Jerry Harvey (inventor)
Encyclopedia
Jerry Harvey is an American sound engineer
best known for inventing a series of customized dual-speaker in-ear monitors in 1995. He founded Ultimate Ears
that same year, and in 2007 founded JH Audio. He has served as the sound-engineer for bands as varied as Van Halen
, Kiss
, Morrissey
, The Cult
, The Knack
, David Lee Roth
, Mötley Crüe
, k.d. lang
, and Linkin Park
.
. His first break in the music business occurred in 1980, when the Gland Slam Superjam rock
tour starring April Wine
, Judas Priest
, and Sammy Hagar
was performing at the St. Louis Busch Stadium
. While Harvey was tinkering on his 1978 red Pontiac Trans Am, Hagar's people approached him on the street and asked to borrow his car in exchange for free tickets. They then used Harvey's car to drive on stage during Hagar's anthem "Trans Am (Highway Wonderland)."
The show's promoter gave Harvey a job as a gofer
, which led to Harvey working as a roadie for the local band The Agents. He soon became the light, and ultimately, the sound guy for the band, even though he was still underage at most of their venues. Harvey soon began traveling the world mixing sound for performers such as Kiss, Morrissey and The Cult.
In 1986 Harvey met David Lee Roth
at a bar, and soon began mixing sound for Roth, and then Van Halen
, on tour. According to Inc.
magazine, "From his perch on the left side of the stage behind a black drop, Harvey's job, essentially, was to make sure the band members liked what they heard (as opposed to the person behind the big board out in the crowd, who only has to please the drunken audience)."
told Harvey during the band's rehearsals for their Balance
tour that the noise on stage was too much. The massive volume from the stage monitors and speakers were damaging his ears and making it difficult for the band members to hear one-another. Harvey began tinkering and looking for components to solve the problem; in Japan he found tiny electrical components, and in the United States he found a tiny speaker designed for a pacemaker
. He created a tiny in-ear speaker system that connected to a small receiver on Alex's belt via thin cables. The receiver then picked up the wireless signal from Harvey's mixing board. The in-ear monitor
s had two small speakers to separate output volume into low and high frequencies for bass and treble
, and they fit into shells that were impressions of Alex's ears. The in-ear monitors also blocked out ambient noise, and according to Alex Van Halen, "It was like night and day."
and other members of Skid Row, who were opening for Van Halen on tour, soon wanted their own monitors, and paid $3000 cash for six pairs. After his third client Engelbert Humperdinck
requested one, Harvey decided to create the company Ultimate Ears, and word began spreading through the rock community. His former wife Mindy left her job working as a sales manager for an office equipment supplier in St. Louis to handle the new business, as Harvey himself had no interest in leaving his job as a touring sound mixer. That year the couple amicably separated, and they both separately moved to Las Vegas to run Ultimate Ears out of Mindy's house.
Harvey continued to tour, finishing up the Balance tour with Van Halen and then mixing for k.d. lang on the All You Can Eat tour and Mötley Crüe on their Generation Swine tour. He marketed Ultimate Ears while doing so, though he often had to convince artists that they wouldn't look like hearing aid
s on stage. A custom pair went for $700 to $900.
, a Colorado Springs manufacturer of custom-fit earpieces, to create the shell casings for the musicians' commissions. Westone also began assembling the monitors.
Profits jumped in 1998 when Harvey introduced the fifth-generation model the UE-5. By 2000, Ultimate Ears was becoming a fixture among rock artists, and Harvey's pieces were used by the Rolling Stones, Faith Hill
, Enrique Iglesias
, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers
. Near the end of 2001 Ultimate Ears had added some 200 artists including Cirque du Soleil
, the Late Show With David Letterman
, and various megachurch
es.
In 2001, however, the relationship with Ultimate Ears and Westone began to fall apart. While on tour Harvey heard from sources that Westone was claiming ownership to his custom designs, as well as trying to set up a separate European distribution. An attorney informed Mindy that Westone owned all the trademark
s and patent
s associated with Ultimate Ears, and that Harvey had no patent protection. Harvey decided to retake control of the business. However, while he had designed the interior circuitry of the monitors, he didn't know how to make the acrylic
shells. Westone also had all the rock star ear impressions.
to research hearing aid
manufacturing so they could create their own manufacturing lab. While at a two-week hearing aid course in Orlando
, he befriended instructor Chomphorn "Noy" Soudaly, a hearing aid technician from Laos
. He hired Noy at double his own salary to help create the lab he planned on setting up in Las Vegas. Noy and Harvey spent "100 days of hell" in research and development on a new upgrade to ship by April 4, 2002.
