"AmirM" here.....

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
Hello Everyone.

OK, where to start…. Maybe I start by when I was a teenager, going to my friend’s house and seeing and hearing his Reel-to-Reel and Turntable putting out music that was just heavenly. I think I was only 10 or 12 years old (we are talking early 1970s here). My other brother who is two years older than me was also there and we both fell in love with “hi-fi.” As you can imagine, it was hard getting our parents to pony up money for our newly found expensive hobby. Still, we were pretty persuasive and eventually got to have a decent set of hardware.

In parallel, driven by my oldest brother’s interest and experience, we got into analog electronics. I built some amps and other gadgets and naturally pursued a degree in electrical engineering. Meanwhile, personal computers were just coming out and I got passion around them which nearly displaced my interest in audio. We are talking early 1980s here. Fortunately, during college I took a job repairing electronics gear for the local hi-fi store so I had plenty of access to nice gear, including ability to keep and repair stuff people didn’t want to repair include reel-to-reel tape decks, amps, etc. Still, nothing all that fancy. The love was squarely into computers.

My initial job after getting my EE degree was in building operating system software for large computer systems. Later I landed a job at Sony running the workstation R&D group in California. I left that after five years, moving on to manage engineering groups at a couple of companies building video gear for professional markets (TV studios/networks, post production/effects, etc). Learn a ton about fundamentals of what makes video right.

I see the Internet coming so I go and join a Stanford-university start-up doing video streaming on the Internet before people had heard of such a concept (we are talking about people still using “28K” dial-up modems with “56k” modems not yet in the market!). The venture got the interest of Microsoft and we were acquired by them in 1997 with the condition that I and other execs move up to Seattle. That we did.

Fast forward a decade later and I am managing an army of engineers, marketing people and legal/business development (1000+ people!) creating all the audio/video/imaging technologies coming out of Microsoft (sans Media Center). A third of the way there, I decided it might be important to not only have technology in Windows but also outside in devices that even competed with the operating system that paid my salary. So began a journey to get the consumer electronics industry to adopt our audio formats (WMA, WMA Pro, etc.) and video (WMV9/VC-1). Whether we were lucky or good, I don’t know but we managed to get everyone other than Apple to support these technologies :D. One of the most memorable wins was sitting across from Kutaragi-san (creator of PlayStation franchise at Sony) and having him make the decision on the spot to support our technology in PSP and PS3. Next memorable event was explaining this win to my then boss who headed the Xbox group at the time :). But it went well as we had pretty strong support from “BillG” (Bill Gates).

During this affair, I manage to put together a superb team of researchers and practitioners of audio/video. This included a high-end listening room ($300K budget!) and ability to conduct extensive blind and on-blind listening tests. I became a “trained listener” able to provide critical feedback to the audio team as they developed and optimized audio systems. Combined with my engineering experience and knowledge, I feel at ease talking about subjective and objective aspects of audio. My focus at home as far as gear though is mostly analytical with me being as proud of my $25K audio analyzer as one of you would be of your $25K amp :D. Headphones and expensive ones at that rule although there are Revel speakers and such for general enjoyment. I also love the concept of great sounding bookshelf monitors in near-field listening mode.

In 2007, I decided my tour of duty at Microsoft had ended with the massive organizational change post Vista shipping. Bill had decided to retire from Microsoft and focus on his charity work (where I think he will make a bigger mark on the planet than he did at Microsoft). So I created a transition plan to have my groups move elsewhere and left the company hoping to start a new one. It has been two years in the making and as much as I like to say I have started it already, we still haven’t. My partner by the way, is Warren Lieberfarb. For those of you who don’t know him, he was the head of Warner Home Video for 25 years and is credited for being the “father of DVD.” Both of us have a crazy desire to change the way people do things in radical ways. Since big plans require big resources, in a down economy, it has been challenging to close our transactions but we are working at it. When it happens I will disclose what I can here. Suffice it to say, it is related to technologies we talk about here.

Meanwhile, not being one that likes to sit around, I started to study and learn about home automation. Along the way, my older brother who I mentioned above asked if it would make sense to get in that business after watching me do so many things different than the typical integration companies. Late last year, we did just that. I started a new company called Madrona Digital in Bellevue, Washington (stone throw from Microsoft). We are working on showroom right now and hope to have pretty decent gear once it is complete. Yes, once more I am making audio/video my “job” :D.

This gets me to an important point. I believe strongly in full disclosure when it comes to forum participation. I was the only industry “insider” at AVS for example to fully disclose my background and identity (which came with pretty high risks being a Microsoft executive with customers and reporters reading the forum and contacting others at the company). By the same token, I want to be very clear on this: this forum has nothing to do with my commercial interest in home automation/Audio&Video integration. While we have not yet fully decided what lines we carry, when we do, I will be very clear in my postings when I refer to anything where I might have conflict of interest.

You should feel comfortable discussing any brand or product you like here without worry about my affiliation otherwise through the above venture. If at any time you feel otherwise, please call me on it or if you worry about doing so in public, discuss it with Steve. This is your forum, not mine!

All of that said, I hope that my business, as with Microsoft and other companies I worked at, would enable me to gather data/get information that would otherwise be difficult for you to have. In that regard, hopefully this apparent conflict of interest could in practice be a positive thing.

