ATCO- Update from the chairman.
May 17, 1999
Chairman's Message
To the Stockholders of American Technology Corporation:
This letter is a direct communication from Con Brosnan to the Shareholders of ATCO. The purpose of this letter is to provide Shareholders with an update on ATCO's business strategy and to summarize recent developments at the company. The letter is also available on ATC's web site under "What's New".
atcsd.com
Stratified Field(TM) Technology
These past two months have been quite busy for us. We have revisited several of our prospective customers and had final definition of the products and sizes they require for final analysis and testing to make their decisions. There is interest for flat screen TV, regular TV, Audio and multimedia sized speakers. We are now outsourcing the actual construction of the plastic for these test models. We have engaged two technical plastics manufacturers to produce near production grade speaker assemblies. With their assistance we are proving the manufacturability and finding unique cost reduction opportunities.
At the same time we are preparing the electronics that will accompany the thin panel speaker units to the customers. This will enable our customers to better evaluate the manufacturability, potential consistency and overall performance of production type products. It is all too easy to manufacture one "golden" [not typical] sample. Our intent is to assure our customers of the repeatability of our products from tooled environments.
Some of the intended customers will want to purchase sub-assembly parts in the early stages of a relationship with ATC making only final cosmetic to finish the speakers. Our current work is the baseline to put those resources in position for mass production.
We are excited about the recent events around downloading of digital music from the Internet. As consumers have access to high quality sound from the Internet they will need improved amplification and speaker systems for replay. The low performance speakers that have been associated with PCs in the past will give way to a market of high performance products. Our SFT technology not only provides such a platform, to our knowledge there is no better platform for reproduction of 3D sound spatial effects that utilize processing techniques to create effects that make two speakers sound like two pairs for front and rear channel stereo. ATC is moving to educate the trade about the outstanding characteristics of our SFT technology for these applications. We perceive this change in music distribution as a boon to our business opportunities. Moreover we are situated in systems architecture in a place where we are agnostic to the compression formats and can enhance systems utilizing any compression and special effects technologies.
HyperSonic(TM) Sound
We have increased our efforts to come to closure with the transducer design. Although I stated correctly, at the Annual Meeting, that actual end dates for research can never be accurately predicted, recent events lead me to believe that our HSS project is nearing completion. "Nearing completion" means that we have good data and the internal and external resources in place to bring a commercial solution to market this year. There are the continued risks of uncertainties until we do the final assembly and tests, but the completion of our design for the HSS transducer is within sight with customized electronics beginning final coding this month.
Magnified Force(TM) Woofer
We continue to prepare samples for comparative testing by the trade. We expect that in June we will have samples made that were requested by several major branded audio companies to be tested against the benchmarks they chose. Our MFW technology also is an excellent companion product for multimedia systems and for bass units supporting MP3 and other Internet music formats. From everyday audio companies to hi-fi and professional audio companies there is strong interest in the characteristics of MFW.
Military Contracts
We have received our second military contract for HSS evaluation and are in negotiations for the receipt of two more.
Patents and Retail Sales
We have been issued three more patents from the U.S. Patent Office, two on HSS and one on our new FM Sounds(TM) Headphone radio, the world's lightest full stereo headphone radio. Our consumer products orders are increasing as we enter the buying cycle of many retailers. Our Headphone radios, Y2K radio/flashlight products and our Tap-n-Tape(TM) one-handed tape dispensers are beginning to sell through in quantity at selected retail chains. Please view our web site's Consumer Products page to find updated information on these products and where they are currently being sold.
My intent is to be brief yet thorough in these updates. We are moving from research to production capabilities in each of our businesses. We appreciate your continued interest and support of ATC.
Yours truly,
Con J. Brosnan,
Chairman |