With Ultimate Ears again running, Harvey eventually settled with Westone out of court with the brand intact. Ultimate Ears had to recollect ear impressions from their long-term customers, and about 90% remained loyal to Harvey over Westone. By 2003 Ultimate Ears had five employees and about a million dollars in revenue, and the company estimated it had about 80% of the professional market. Noy handled the lab and Harvey continued to work on custom model design.
With the company stabilized, in 2003 Harvey went back on tour, this time mixing for Linkin Park. However, after a member of the band's production staff introduced Harvey to the iPod
, he left the tour early to begin designing a less expensive version of Ultimate Ears. By January 2004 he debuted the UE-5c model at $550, which featured dual drivers tuned for digital devices. The model was a success and doubled company revenue.
In 2005 Harvey moved the company to Irvine, California
. In order to secure outside capital to develop lower-cost custom earpieces, Harvey contacted Bob Allison of the investment holding company Innovate Partners. Allison convinced Harvey to create a Super.fi line of Ultimate Ears for the mass consumer market for $250, and helped them open a manufacturing operation in China. The Super.fi 5 Pro was released in April 2005, and by 2006 revenue was in excess of $10 million.
Allison became CEO of Ultimate Ears, with Mindy as president and Harvey as Chief Technical Officer
. By June 2007 the company had 30 employees. After the launch of the UE-11 model, and in August 2007, Ultimate Ears was acquired by Logitech International for $34 million. Harvey left Ultimate Ears ten months prior to the acquisition.
, where they discovered their newborn daughter Katie had a rare genetic disease. They relocated to Harvey's hometown to be close to the local children's hospital, and then in 2008 to Orlando, in order to find trained hearing aid technicians to assist in manufacturing new products he'd designed for aviators.
Harvey wasn't allowed to return immediately to the pro audio business because of a signed non-compete clause
, and stated "I knew I couldn’t live on my old products, I had to come out and push the technology forward."
In late 2007 Harvey and his wife Brittany co-founded Jerry Harvey Audio LLC, or JH Audio, and began marketing and manufacturing custom aviation headsets. A pilot himself, the company made $300,000 its first year of operation. By mid-2009, however, he began supplementing the income by launching the JH Audio music line, including the JH13 Pro model, which features dual lows, mids, and highs joined by an integrated 3-way crossover. Previously Harvey's inventions were prone to reverse engineering by competitors, but Harvey has stated about his new models that "They can mimic them, but they can’t get the components. We’re the only ones who have access to them."
By May of that year he had 300 custom orders after an audio show in Los Angeles, and in ten days they had over $250,000 worth of orders. The company, which is based in Apopka, Florida
, had a revenue of $1 million that year. Noy Soudaly takes the silicon
molds and tunes them, while Harvey's wife, Brittany, serves as President and CEO. The company currently has 11 employees, and Harvey's daughter Jaime Harvey serves as COO
. The aviation headset department was discontinued in January 2011. Harvey has stated he is planning on launching a universal earphone for consumers by summer of 2011. Clients include artists and groups such as Kenny Chesney
, Disturbed, Keith Urban
, T-Pain
, Blue Man Group
and Cirque du Soleil
, along with large numbers of consumer audiophile
s. Harvey continues to mix about eight to twelve weeks a year, partly to beta test new models under real stage conditions.
Live sound mixing
Live sound mixing is the art of combining and processing a number of audio signals together to create a "mix" that the audience or performers at a live show hear. There can be a variety of different mixes required, depending on the performance requirements...
best known for inventing a series of customized dual-speaker in-ear monitors in 1995. He founded Ultimate Ears
Ultimate Ears
Ultimate Ears is a custom in-ear monitor and earphone manufacturer based in Irvine, California. The company was founded by Mindy Harvey and Jerry Harvey in 1995 and it created a new market for custom IEMs which are now used by most of the world's top touring musicians.In August 2008, Ultimate Ears...
that same year, and in 2007 founded JH Audio. He has served as the sound-engineer for bands as varied as Van Halen
Van Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...
, Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
, Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
, The Cult
The Cult
The Cult are a British rock band that was formed in 1983. They gained a dedicated following in Britain in the mid 1980s as a post-punk band with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love...
