prototype Audio Prism motherboard
date: label: date made
content: 1979
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Motherboard for prototype Audio Prism unit, “M-101”, made by engineer Glen T. Clark (1951-2019) in 1979. A printed circuit board with various electrical components. Designed to test concepts for signal processing in studio broadcasting.
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, 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: 2024.0064.01
label: accession number
content: 2024.0064
label: catalog number
content: 2024.0064.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: audio processor
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 1/2 in x 1 3/8 in x 6 1/2 in; 8.89 cm x 3.4925 cm x 16.51 cm