A Bloody Good Anniversary

They say that 3 is a magic number. We at Shively Acoustics International (SAI) find ourselves nodding along in agreement on the eve of the company’s third anniversary this weekend — on March 29! 🎉🥳💐

A lot of good has happened in the three years since Shively Acoustics was founded, carrying on the work of its predecessor and expanding into new business areas.

Here’s what SAI founder, president, and CEO Roger Shively had to say, looking back:

This year’s batch of SAI magnolias (Photo: SAI)

What we are doing today not only feels distant, but also similar to what we began with when we broke away from Harman at the end of March 2011. At the time, we were fully engaged in automotive audio, which was where I had come from. In 2011, it was with GM/Daewoo and Hyundai. But within a year, the eclectic background and experience that Harman had provided led to the work in audio product development for consumer audio with Samsung and personal audio design for headphones and earphones.

Simulation work began to become relevant within the industry. We had helped pioneer simulations in audio, even if they were simple and clunky tools back then. Today, they are sophisticated and considered essential.

The shape of the company always followed the work and the needs of the industry, which was global. We changed personnel and added more of what we needed. From the early days in Asia and the US to the familiar towns in Europe, we grew in the three pillars of Automotive, Consumer, and Personal Audio. By the time we had evolved into SAI, we had dug deeper into our past experience and education to add Room/Architectural Acoustics, DSP development, Pro Audio, and Active Noise Control.

The entire chain of audio and acoustics — recording, the control of the content, its playback, and the control of the spaces in which it was heard and perceived — had become the scope of our work. We then branched out into vibration sensing, bone conduction, and the sound of the heart.

In any building process, or scientific process, there always steps that fail, but failure isn't binary. The step might fail, but it leads to the next success. In the end, it has always been about physics and the love of acoustics. Love is never easy, but it can be fun. It is a joyful thing.

The SAI Blog itself was likewise revitalized soon thereafter and has since been your monthly guide to ongoing developments in the world of Audio as seen through an SAI lens — or perhaps better put: heard through a loudspeaker. Recently, our projects with DSP Solutions and its automotive and marine audio brand Modus have remained the major work for Shively Acoustics, but there’s more on the horizon.

We are now in talks with medtech developer NeuroSonic, a company focused on preventative cardiac health and stroke prevention. In its own words, NeuroSonic is “a handheld, non-invasive device that enables clinicians to assess stroke risk instantly and accurately, on the spot”. The technology apparently achieves this via blood flow analysis once placed upon the neck. Great — how can we help?

Roger meeting with NeuroSonic co-founder and CPO Matthew Campbell (Photo: SAI)

Simulations, of course — as you might have guessed. Specifically, NeuroSonic and SAI discussed simulating how the frequency spectra of mechanical vibrations related to blood flow in a human carotid artery change with geometry, flow properties, and stenosis (i.e. narrowing) conditions. The idea here is to predict strokes by the resulting sound — known as carotid bruits — of the blood in the artery.

The long and short of it: Shively Acoustics would build a model of the carotid artery to measure a frequency on the surface of the skin for a normal artery. This would then allow NeuroSonic to determine the most critical frequency range for assessment. Here’s but a taste:

Simulating an artery to map blood flow in COMSOL (Image: SAI)

More on that to come, hopefully, in a future blog post. Audio engineering and consulting: a world of applications, when you think outside the (loudspeaker) box. And in case this is ringing a tiny bell in the reader’s head, NeuroSonic is not to be confused with Apollo Neuro, another medtech specialist that SAI has worked with in the past. For a refresher on that project, revisit SAI Spotlight #2.

Coming up

Readers will also remember that Roger was named to the advisory boards of MeierWerks and GPU Audio in April and November, respectively, last year. In his role for GPU Audio, the SAI chief has begun supporting the company for Automotive, setting up meetings and connecting with OEMs in Japan. Roger is also going to attend both AXPONA in Chicago (April 10-12) and WCX in Detroit (April 14-16) next month on the company’s behalf, in addition to his usual press coverage and networking activities at the two annual trade shows. On that note, GPU Audio will also support SAI’s attendance at this year’s AES Europe Convention in Copenhagen (May 28-30).

In Chicago, the Shively Acoustics president also plans to meet with MeierWerks, who need additional support with the next version of their high-end loudspeaker line set to launch later this year. In other news, Roger is considering a leadership role with the company. There’s always so much on the plate for SAI — good thing our appetite is big!

Finally, Shively Acoustics has decided to take on another intern this summer. Nathaniel Jocson — a mechanical engineering student in his first year at the University of Washington, in SAI’s neck of the woods — will join us for a few months before beginning his sophomore year in the fall. With an interest in ultrasonics, Nathaniel will make a great addition to the team, just like our past interns. Looking forward!

Last but not least, time is tick, tick, ticking away as our headline event for the next two years gets closer: the AES International Automotive Audio Conference! The deadline for submitting papers, workshops, and tutorials has been extended: so, welcome to the Last Chance Saloon, partners, because today — March 27 — is it! If you still have not done so, submit now! If that’s not you, there of course will be plenty on hand to enjoy as an attendee, so make sure to get your ticket when registration opens on the event webpage — check next week!

AES Automotive Audio

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Submit Papers, Workshops, Tutorials

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DEADLINE TODAY

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AES Automotive Audio 〰️ Submit Papers, Workshops, Tutorials 〰️ DEADLINE TODAY 〰️

Last held in 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Roger is returning as the conference’s chair for its sixth edition in Detroit this summer on July 29-31. While in town for WCX next month, which incidentally is also convening at the Huntington Place convention center, he’ll have ample advance opportunity to scout the rooms slotted for use at AES Automotive.

Which leaves us with a most pressing question: Are we going to see you in July? ■

Shively Acoustics International — Modern Audio Solutions, Worldwide