, The Knack
The Knack
The Knack was an American New Wave rock quartet based in Los Angeles that rose to fame with their first single, "My Sharona", an international number one hit in 1979.-Founding :...
, David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....
, Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981. The group was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil...
, k.d. lang
K.D. Lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC , known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress...
, and Linkin Park
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries...
.
Early life
Jerry Harvey was born in 1961 and raised in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. His first break in the music business occurred in 1980, when the Gland Slam Superjam rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
tour starring April Wine
April Wine
April Wine is a Canadian rock band formed in 1969. According to the band, they chose the name 'April Wine' simply because members thought the two words sounded good together...
, Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
, and Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....
was performing at the St. Louis Busch Stadium
Busch Stadium
Busch Stadium is the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, of MLB...
. While Harvey was tinkering on his 1978 red Pontiac Trans Am, Hagar's people approached him on the street and asked to borrow his car in exchange for free tickets. They then used Harvey's car to drive on stage during Hagar's anthem "Trans Am (Highway Wonderland)."
The show's promoter gave Harvey a job as a gofer
Gofer
A gofer or go-fer is an employee who is often sent on errands. "Gofer" reflects the likelihood of instructions to go for coffee, dry cleaning, or stamps, or to make other straightforward or familiar procurements. The term gofer originated in North America...
, which led to Harvey working as a roadie for the local band The Agents. He soon became the light, and ultimately, the sound guy for the band, even though he was still underage at most of their venues. Harvey soon began traveling the world mixing sound for performers such as Kiss, Morrissey and The Cult.
In 1986 Harvey met David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....
at a bar, and soon began mixing sound for Roth, and then Van Halen
Van Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...
, on tour. According to Inc.
Inc. (magazine)
Inc. magazine, founded in 1979 and based in New York City, is a monthly publication focused on growing companies. The magazine publishes an annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., the "Inc...
magazine, "From his perch on the left side of the stage behind a black drop, Harvey's job, essentially, was to make sure the band members liked what they heard (as opposed to the person behind the big board out in the crowd, who only has to please the drunken audience)."
Invention
In 1995, Alex Van HalenAlex Van Halen
Alexander Arthur "Alex" Van Halen is a Dutch-born American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. Originally, his brother Eddie had taken lessons for drums, while Alex practiced guitar...
told Harvey during the band's rehearsals for their Balance
Balance (Van Halen album)
Balance is the 10th studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen. It was released in 1995 and, to date, is the fourth and final Van Halen album of all-new material featuring lead singer Sammy Hagar. It was also a more complete divergence from their earlier, more heavy metal sound...
tour that the noise on stage was too much. The massive volume from the stage monitors and speakers were damaging his ears and making it difficult for the band members to hear one-another. Harvey began tinkering and looking for components to solve the problem; in Japan he found tiny electrical components, and in the United States he found a tiny speaker designed for a pacemaker
Pacemaker
An artificial pacemaker is a medical device that uses electrical impulses to regulate the beating of the heart.Pacemaker may also refer to:-Medicine:...
. He created a tiny in-ear speaker system that connected to a small receiver on Alex's belt via thin cables. The receiver then picked up the wireless signal from Harvey's mixing board. The in-ear monitor
In-ear monitor
In-ear monitors are devices used by musicians, audio engineers and audiophiles to listen to music or to hear a custom crafted mix of vocals and stage instrumentation for live performance or recording studio mixing...
s had two small speakers to separate output volume into low and high frequencies for bass and treble
Treble (sound)
Treble refers to tones of high frequency or range. In music this corresponds to high notes, and for this reason the treble clef is often used for instruments with higher pitch. Examples of treble sounds are guitar tones, female voice , young boy voice, etc. They have frequencies above 9 KHz. Treble...
, and they fit into shells that were impressions of Alex's ears. The in-ear monitors also blocked out ambient noise, and according to Alex Van Halen, "It was like night and day."
