They say you never really work as hard or learn as much as when you start your own business.  The ProDisk 464 was developed in true startup fashion.  It went from a conceptual conversation, to a basement development, to an actual product launch, and finally to an acquisition by Otari Corporation in the span of about three years. And somehow I managed to find the time to get married during that roll out!  
 

The ProDisk 464 was a ambitious effort to replace 24 track analog and digital reel-to-reel tape recorders used in audio recording and video post production with circa 1989 computer technology.  We used Burr-Brown state of the art analog to digital converters to process the audio and stored the digital data on 500 meg Winchester drives.  It was expandable from 4 to 64 audio channels by adding hard drives and 286 embedded computers for every 4 channels and was driven by a Mac front end.
 

In 1989, my partners and I unveiled the world's first 24 track system at both the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) shows.  We ultimately sold systems into premiere audio recording studios, television post production facilities, and even to the US military.  Audio post for the new (at the time) television series, "The Simpsons" was produced on the ProDisk 464.
 

As one of the five principles in the company, I was responsible for production, software development of our embedded micro-controller, PCB design, layout and manufacturing, sheet metal design, bathroom cleaning, and anything else that needed to be done.  As I mentioned earlier, I learned more in those three years than I could have ever learned in a traditional environment.  
 

In 1991, our Digital Dynamics company was acquired by Otari Corp.  Following this acquisition, I was employed by Otari as engineering manager to continue development of the product line as well as other products for them.