Texar Audio Prism
date: label: date made
content: ca 1980
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: An early production unit, serial number 00443. A metal casing with electronic components designed to be mounted in an equipment rack in a broadcast radio station. Printed on back: "Texar / Monroeville, Pennsylvania 15146-1502 / U.S.A. / Use 1/4 amp S/B fuse for 110V operation / Use 1/8 amp S/B fuse for 220V operation"; label reads: "Audio Prism / Serial Number / 00443".
label: Description (Brief)
content: The Audio Prism is a signal processing apparatus first designed in 1979. Derivative units are still in use at commercial radio stations today. Inventor Glen T. Clark (1951-2019), an engineer at FM station WPEZ in Pittsburgh, developed the Audio Prism in response to technical advances made at a competing station. The goal at the time was to broadcast the loudest signal without exceeding legal limits on transmission power. When the competing station adopted a new technology unavailable to WPEZ, Clark designed a new type of circuit he called the “audio prism” that accomplished the same goal without infringing on the competitor’s patents.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The AP also helped compensate for a commercial short-coming in the Dolby noise reduction technology as it helped reduce hiss from tapes not produced with Dolby equipment. Clark founded Texar Inc., to commercialize his invention. A market success, the AP became standard equipment for many broadcast stations. Clark sold the company in 1988 to Gentner Inc.
label: Description (Brief)
content: References: Pat Martin, “Loudness Wars,” Billboard 98, no. 16 (19 April 1986): A-1, A-5. Glen Clark, "Audio Processing: The Audio Prism Story," The Broadcasters’ Desktop Resource, ed. Barry Mishkind (June 2011), www.theBDR.net.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Nathan S. Clark, Jr., Martha J. Clark, and April E. Clark, in memory of Glen T. Clark
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2024.0064.02
label: accession number
content: 2024.0064
label: catalog number
content: 2024.0064.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: audio processor
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in x 19 1/4 in x 12 1/4 in; 5.08 cm x 48.895 cm x 31.115 cm