Profile
Sonifex Premises.
Our History
Sonifex is a Private Limited Company owned by the Directors, which manufactures broadcast audio equipment for the radio, TV, security and telecommunications industries. This is a family business, started as a partnership in 1969 by Paul and Dorothy Brooke, which has had a steady turnover of trading, and has established a recognised position in the radio broadcasting industry.
The company became a limited company in 1983 and the operation moved to new purpose built premises at Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, during 1986. In 1987, the size of the premises was doubled to 11,000 square feet of production space with excellent working conditions and facilities for recreation. An extension was completed in February 1998, adding another 7,000 ft² of engineering and storage space.
Paul retired as Managing Director in 1994, when Marcus Brooke took over. The company presently employs forty three staff with a high percentage of those dedicated to R&D projects entirely motivated from within the company.
Over 90% of British radio broadcast studios have in the past used some form of Sonifex equipment and the company exports on average 50% of its products. Sonifex supplies equipment to over 60 countries world-wide and is recognised for the quality and reliability of its designs and finished equipment.
Sonifex manufactures telephony equipment and is authorised as a BABT (British Approvals Board for Telecommunications) certified manufacturing facility. Sonifex also operates a quality system and achieved ISO9002 status in 1999.
The constant need to innovate is now an integral part of the Sonifex culture, combining healthy and outward-looking ideas with sound and efficient design practices. During the next decade Sonifex will consolidate its position in the broadcasting and security industries by expanding its research and development efforts in order to offer new designs of equipment reflecting the quality and reliability that is expected by its customers.
History of Product Lines
The name Sonifex was synonymous with NAB cartridge machines, and carts, for playing adverts and jingles on the radio. These products had their heyday in the 1980's & early 90's with the analogue micro HS redesigned as the digital Discart floppy disk cart machine.
1989
In 1989 the HY-02 telephone hybrid was developed to enable radio station talk-show callers to be heard more clearly and the HDX2000 hard disk radio automation system was released on Windows 3.11™ in 1994, and developed on Windows 95/98™ until 1998.
1995
The Sovereign analogue radio broadcast mixing console was developed in 1995 together with the DHY-02 DSP based telephone hybrid.
1996
1996 saw the release of the Sentinel 8 channel digital audio logger and the Solutions radio studio furniture, allowing us to sell complete radio broadcast studios.
1997
In 1997 the award winning Courier portable flash-card recorder was announced. With its stylish design, built-in recording, scrub-wheel editing, USB and ISDN live audio, the Courier justified its selection as a Millennium Product by the UK's Design Council. Over 850 Couriers have been sold to the BBC and All India Radio. (Courier shown.)
1999
1999 saw the birth of the Redbox range of Audio interfaces, designed for systems integrators. Between 1999 and 2008 the range has expanded to over 40 different products.The first of the range was the RB-DA6 a 1U rack-mount high performance 6 way stereo distribution amplifier for splitting a source into a number of different outputs.
2001
In 2001, the Net-Log audio logger was born, a 4 channel audio logger which can record weeks of programming on a large internal hard-disk. The unit was designed as dedicated hardware for reliability reasons, i.e. there’s no PC motherboard in this machine. Although PC based systems are great for playback, they generally aren’t robust enough for continuous recording 24/7/365. (RNet-Log shown.)
2004
The D:Scribe transcription system was added in 2004. The S2 hybrid analogue/digital mixer replaced the Sovereign in 2004 and a talkback system was developed in the same year. (Talkback TB-6D shown.)
2008
In 2008, two additions were made to the Redbox range of audio interfaces: The RB-ADDA2, a 1U rack-mount which produces an AES/EBU or S/PDIF level digital audio output from a balanced XLR or unbalanced phono stereo audio input; and the RB-SC2, a sample rate converter and a 1U rack-mount which produces AES/EBU, S/PDIF and TOSlink
optical level digital audio outputs from a balanced AES/EBU,
S/PDIF and TOSlink optical level digital audio inputs.
(RB-DC2 shown.)
In 2008, the Reference Monitor range of 1U rack-mount audio monitors was released. Heralding the start of a new direction for Sonifex, these products offer superb quality audio, comprehensive feature-set and exact audio/visual monitoring in a small rack space. Combining the latest DSP technology with outstanding audio enclosure design to produce monitors of the highest standards with exceptional sound quality, a comprehensive feature set and good looks in the rack.
Uniquely an embedded 5 band parametric EQ allows you to configure the monitor for your environment or to suit your listening tastes.
2009
In 2009, three Rack Monitors With Dolby® Decoder,
(RM-4C8-HDE1, RM-4C8-E1X and RM-4C8-E1B) were added to the range of Reference Monitors. The new version of the Reference Monitor can decode a Dolby E or Dolby Digital audio stream allowing you to monitor visually 8 or 5.1 audio channels respectively and to monitor audibly any 2 of those channels. (RM-4C8-HDE1 shown.)
Also, added to the Reference Monitor range in 2009 were the two Confidence Monitors, RM-CA2 (2 LED Meters & 2 Analogue Stereo Inputs) and the RM-CAD8 (2 LED Meters, 2 Analogue & 6 Digital Stereo Inputs). These units use the same outstanding speaker system as the Reference Monitor range,offering a superb sound with a cut-down feature set. The confidence monitors have been designed
to give the best possible performance at a reduced price.
(RM-CAD8 shown.)
In 2009, Sonifex' first Video Redbox was added to the Redbox range of audio interfaces. The RB-VHDA8 is a high performance, reliable eight way digital video distribution amplifier for re-clocking and distributing a 3G, HD (high definition) or SD (standard definition) SDI source to eight outputs. (RB-VHDA8 shown.)
Another addition to the Redbox range in 2009 was the
RB-DSD1 digital silence detection unit. The unit works in a similar way to the Sonifex RB-SD1 analogue silence detection unit, but has AES/EBU, S/PDIF and TOSlink inputs and outputs instead of analogue inputs and output respectively. Designed to switch from one input to another in the event of loss of audio, the unit is ideal at transmitter sites,
or after the master output of a studio, to switch in another
audio source, or simultaneous broadcast, should a master
source fail. (RB-DSD1 shown.)
Yet another innovative design was added to the Sonifex range of products in 2009, the SignalLED Studio Illuminated Signs. The signs are designed for installers and because the sign itself contains the control electronics, and RGB LEDs are used, it can be simply configured onsite.
