Transforming Sound Experiences with the amazing team at HOLOPLOT.

I was responsible for system design and component selection, and managed software development, electrical, mechanical and acoustics engineering, as well as industrial engineering, production testing and new product introduction for multiple R&D projects, with an internal team of sometimes more than 80 people, and in collaboration with multiple industry partners and suppliers: e.g. a Bluetooth-5 low-powered (<10mA) truly wireless headset with NxP and Goertek, a super low-cost (<20$ COGS) truly wireless headset with HMD/Nokia and Foxconn, and a high-end Android-based over-the-ear headphone with active noise cancellation and embedded machine learning capabilities together with Qualcomm and Foxconn.

I was in charge of the development of “next-gen” new technology platforms, such as audio synthesis rendered on embedded real-time Linux platforms, and active haptic feedback control elements, which were brought to market in the MASCHINE+ and TRAKTOR Control S4 products.I was responsible for the respective business cases, as well as system design and component selection, and managed relevant industrial and UX design, electrical and mechanical engineering, signal processing and software development activities. To define the technology-enabled product features and to ensure meeting user needs, I conducted a vast number of user interviews in the spirit of the “Design Thinking” methodology.

I built an interdisciplinary team of designers, software and hardware developers for rapid prototyping of “next-gen” product and feature ideas. My team’s work extensively influenced e.g. NI’s line of keyboards and MASCHINE hardware controllers, including corresponding firmware and software features. Further, I drove the design and specification of the Stem file format, the first-ever DJ multi-channel audio format based on open standards. I also was responsible for getting many of NI’s patents granted, and managed some of NI’s international university relations and technical 3rd party collaborations (e.g. with AVID and Apple’s Logic group). On top of that I managed NI’s contributions to a 4.2 Mio. Euro EU-funded research project.

When joining NI I initially worked on the UX design of multiple software instruments and effects: e.g. I designed and implemented the UI of the Reverb Classics with a first-of-a-kind real-time reverb spectrum analysis display, as well as the morphing functionality and display of Molekular. I also worked on the UX of hardware controllers and their respective software: e.g. I designed many of the user flows of the (now discontinued) X1 mk2 and S8. I also worked on NI’s mobile apps, e.g. some of the interaction design of Traktor DJ’s waveform-centric user experience is my doing.

Living between Germany and Istanbul, I co-founded a small business, initially with the idea of productizing Soundtorch, which my co-founder and I had started developing while at university. The company also consulted in the areas of software development and audio signal processing, with at its height five employees. Projects the company was involved in were e.g.: a cloud-based digital audio workstation with signal processing, rendering and real-time streaming to Flash-based web clients (pitched as “UJAM” at the 2010 TechCrunch Disrupt), a supplier-agnostic car audio system tuning application for the Volkswagen group, and a massive Tron-inspired translucent touchscreen DJ controller for the 2011 Super Bowl halftime show of the Black Eyed Peas (unfortunately the only screen prototype that Samsung provided caught fire the night before the event, and hence the whole thing didn’t make it on TV. Will.i.am did, however, mention it in a 2011 DJ Times interview).

As part of my M.Sc. thesis: "Analysis of Loudspeaker Placement and Loudspeaker-Room Interaction, and Correction of Associated Effects", I worked with Goeff Martin and Sylvain Choisel on the math of a self-adjusting surround-sound Hifi system with automated acoustic and spatial room correction.I developed the main underlying algorithm enabling spatial room correction, a loudspeaker position estimation system based on in-between loudspeakers impulse response measurements and dimension reduction of a deduced delay matrix. I also wrote my first patent, and my work ultimately made it into the BeoSystem 3 home cinema processor.

I worked on component selection, signal processing and sound design of car-audio technologies, from noise cancellation and adaptive motor sound design to a 62-channel in-car wavefield synthesis system, in collaboration with e.g. Müller BBM and the Fraunhofer Institute. I also developed evaluation methodologies for subjective car-audio listening tests, and carried out extensive measurements for sound quality analysis of in-car music reproduction systems. Sound systems I worked on ride along in some Audi A5, Q7, R8 and TT.