John Kenneth Hilliard
| John Kenneth Hilliard | |
|---|---|
photo courtesy of Todd W. White
|
|
| Born | October 1901 Wyndmere, North Dakota |
| Died | March 21, 1989 (aged 87) |
| Residence | Los Angeles, California; Anaheim, California |
| Occupation | Engineer, designer, researcher, consultant |
| Employer | United Artists, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Altec Lansing, LTV, J.K.Hilliard and Associates |
| Spouse(s) | Jessamine Hilliard |
John Kenneth Hilliard (October 1901 – March 21, 1989) was an American acoustical and electrical engineer who pioneered a number of important loudspeaker concepts and designs. He helped develop the practical use of recording sound for film, and won an Academy Award in 1935. He designed movie theater sound systems, and he worked on radar as well as submarine detection equipment during World War II. Hilliard collaborated with James B. "Jim" Lansing in creating the long-lived Altec Voice of the Theatre speaker system. Hilliard researched high-intensity acoustics, vibration, miniaturization and long-line communications for NASA and the Air Force. Near the end of his career, he standardized noise-control criteria for home construction in California, a pattern since applied to new homes throughout the U.S.
Born in October 1901 in Wyndmere, North Dakota, Hilliard received his B.S. degree from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota at 24 years of age. He then obtained a B.S.E.E. at the University of Minnesota. He married a laboratory biologist and began working toward a master's degree.
After the release of The Jazz Singer, all the major film companies were racing to hire audio engineers so they could record and reproduce sound for film. Through common acquaintances at Electrical Research Products, Inc. (ERPI) within Western Electric, Hilliard was contacted and hired by United Artists Studios (UA) in Hollywood, California in 1928 because of his studies in physics, engineering and acoustics. Having left his Masters studies behind in Minnesota, Hilliard, not yet 28 years old, supervised all sound recording for Coquette, UA's first talking motion picture. Western Electric provided recording equipment, but the specific techniques for achieving best sound on film had to be developed by hard work and imagination. Hilliard's ground-breaking methods later became industry standards.
...
Wikipedia