a matter of fact, being raised in the world war II time made him tough and stubborn. Eventually, he prepared him for his incoming journey.

Ray Dolby
Image Source: Google Images

Education

Ray Dolby went to Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California. While studying, he worked at Ampex in Redwood city in 1949. In the same year, he worked first ever on audiotape recording systems. After that, he attended San Jose State College and Stanford University. In fact, during this period he served in Army services for two years. Finally, he completed his graduation in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Furthermore, he applied for a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Cambridge. That time, Ray was the research fellow at Pembroke College.

Earlier Achievements

During education, Ray worked on early prototypes of Videotape recorder for Charlie Ginsburg and Alexander Poniatoff. In addition, he played an important role in unveiling the prototype, Quadruplex Videotape recorder of Ampex. That same recorder was in Ampex’s production during 1956. No surprise, he was the non-degree holder consultant for Ampex at that time. Surely, it was the beginning of the next move.

Career

Ray Dolby was one of those engineers, who serve the nation with their talent. Previously, he served to the UN (United Nations) in India as a technical advisor. But his inner innovator called him to perform a historical change in the audio industry. After that, in 1965 he returned to England. Until he played an important role in the United Nation as a technical advisor.

Establishment of Dolby Laboratories

Always, Ray was more concerned about harmonics which were responsible to degrade the recorded sound quality in Analog tape. With this vision, he founded the Dolby Laboratories in London on 18 May 1965. At that time, he had a staff of only four people.

It was the lucky year, he invented the Dolby Noise reduction system in 1965. In fact, the system successfully reduced the audible hiss noise level of tape. He named patent for this notable work in 1969.

Performance of Dolby Laboratories

Dolby 301 unit was the first product that was traded out for only professional recording studios. Furthermore, the company focused to improve film sound. And “A Clockwise orange” was the first-ever film using Dolby sound in 1971. Dolby stereo, a noise reduction system with many audio channels were released in 1975. Dolby lab. released many versions of Dolby stereo with enhanced noise reduction.

Personal Life

He was happily married to Dagmar. They have two sons Tom and David. In life, with his wife, he supported many charities, clauses, and social organizations. This couple funded the Medicine Building at the University of California. Also, they helped to build San Francisco’s Stem Cell Center, Brain Health Center at California and Pacific Medical Center.

Later success

Dolby Laboratories continuously delivering the best to the audio sector. However, Ray’s innovative and realistic approach towards technology formed the strong foundation of the company. In 2015, he received a star on Hollywood walk of fame.

JBL logo

James Bullough Lansing – Story of Innovative Radio Engineer to JBL’s founder

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Today, JBL is a very famous brand for speakers and headphones. It has a huge electronic audio market. Whether it is simple consumer speakers, headphones or studio speakers; JBL is one of the demanding brands. It is founded by an audio engineer and a loudspeaker designer, James Bullough Lansing. He is one of the innovative engineers of America, who did remarkable work in the technical field.

In the middle of the 20th century, the whole world was mad over innovations. Also, many scientists were busy discovering new technologies. In such a challenging period, this audio engineer formed the base of the leading electronics company of the present era. 

Today, the world knows him as a pioneer and innovator. He inspires many entrepreneurs to be passionate about work, regardless of difficult situations.

Early life

James Bullough Lansing was born on 14 January 1902, in Greenridge, Illinois. He was the ninth of fourteenth kids of the Martini family. His father, Henry Martini was a coal mining engineer. Due to his father’s changing worksites, the family has to change their location simultaneously. Therefore, James spent childhood days in many different places.

JBL Founder
Image Source – Google

At his young age, James lives with the Bullough family for a short duration. Thereafter, he changed the name from James martini to James Bullough Lansing in 1927.

Education

James Lansing brought up in Springfield, Illinois at his teenage. Where he completed his primary schooling at Lawrence school. He was a talented student at Springfield High School.

Also, he attained some training courses at a small business college in Springfield. He was famous amongst his friends, for playing pranks with his innovative ideas. Once, he built a Layden jar to trick his friends. 

He was an innovative child. James’ schoolmates get flatten over his powerful enough radio transmitter’s design.

Career

In early days of career, he worked as an automotive mechanic. While working, he attended an automotive school at one of the dealers’ Detroit courtesy. Afterward, he worked as an engineer at the radio station, Salt Lake City. 

James Lansing’s career took a new turn when he joined Baldwin Radio company. He got the opportunity to meet Ken Decker, who turned out as a business partner in upcoming years. 

Personal Life

At the age of 21, he left home after his mother’s death. Later, he settled in Salt Lake City for his job. It was the period, where he met a beautiful lady Glenna Peterson, who became his wife in the future.

New Business 

On 9 March 1927, James Lancing and decker founded Lansing Manufacturing company. It was the loudspeaker manufacturing unit. 

