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John Kenneth Hilliard
John Kenneth Hilliard (October 1901 – March 21, 1989) was an American acoustical and electrical engineer who pioneered several important loudspeaker concepts and designs. He helped develop the practical use of recorded sound for film and won an Academy Award in 1935. Hilliard designed movie theater sound systems and worked on radar and submarine detection equipment during World War II. He collaborated with James B. "Jim" Lansing to create the long-lived Altec Voice of the Theatre speaker system.
Hilliard conducted research on high-intensity acoustics, vibration, miniaturization, and long-line communications for NASA and the U.S. Air Force. Toward the end of his career, he helped standardize noise-control criteria for home construction in California, a model that has since been applied to new homes throughout the United States.
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 the best sound on film had to be developed by hard work and imagination. Hilliard's ground-breaking methods later became industry standards.
In 1933, MGM hired Hilliard away from UA. His first assignment was to fix their problematic recording amplifiers whose overall phase shift measured out to a voice-distorting 1500 degrees. Hilliard's solution was to use higher linearity transformers obtained from Lansing Manufacturing Company, in consultation with founder Jim Lansing. Earlier, Hilliard had befriended a laboratory associate of his wife's, Dr. John Blackburn, and in 1934, he helped Blackburn get a position as a design engineer at Lansing Manufacturing. The following year, Hilliard and his team at MGM solved the problem of recording Nelson Eddy's strong operatic baritone alongside Jeanette MacDonald's flat and weak soprano voice, picking up an Academy Award for Sound Recording on the duo's first film together: Naughty Marietta.
As part of his work to reduce the weight of sound equipment at MGM, Hilliard approached James "Jim" Cannon of Cannon Electric in Los Angeles regarding the machining of a smaller, lighter version of Cannon's heavy-duty electrical connectors that Western Electric had been using for motors and microphones. The resulting lightweight six-pin Cannon connector eventually evolved to become the industry standard three-pin connector for microphones; the XLR connector. Though the Great Depression was underway, Cannon Electric was kept very busy producing the popular connectors for film studios.
While at MGM, Hilliard was asked by Gordon Mitchell to chair the Motion Picture Research Council's sound committee. Hilliard's first task was standardizing a uniform method of reproducing film sound in the theater. He began by standardizing recording techniques among eight major film studios. Later, with Harry Kimball, he helped develop the 1938 "Academy Curve", a standard filter that attenuated recorded noise above 2,000 Hz while retaining prominent voice reproduction characteristics.
Hilliard's continued contact with Lansing and Blackburn led to a conversation about the poor state of loudspeakers in movie theaters. The three men shared ideas about how best to improve existing designs. Hilliard took his plans to MGM's head of sound, Douglas Shearer (brother of Norma Shearer), who decided to fund the effort. Hilliard was made responsible for the concept and design of the project. Lansing Manufacturing was tapped to develop the drive units while Hilliard worked to improve the electronic components. What came out of this collaboration was a well-received industry-standard loudspeaker system, "The Shearer Horn System for Theatres" (1937), that garnered a technical award "Oscar" for sound from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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John Kenneth Hilliard
John Kenneth Hilliard (October 1901 – March 21, 1989) was an American acoustical and electrical engineer who pioneered several important loudspeaker concepts and designs. He helped develop the practical use of recorded sound for film and won an Academy Award in 1935. Hilliard designed movie theater sound systems and worked on radar and submarine detection equipment during World War II. He collaborated with James B. "Jim" Lansing to create the long-lived Altec Voice of the Theatre speaker system.
Hilliard conducted research on high-intensity acoustics, vibration, miniaturization, and long-line communications for NASA and the U.S. Air Force. Toward the end of his career, he helped standardize noise-control criteria for home construction in California, a model that has since been applied to new homes throughout the United States.
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 the best sound on film had to be developed by hard work and imagination. Hilliard's ground-breaking methods later became industry standards.
In 1933, MGM hired Hilliard away from UA. His first assignment was to fix their problematic recording amplifiers whose overall phase shift measured out to a voice-distorting 1500 degrees. Hilliard's solution was to use higher linearity transformers obtained from Lansing Manufacturing Company, in consultation with founder Jim Lansing. Earlier, Hilliard had befriended a laboratory associate of his wife's, Dr. John Blackburn, and in 1934, he helped Blackburn get a position as a design engineer at Lansing Manufacturing. The following year, Hilliard and his team at MGM solved the problem of recording Nelson Eddy's strong operatic baritone alongside Jeanette MacDonald's flat and weak soprano voice, picking up an Academy Award for Sound Recording on the duo's first film together: Naughty Marietta.
As part of his work to reduce the weight of sound equipment at MGM, Hilliard approached James "Jim" Cannon of Cannon Electric in Los Angeles regarding the machining of a smaller, lighter version of Cannon's heavy-duty electrical connectors that Western Electric had been using for motors and microphones. The resulting lightweight six-pin Cannon connector eventually evolved to become the industry standard three-pin connector for microphones; the XLR connector. Though the Great Depression was underway, Cannon Electric was kept very busy producing the popular connectors for film studios.
While at MGM, Hilliard was asked by Gordon Mitchell to chair the Motion Picture Research Council's sound committee. Hilliard's first task was standardizing a uniform method of reproducing film sound in the theater. He began by standardizing recording techniques among eight major film studios. Later, with Harry Kimball, he helped develop the 1938 "Academy Curve", a standard filter that attenuated recorded noise above 2,000 Hz while retaining prominent voice reproduction characteristics.
Hilliard's continued contact with Lansing and Blackburn led to a conversation about the poor state of loudspeakers in movie theaters. The three men shared ideas about how best to improve existing designs. Hilliard took his plans to MGM's head of sound, Douglas Shearer (brother of Norma Shearer), who decided to fund the effort. Hilliard was made responsible for the concept and design of the project. Lansing Manufacturing was tapped to develop the drive units while Hilliard worked to improve the electronic components. What came out of this collaboration was a well-received industry-standard loudspeaker system, "The Shearer Horn System for Theatres" (1937), that garnered a technical award "Oscar" for sound from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.