Professional Projects

I have been involved in consulting and designing audio, video, lighting and digital advertising products since 2001. My consumer and professional audio products are used by musicians world-wide, and my commercial advertising systems are installed in airports, public transit environments, retail stores and shopping malls across Canada. My work now is focused on musical equipment design, but I occasionally work on interesting projects in other areas.

	Eurorack Synthesizer Products In June of 2010 I released the K4815 Pattern Generator (pictured) as the first of a line of Eurorack modular synthesizer products through my company Kilpatrick Audio. This line has become my core business and I am working to produce a full line of high-quality modules and related products.
	Guitar Effects To continue my life-long fascination with audio and music technology I created Kilpatrick Audio to create great music products. My first products are a line of guitar effect pedals. Shown here is the Lush Puppy, which generates stereo reverb with delay.
	ElmGen DSP Tools Created to aid in the development of digital audio effects and processing systems, I developed my own DSP code generator and simulator code from scratch for an audio processing DSP. The vendor-supplied tools were not suitable for my needs, so I created a better tool-suite which includes a code generator and flash memory programmer. Additionally the suite also includes a complete simulation environment so that the algorithms can be run in realtime on a computer. Now available as open-source software: ElmGen DSP Tools
	Small-format Digital Signage Units Digital advertising units for both wall-mounting and in-cab elevator installation were required. The goal was completely self-contained units including embedded computer, compatibility with off-the-shelf LCD monitors, and wireless network or 3G modems integrated. I developed the visual concepts and took care of all engineering aspects of the production units. Several hundred units have been built and installed to date.
	Retail Mall Digital Signage Units As a new business initiative I was asked to design large format digital signage units for use in retail shopping malls. This project consisted of both free-standing dual 52" LCD units, and wall/pillar mounted single 46" LCD units. Both are designed with similar visual concepts and allow each mall to brand their units by using printed vinyl applied to the inside of the glass faces.
	Media Engine Platform As a major project for my employer I designed a flexible and extensible low-cost media engine for digital signage use. This system is a low-profile computer using both off-the-shelf and custom electronics housed in a specially-designed enclosure. Special add-on modules and upgradeable components allow the same basic platform to be configured many different ways. The result is a flexible, reliable low-cost system that is easy to repair and reconfigure. The only proprietary or sole-sourced parts are ones that the company makes itself ensuring a very long product life. These units are driving high-end digital signage installations all across Canada.
	AV Distribution System The goal of this project was a high quality video-over-CAT5 solution for digital signage. The criteria included long-range, low cost, support for audio and communications as well as high resolution VGA video over a single CAT5 cable. After investigating a lot of off-the-shelf products, different technologies including digital video, fiber-optics, etc. I determined a signaling method and chipset, and designed a very effective system which is elegant and simple, yet very high performance. The system sends high resolution computer video, audio and control signals over up to 300m of CAT5 cable. It supports splitting and extending the signals to provide up to 72 remote nodes, each with two video outputs. Every device is independently addressable and controllable from the operator's head office including video adjustment, volume control and remote status monitoring including screen health and ambinent temperature.
	Touch-sensitive Mannequin In 2006 my company was contracted to build a touch-sensitive mannequin for Vaseline's Science of Touch exhibit. My business partner Tyler and I worked with a theatrical props designer to modify a fiberglass Mannequin head and torso. I designed and built an eight-channel sensor system with small touch sensor circuits that could be built into the mannequin's arms, hands, chest and face. All of the electronics were wired inside the mannequin and the output connected to a computer which played specific videos in response to various sensor input. The client and I collaborated to develop the video playback system, which was even programmed to detect hugs!
	Toronto Transit TTC Digital Signage Network I was involved as a technical consultant during the initial design of the Onestop digital signage network installed in the Toronto Transist system starting in 2005. The project involved designing a highly reliable, rugged system to be deployed in the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway. During the initial phases of the project I designed the overall technical system design, as well as custom electronics and control software.
	Huge LED Numeric Display For the Dove (Unilever) Campaign for Real Beauty my company was contracted to design and build a set of four large LED numeric digits. Each digit was to be just over 6 feet tall. The digits showed the results of a phone-in survey and were installed on a large building overlooking the Gardiner Expressway, a major freeway in downtown Toronto. Under severe time constraints my business partner Tyler and I designed and built the digits in just over 2 weeks using parts that were locally available. Each digit contained 84 4" amber truck LED turn signal lights arranged in the typical seven-segment readout. (digital 8) The signs were powered with ATX computer power supplies controlled from a custom controller connected to an embedded PC and a GPRS modem. The display data was downloaded from the client's webserver every few minutes. The project won an award from a major advertising magazine.
	Blue Hysteria Lighting Board The Blue Hysteria was a production prototype by my former company: Invisible Rival. It was a lighting control board for small theatres and AV rental markets. It is a hands-on lighting control surface with 11 motorized faders, an embedded PC running FreeBSD, an external VGA monitor and many other unique features. It was set to be the best product in its class, and was the first small lighting board design to use motorized faders. It supported Art-Net, USB mass storage for show files, and many other modern features not found on other products at the time.
	The Gherkin Lighting Controller The Gherkin DMX lighting controller was the first product from my former company: Invisible Rival. It began as a little handy box I built for development use on another project. But after showing it to some people, it seemed like it would be a useful device for lighting technicians. So we took the original design with 8 control channels, made it 12 to fit better with lighting gear, (which usually deals with dimmers and things in some multiple of six) added a grand master and a better enclosure, and had our first product. This unit was shown at the 2004 CITT tradeshow in Toronto, Canada. The unit was available from 2003 until 2006.