After the death of Decker, the company’s growth was declined enormously. At that time, Altec Service Corporation bought the company in 1941. Afterward, Lansing manufacturing company renamed Altec Lansing. In the end, James left the company after his 5-year contract as VP of the engineering section had terminated.

Establishment of JBL

In the year 1946, he established Lancing Sound, Incorporated. Due to some trademark issues with Altec lancing, the company renamed “James B. Lancing sound, Inc.” Furthermore, the company name shortened as JBL for product branding. In the future, JBL became the official name.

D101, a 15inch loudspeaker was the first product of the company. After that, the company launched D130, 15inch transducer in the market. In fact, the model’s several versions remain in the production for over 55 years.

Later Life

No doubt, James was a hardworking innovative engineer. But, the lack of business skills results in faltering business conditions. As a result, JBL started losing the market and the investors’ interest. For a few years, Marquardt corporation offered modest investment to the JBL. But after the acquisition of Marquardt by General Tire company, they broke ties with JBL.

The degrading financial conditions became out of the reach for the compassionate innovator. Also, several personal problems worsen the situation. Unfortunately, James Bullough died on 24 September 1949.

Bottom Line

James, with his innovative mind, constructed a strong base for JBL. In the present electronics market, JBL is trustworthy for its advanced Loudspeakers, headphones, and amplifiers.

JBL’s car audio system used in Ford’s top vehicle. Currently, it is one of the most loved headphone brands in all ranges of customers.

SanDisk

Sanjay Mehrotra: Never-Ending Journey For A Better Digital World of SanDisk Founder

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There are many persons who believe in innovations. Although, very few of them are responsible to make that happen. But the persons, who dare to transfer those inventions from lab to daily use, make the world a better place. So, they set their name in the list of influencing entrepreneurs. Sanjay Mehrotra is one of them, who not only believes in innovation but also devoted himself to deliver a better one. He is the co-founder and former CEO of SanDisk that replaces hard disk drives with flash memory in the 19th century.

Image Source – Google

At present, he is the CEO of Micron Technology, which is one of the leading memory storage devices manufacturers. It has been never easy to climb the ladder of success. Yet, it is inspiring to know the untold journey of Sanjay Mehrotra.

Early life

He was born on 27th June 1958 in Kanpur, India. Sanjay spent his childhood days in the same city. Thereafter, the Mehrotra family shifted to Delhi due to his father’s work. He went to Delhi school for primary education. Also, at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya he completed secondary schooling.

UG course at the University of California

When the students were dreaming of post-graduation in foreign. At that time, Sanjay’s father inspired him for UG in a foreign country. BITS Pilani was well known for collaboration with international Universities. So, he took admission for UG program, in the hope of future chance to go abroad. He completed two years of Electrical engineering in Bits Pilani, and then the day came.

He grabbed the opportunity to study the remaining UG course at the University of California, Berkeley. Reaching there was not a cakewalk. At first, his visa got denied three times. But his father’s support and his ambitions do not let him stop. They had to request multiple times and countless meetings to the Indian US embassy. Finally, he got the passport and flight landed at the destination.

Earlier achievements

He applied for a master’s degree, at the same University as a UG program. During his master’s program, he worked on Integrated circuits. But his interest was more towards designing. Hence, he could not stop himself from discovering non-volatile memory design.

Sanjay named more than 70 patents. Also, he presented research papers on the Flash memory system and non-volatile memory design.

He joined Intel Corporation as a Non-Volatile design engineer in 1980. It was the opportunity to explore his area of interest in non-volatile memory design more.

What happens when one Indian, one Chinese, and one person from Israel meet? No idea. Well, when these three persons met, they founded SanDisk; that too in one different country.

Boom of SanDisk

In 1988, Sanjay Mehrotra, Eli Harari, and Jack Yuan started a small company in Silicon Valley. Initially, they wanted to replace hard disk drives with their flash solid-state drives (SSD). To achieve this, they designed the first flash-based SSD mounted in a 2.5inch hard drive for IBM. Though it was of only 20MB capacity, it was a great move to install the technology which was at the experimental state at that time.

The first product of SanDisk traded out for $1000. After that, they changed their products according to market needs. SanDisk boomed the digital industry with its first mega-market sale of open standard digital films.

The Journey Continues

In the year 2011, Sanjay Mehrotra acquired the position as CEO. Under his policies, the company gained most of the electronics market. In fact, in 2012 SanDisk was the third-highest among other consumer electronics companies.

In recent years, SanDisk working on SSD for cloud computing. Also, they produce more than 2 million USB flash drivers per day. In 2017, Sanjay Mehrotra assigned as the new Chief executive officer of Micron Inc. Also, he is the onboard member of SanDisk.