Founding
Sebastian BachSebastian Bach
Sebastian Bach is a Canadian heavy metal singer who achieved mainstream success as frontman of Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. Since his departure from Skid Row, he has had many television roles, acted within Broadway plays, and leads a successful solo career.-Early life:Bach was born Sebastian...
and other members of Skid Row, who were opening for Van Halen on tour, soon wanted their own monitors, and paid $3000 cash for six pairs. After his third client Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck (singer)
Engelbert Humperdinck is a British pop singer, best known for his hits including "Release Me " and "After the Lovin'" as well as "The Last Waltz" .-Early life:...
requested one, Harvey decided to create the company Ultimate Ears, and word began spreading through the rock community. His former wife Mindy left her job working as a sales manager for an office equipment supplier in St. Louis to handle the new business, as Harvey himself had no interest in leaving his job as a touring sound mixer. That year the couple amicably separated, and they both separately moved to Las Vegas to run Ultimate Ears out of Mindy's house.
Harvey continued to tour, finishing up the Balance tour with Van Halen and then mixing for k.d. lang on the All You Can Eat tour and Mötley Crüe on their Generation Swine tour. He marketed Ultimate Ears while doing so, though he often had to convince artists that they wouldn't look like hearing aid
Hearing aid
A hearing aid is an electroacoustic device which typically fits in or behind the wearer's ear, and is designed to amplify and modulate sound for the wearer. Earlier devices, known as "ear trumpets" or "ear horns", were passive funnel-like amplification cones designed to gather sound energy and...
s on stage. A custom pair went for $700 to $900.
Westone
Ultimate Ears contracted WestoneWestone
Westone is a manufacturer of hearing healthcare products and high-end earphones, otherwise known as in-ear monitors , used by professional musicians and audiophiles.-Background:...
, a Colorado Springs manufacturer of custom-fit earpieces, to create the shell casings for the musicians' commissions. Westone also began assembling the monitors.
Profits jumped in 1998 when Harvey introduced the fifth-generation model the UE-5. By 2000, Ultimate Ears was becoming a fixture among rock artists, and Harvey's pieces were used by the Rolling Stones, Faith Hill
Faith Hill
Faith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
, Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish pop music singer, a son of singer Julio Iglesias.Enrique started his musical career on Mexican label Fonovisa...
, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
. Near the end of 2001 Ultimate Ears had added some 200 artists including Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
, the Late Show With David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
, and various megachurch
Megachurch
A megachurch is a church having 2,000 or more in average weekend attendance. The Hartford Institute's database lists more than 1,300 such Protestant churches in the United States. According to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list have attendance ranging from 10,000 to 47,000...
es.
In 2001, however, the relationship with Ultimate Ears and Westone began to fall apart. While on tour Harvey heard from sources that Westone was claiming ownership to his custom designs, as well as trying to set up a separate European distribution. An attorney informed Mindy that Westone owned all the trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
s and patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s associated with Ultimate Ears, and that Harvey had no patent protection. Harvey decided to retake control of the business. However, while he had designed the interior circuitry of the monitors, he didn't know how to make the acrylic
Acrylic
Acrylic may refer to:Chemicals and materials:* Chemical compounds that contain the acryl group derived from acrylic acid* Acrylic fiber, a synthetic polymer fiber that contains at least 85% acrylonitrile...
shells. Westone also had all the rock star ear impressions.
Expansion
Harvey decided to travel to FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
to research hearing aid
Hearing aid
A hearing aid is an electroacoustic device which typically fits in or behind the wearer's ear, and is designed to amplify and modulate sound for the wearer. Earlier devices, known as "ear trumpets" or "ear horns", were passive funnel-like amplification cones designed to gather sound energy and...
manufacturing so they could create their own manufacturing lab. While at a two-week hearing aid course in Orlando
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
, he befriended instructor Chomphorn "Noy" Soudaly, a hearing aid technician from Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
. He hired Noy at double his own salary to help create the lab he planned on setting up in Las Vegas. Noy and Harvey spent "100 days of hell" in research and development on a new upgrade to ship by April 4, 2002.
With Ultimate Ears again running, Harvey eventually settled with Westone out of court with the brand intact. Ultimate Ears had to recollect ear impressions from their long-term customers, and about 90% remained loyal to Harvey over Westone. By 2003 Ultimate Ears had five employees and about a million dollars in revenue, and the company estimated it had about 80% of the professional market. Noy handled the lab and Harvey continued to work on custom model design.
With the company stabilized, in 2003 Harvey went back on tour, this time mixing for Linkin Park. However, after a member of the band's production staff introduced Harvey to the iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
, he left the tour early to begin designing a less expensive version of Ultimate Ears. By January 2004 he debuted the UE-5c model at $550, which featured dual drivers tuned for digital devices. The model was a success and doubled company revenue.
