Karsten Hansen Email & Phone Number

Copenhagen Area, Denmark

In 2001 the company entered the third phase of its corporate development when it was presented with an opportunity to buy the Studio Products Division (PTV) from ProTelevision Technologies A/S.“In one day we doubled our staff, doubled our market and became a much larger company offering both audio and video equipment to studios and broadcasters. It also brought all sorts of synergy between audio and video product development.”To mark this move into a brave new world, DK has undergone an internal transformation, culminating in a new name – DK – Technologies. All of the company’s existing products will be re-branded and there will be a major marketing initiative to reinforce the new brand.“Positioning ourselves for the future means that we all have to think differently. These changes are all about forward progression. We see the industry opening up and we are adapting our business model to reflect this. DK-Technologies aims to embrace new ideas without constraints. Apart from our standard range of products, we also have a technical platform from which we can create bespoke products that solve specific problems for audio and video professionals. Conceptual thinking has always been our core philosophy and we are now ideally positioned to bring the benefits of an open minded, no constraints approach to the entire industry.”

Copenhagen Area, Denmark

DK–Audio was established in 1987 by me. My aim was to use my extensive knowledge and experience of the broadcast industry to develop complex, custom-designed matrix systems for individual broadcasters. The conceptual approach to design was soon being sought out by broadcasters who had specific monitoring, networking and routing problems that couldn’t be solved by applying off-the-shelf solutions.One of the company’s early achievements was designing an audio monitoring system for the BBC, which was installed at Broadcasting House, London, in the early 90′s and was replaced only a few year ago. “This project sums up the type of work we were carrying out during Phase One of DK’s history. It was truly conceptual because no one had a system that could accomplish this, so we started with a blank sheet of paper and designed exactly what the customer needed. Customer defined projects were the mainstay of our business and our on-going desire to develop products for which there is a practical need stems from this starting point.”In 1993 expanded DK’s remit by developing a range of stand-alone audio metering products. These were based on recently introduced DSP technology and incorporated LCD screens showing visual representations of the audio signal. Known collectively as Master Stereo Display, – the MSD 550 – went on show at the AES Convention in Vienna in 1994.“Most people thought this was just a toy, a funny thing that was interesting but had no serious application. However, we saw it as a conceptual solution – something that combined a large amount of functionality into one small box. We recognized a requirement for this type of metering but it took a while for other people to see its potential because most of them were monitoring in stereo and were still working with oscilloscopes and bar graphs. As soon as their thoughts turned to the future and the growing interest in 5.1, they realized where we were coming from and began to take these new meters more seriously.”