Facilities and expertise
Acoustic Engineering
- Expert analysis of personal audio and electroacoustic systems.
- Performance testing of headphones and earphones, using both mannequin and bespoke testing environments.
- Characterisation of electroacoustic components, including loudspeakers, microphones, and materials.
- Multiphysics finite element modelling of electroacoustic systems at component and system levels.
- Development of high performance noise cancelling headphones and earphones.
Electronic Engineering
- Schematic level design of innovative mixed-signal noise cancelling electronics.
- Application-level electronic design of digital wired and wireless noise cancelling headphones.
- FW development for 8-32 bit microprocessors and microcontrollers (MCUs).
- Validation and failure analysis of internally and externally developed electronics.
Software + Signal Processing
- Development of custom Computer-Aided-Engineering tools for noise cancelling headphones.
- Engineering of HW drivers for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Android platforms.
- Research and development into low-latency audio processing algorithms for virtual and psychoacoustics, noise cancelling & production test.
About Us
Markets served
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Commercial aviation
Passengers on long haul flights have come to expect a personal entertainment experience in the air that matches that enjoyed on the ground. Drawing upon our extensive experience in consumer electronics, we are able to deliver just that.
Our solutions for the aircraft cabin bring innovation in media delivery, smart noise cancelling, open-ear talk-through and digital surround sound.
To simplify customers’ access to our solutions and to ensure their compatibility, we exercise strategic partnerships in this market with Panasonic Avionics Corporation, the leading supplier of inflight entertainment equipment, and Long Prosper Enterprise, the world’s largest manufacturer of airline headphones.
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Consumer electronics
We transform conventional stereo headphones into smart, wearable noise cancelling devices.
Our patented solutions provide the flexibility to dynamically configure the electroacoustics of a headphone, delivering performance improvements and advanced features that are responsive to both use-case and ambient sound conditions.
Our solutions are smart and capable, offering market-leading audio and noise cancelling performance combined with new, innovative means of control and oversight. They are practical, easily integrated and reliably mass-produced.
Leadership team
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Mark Weldon
Chairman of the Board
Mark was appointed SoundChip’s Chairman in 2012. He holds a Juris Doctor degree and a diploma (Hons) in International Law from Columbia University, along with an MCom (Hons) in Economics and Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Arts from the University of Auckland.
Unit May 2012, Mark was CEO of the New Zealand stock exchange, which ran trading, clearing, settling and other securities market technology systems along with the New Zealand national energy market infrastructure.
Mark, who is based in Queenstown, New Zealand, has a keen interest in technology and now spends much of his time supporting successful technology start-ups.
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Mark Donaldson
Chief Executive Officer
Mark is a founding member of SoundChip’s management team and board of directors. He holds both Masters (with Distinction) and Honours (First Class) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Auckland. In 2007 he was named by Ernst and Young as New Zealand’s Technology Entrepreneur of the Year.
Mark has a passionate interest in the field of smart audio and believes that software-controlled noise cancelling is a key enabler of a more enriching and natural personal audio experience. With more than 20 years experience in the development and commercialisation of noise cancelling technology – and having authored no fewer than 14 patents in this domain – Mark’s expertise is often called upon by partners seeking to grow their business in this increasingly important catagory.
Mark is based with his family in Lausanne, Switzerland but spends significant time working from SoundChip’s offices abroad, as well as travelling to meet with customers at their facilities located internationally.
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Paul Darlington
Chief Technology Officer
Paul is a founding member of SoundChip’s management team and board of directors. He holds BSc, MSc and PhD degrees from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research and the University of Southampton, respectively.
Paul has worked in audio and noise cancellation for personal communication systems since the 1980s, acting as a consultant to RAE Farnborough (latterly DERA, QINETIQ), TI and Nokia along the way. He has authored more than 20 patents in acoustics, electroacoustics, electronics, transducer engineering and active noise cancellation, and is an expert in system-level audio and the individual technologies which constitute the audio chain.
Paul is located in Manchester, England, and operates out of the Company’s Daresbury engineering facility.
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Ben Skelton
Chief Operating Officer
Ben is a founding member of SoundChip’s management team and board of directors. He holds a PhD in Communications and Information Theory from the University of Canterbury along with a First Class Honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Since leaving university, Ben has led product development teams at several international firms in Europe, Asia and the South Pacific. He has considerable practical and management-level experience in audio product engineering, manufacturing, software, and test system development, covering both consumer and automotive markets.
Ben is based with his family in Hong Kong, China, and operates from the Company’s Hong Kong office.