In 2005 Harvey moved the company to Irvine, California
Irvine, California
Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...
. In order to secure outside capital to develop lower-cost custom earpieces, Harvey contacted Bob Allison of the investment holding company Innovate Partners. Allison convinced Harvey to create a Super.fi line of Ultimate Ears for the mass consumer market for $250, and helped them open a manufacturing operation in China. The Super.fi 5 Pro was released in April 2005, and by 2006 revenue was in excess of $10 million.
Allison became CEO of Ultimate Ears, with Mindy as president and Harvey as Chief Technical Officer
Chief technical officer
A chief technology officer is an executive-level position in a company or other entity whose occupant is focused on scientific and technological issues within an organization....
. By June 2007 the company had 30 employees. After the launch of the UE-11 model, and in August 2007, Ultimate Ears was acquired by Logitech International for $34 million. Harvey left Ultimate Ears ten months prior to the acquisition.
JH Audio
In 2007 Harvey and his wife Brittany moved to Lake of the OzarksLake of the Ozarks
The Lake of the Ozarks is a large reservoir created by impounding the Osage River in the northern part of the Ozarks in central Missouri. Extents of three smaller tributaries to the Osage, the Niangua River, Grandglaize Creek, and Gravois Creek, are included in the impoundment...
, where they discovered their newborn daughter Katie had a rare genetic disease. They relocated to Harvey's hometown to be close to the local children's hospital, and then in 2008 to Orlando, in order to find trained hearing aid technicians to assist in manufacturing new products he'd designed for aviators.
Harvey wasn't allowed to return immediately to the pro audio business because of a signed non-compete clause
Non-compete clause
A non-compete clause , or covenant not to compete , is a term used in contract law under which one party agrees not to pursue a similar profession or trade in competition against another party . As a contract provision, a CNC is bound by traditional contract requirements including the...
, and stated "I knew I couldn’t live on my old products, I had to come out and push the technology forward."
In late 2007 Harvey and his wife Brittany co-founded Jerry Harvey Audio LLC, or JH Audio, and began marketing and manufacturing custom aviation headsets. A pilot himself, the company made $300,000 its first year of operation. By mid-2009, however, he began supplementing the income by launching the JH Audio music line, including the JH13 Pro model, which features dual lows, mids, and highs joined by an integrated 3-way crossover. Previously Harvey's inventions were prone to reverse engineering by competitors, but Harvey has stated about his new models that "They can mimic them, but they can’t get the components. We’re the only ones who have access to them."
By May of that year he had 300 custom orders after an audio show in Los Angeles, and in ten days they had over $250,000 worth of orders. The company, which is based in Apopka, Florida
Apopka, Florida
Apopka is a city located in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 26,969 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S Census estimates of 2006, the city grew to 53,563. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area. Apopka is an Indian word for “Potato...
, had a revenue of $1 million that year. Noy Soudaly takes the silicon
Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
molds and tunes them, while Harvey's wife, Brittany, serves as President and CEO. The company currently has 11 employees, and Harvey's daughter Jaime Harvey serves as COO
Chief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...
. The aviation headset department was discontinued in January 2011. Harvey has stated he is planning on launching a universal earphone for consumers by summer of 2011. Clients include artists and groups such as Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney
Kenneth "Kenny" Arnold Chesney is an American country music singer and songwriter. Chesney has recorded 15 albums, 14 of which have been certified gold or higher by the RIAA. He has also produced more than 30 Top Ten singles on the U.S...
, Disturbed, Keith Urban
Keith Urban
Keith Lionel Urban is a New Zealand-born Australian, country music singer, songwriter and guitarist whose commercial success has been mainly in the United States and Australia. Urban was born in New Zealand and began his career in Australia at an early age...
, T-Pain
T-Pain
Faheem Rasheed Najm , better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor, currently signed to Young Money Entertainment. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005. In 2007, T-Pain released his second studio album Epiphany,...
, Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group is an organization founded by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. The organization produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring popular music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television; television appearances for shows such as The Tonight...
and Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
, along with large numbers of consumer audiophile
Audiophile
An audiophile is a person who enjoys listening to recorded music, usually in a home. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the...
s. Harvey continues to mix about eight to twelve weeks a year, partly to beta test new models under real stage conditions.
Personal life
Harvey and his wife Brittany have two children, Katie Harvey and Jerry Junior Harvey III.External links
- JH Audio on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
- JH Audio on FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- JH Audio on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....