Frank Hinton, Australia
Frank’s entire career has centred on music, it’s creation, performance and the tools and technology to perform, record, reproduce and reinforce it. Beginning in the early 1960’s as a pre-teenage musician, soon led to a position with the Brash Holding organization, Australia’s leading musical instrument wholesaler and retailer of the time. Soon after he joined the youthful, but now legendary Strauss Sound Systems. Strauss grew quickly to achieve high production levels and dominant market share, based on a leading-edge amplifier and speaker technology capability, and it was here that he formed an understanding and passion for electronics and physics, that would ultimately prove invaluable.
In late 1970, Frank was called up for National Service, joining the Army Band Corp, successfully sitting examinations based on the British Kneller Hall program, to ultimately serve as musician and arranger. On completion of service in 1973 he returned to the Brash Holding organisation, rising to the executive position of musical instrument product manager responsible for technology development and overseeing distribution and retail activities. It was here he led the company into professional audio.
Early in 1985 Frank left the company to form ATT Audio Controls Pty Ltd, to represent industrial audio manufacturers. In 2007 a new independent company, Classic Audio Designs Pty Ltd was formed. As lead designer, and in adopting a ‘first principle’ design approach, he undertook several years of extensive research followed by an intense period of development that ultimately realised the Grover Notting critical listening platform. Today ATT Audio Controls continues as an Australasian representative of entertainment technology and Classic Audio Designs, creates, manufactures and exports critical listening systems and devices, founded on applied physics, with both companies being niche by choice and family owned. In 2009 Frank was part of a small industry group who established the Australian Commercial Entertainment Technology Australian, the Australian industries peak body and remains its president, as we enter 2022.
Concerned with the parlous state of contemporary music and its presentation, Frank returned to his roots, formed a band of elite musicians, and will soon record a reference album to evaluate core technologies and platforms, that by necessity, will deploy optimum real time capture techniques. Content will be drawn from his life’s music writing work, imbued with influences that include, jazz, blues, gospel and classical, along with decades of popular music beginning in the 1960’s, and other colours that a passionate mind will explore. The outcome; youthful vitality meets the wisdom of experience. In terms of lyrics, storylines will be engaging, with a ‘human experience of being’ theme. With a multi genre influence, the album will nonetheless be classified ‘mature contemporary’, and appears likely to create a new music movement.
More information:
ATT Audio Controls Pty Ltd.:
www.attaudiocontrols.com
Australian Commercial and Entertainment Technologies Association (aceta): www.aceta.org.au