On a personal level, I am a forum/research junkie. I don’t spend one penny without researching the web to see what others have to say. I hate buying something and then finding out there was a better/cheaper way. I think forums are a hidden jewel of the Internet. There is more knowledge in them than commercial sites. If we can one day harvest that energy and present it to people in a way they can digest it (rather than having to do so by rummaging through millions of posts), we will have served a great purpose. The name of the forum and focus of it has been driven from this motivation.
 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
11,236
81
1,725
New York City
Hey Amir,

I remember before internet logging onto the TAN network back in the early '80s with my Mac SE30 and a 600 baud modem. Then they came out with a 1200 baud modem and everyone went wild. (28 K sounds almost supersonic by comparison :) ).
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
:). There is a fun factor lost in watching the characters output one at a time on your screen. For people not understanding what we are talking about, here is a bit of background. Communication rates are always rated in "bits" per second. Each character you see here takes 8 of them (one byte) assume we are talking Latin alphabet (Asian languages take twice as much). A modem communicates over analog phone line and its data rate is state as "baud." That is the number of bits including overhead. For ease of understand, let's assume there were two bits of overhead. That means each character took 10 bits to describe. So Myles' 600 baud modem was communicating at 60 character a second. This paragraph would have taken more than 2 seconds to transmit. On typical Internet link today (average of 3.3 mbits/sec in US), this same paragraph takes 0.00004 seconds to send across!

Now, I can’t let Myles win the race of who is older in this forum :D. So I have no choice to but to bring up the story of my brother buying a bunch of mechanical teletype machines from surplus store to repair and use as terminal. These fully mechanical machines were like automated typewriters which could transmit and receive data and print it on paper. Their data rate? 300 baud (I think they also supported 110 if I am not mistaken). It was wild watching these machines click and clack and output one character at a time. Even more wild was trying to repair them! Worst nightmare you can imagine with thousands of moving parts.
 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
11,236
81
1,725
New York City
Lol :D
 

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
1,591
210
1,635
Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com
I started to study and learn about home automation. Along the way, my older brother........
That is an interesting history, good luck with your new venture.

Different kind of automation, different brother...........my brother and I went to the Henry Ford/Greeenfield Village yesterday (I dragged him there to see the Herman Miller exhibit). For the second time I got to walk through Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House, talk about old school home automation of a different sort.
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
Just some toughts from other toughts...

On a personal level, I am a forum/research junkie. I don’t spend one penny without researching the web to see what others have to say. I hate buying something and then finding out there was a better/cheaper way. I think forums are a hidden jewel of the Internet. There is more knowledge in them than commercial sites. If we can one day harvest that energy and present it to people in a way they can digest it (rather than having to do so by rummaging through millions of posts), we will have served a great purpose. The name of the forum and focus of it has been driven from this motivation.

I do realize that this quote is now almost a year old; still though, what is highlighted in purple is one part of my mission in life!
In particular regarding the gathering of all the best components from their own categories with their most useful features and technological advancements (for that time of course), as well their intelligent implementations in the service of real and concrete performance; be it auditory or visual.

I have/had threads in other forums from the past where I was exactly trying to do just that!
Ok, I am not talking Ultra High-End here, but Regular End! :) ...For the vast majority of the common mortals. Not Low, not High, just in the Middle.

I am starting at the beginning here, trying to learn about my co-members and their experiences as well their goals and states of mind. So then I can participate in a similar direction or by bringing another new ingredient to the overall ensemble.

Audio & Video is more than technological electronics! It conveys an emotional impact related to the artists and spectators. It is the essence of communication like a Live show. The true Cinema is Life itself; that's where the real movie is being recorded every single second and everywhere in the world at the same time but different space.

Whatever we do afterwards is a Reproduction based on that emotional impact, or what is affecting us the most and that we like to share with others. And that is the goal of the artist, the director, the photograper, the song writer, the musician, and whoever has to communicate something.

Amir, if you think that I'm quoting you from way too long ago, please do let me know.
But like I said, I'm starting at the beginning so I can get my feet on the same ground as others that want to reach what's best for all of us. And from all venues of life and all people from all around in any country and from any background.
I am slow sometimes to get going right into the mouth of the essence, but when I get going I'll try to stay not too far behind, not too far ahead, but just in touch with the NOW. ...And looking forward of course, because this is afterall how we improve.

Contentment is a present emotion, a feeling of satisfaction; and it grows on us and it becomes wisdom.

Alright, I simply read the very first posts ever posted on this site (from Steve as well), and I simply responded from my own heart beat! :)

All good,
Bob
 
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amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
No problem Bob. If you ever meet my business partner, you will find that he will not talk about anything but who you are and where you have been before getting into business discussions. He firmly believes that where people have been dictates how they conduct their business. I believe the same. So by all means, start at the beginning. We have no rules against bringing old threads to surface (other than maybe rehashing old bickering threads :) ).
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
8,677
23
0
FWIW, Amir, I've never detected a shred of self-promotion in anything you've posted here. If your objective is to remain objective, you're doing a great job.

Tim
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
Amir, I'm trying to find that article about you and cannot find it! AmirM is insufficient.

Was it in Sound & Vision, UltimateAV, or Home Theater?

Bob

Edit: Got it: Majidimehr :) ...That's going to help now.
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
I am going to bump this thread as twice in the last few days folks have thought I have a different background than I do. Reading through it, I am relieved that I didn't see anything about the future of this forum that has been incorrect :). A quick update: the start-up that I created with my partner did come to fruition but can't say much else beyond that :). And our showroom at Madrona did fill up including the theater that I have spoken about. The company has grown substantially since then and to my pleasure, runs very autonomously without me.
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
8,570
51
38
Calgary, AB
I am going to bump this thread as twice in the last few days folks have thought I have a different background than I do. Reading through it, I am relieved that I didn't see anything about the future of this forum that has been incorrect :). A quick update: the start-up that I created with my partner did come to fruition but can't say much else beyond that :). And our showroom at Madrona did fill up including the theater that I have spoken about. The company has grown substantially since then and to my pleasure, runs very autonomously without me.

You gotta love that! Congrats Amir? and much future success!
 

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