History
Sound Vision Inc. is a Boston based, venture-backed fabless semiconductor company, founded in 1995 by members of
the Leaf Systems management team, including Jim Dunn and Jose DoVal, Sound Vision's current VP Business Development
and VP Manufacturing. Leaf was the first company to develop commercially successful digital photography systems and
products to meet the needs of high-end studio photographers by providing a snap-in digital back for the most popular
studio camera brands.
Sound Vision's first revenue came from a contract with a major OEM to develop a design for a digital camera using the
emerging CMOS detector technology. This design was brought to market in 1996 under a variety of brand names. At that
time, Sound Vision began a program to develop its own semiconductor design, culminating in the release of the Clarity
ASIC in 1998.
Sound Vision was quickly recognized within the industry as the premier design house for digital cameras using CMOS
sensors, and entered into development agreements with sensor manufacturers including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Conexant,
Hyundai, etc. to build reference designs. These designs were sold by Sound Vision to manufacturers of digital cameras
in Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan and Malaysia.
In April of 2000, with an infusion of $21 million in venture funding Sound Vision embarked on a strategy to develop
Clarity-based reference designs for new types of consumer electronic devices such as MP3 players, Karaoke devices,
TV based image readers for popular types of memory cards, etc. Some of these products were manufactured by Sound
Vision in Asia for OEM customers who sold them under their own brand name. Sound Vision has also built products
under its own Armchair Electronics brand.
Today
Sound Vision continues to design, manufacture and market its Clarity™ line of semiconductors to a variety of
OEM customers worldwide. Sound Vision is also developing consumer products under its Armchair Electronics™ brand,
that leverage the rapid convergence of services enabled by the internet and by wireless technologies.
