Management

Les Tyler

President & Co-Founder

Mr. Tyler co-founded THAT Corporation in 1989, and has served as its President ever since. He is actively involved with each of THAT’s businesses, especially dbx-tv licensing and THAT integrated circuit designs.

Prior to THAT, Mr. Tyler spent twelve years in various positions at dbx, Inc. including Vice-President for Engineering. Among his accomplishments at dbx, he is credited with both the mass adoption of the Emmy-award winning dbx Noise Reduction system and in creating its resultant licensing program.  Early on in his dbx career he designed the dbx 165 and 163 compressor/limiters,as well as the 222 and 224 noise reduction systems.  Later, he supervised the development of the dbx-tv noise reduction system, a variety of sound enhancing products following the famous dbx 3BX, the ground-breaking dbx Soundfield loudspeaker line, and a line of consumer audio electronics including the world's first Dolby Pro-Logic surround sound decoder system.

An active member of the audio community, Mr. Tyler has authored papers for the IEEE and the Audio Engineering Society, as well as articles for the popular audio and electronic press.  He has been granted two patents, and has one currently pending. He received a BSEE from Cornell University in 1975.

Gary Hebert

CTO & Co-Founder

Mr. Hebert is a co-founder of THAT Corporation and a longtime audio-electronics enthusiast. He currently serves as THAT’s Chief Technology Officer, spending the majority of his time designing analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits intended for use in the professional audio industry. He is credited with creating many of THAT’s high-performance audio ICs, including the popular 218x series of VCAs, the 2162 Dual VCA, the 4320/4315/4305 Analog Engines®, the 1646/1606 OutSmarts® Line Drivers, and the new 5171 Preamplifier Controller. He also continues to serve as an executive advisor to THAT’s dbx-tv business unit.

Prior to founding THAT Corporation, Mr. Hebert was with dbx, Inc. from 1981, where he held several engineering positions, the last being Electrical Engineering Manger. At dbx, he was responsible for a number of audio product designs, such as the CX-1 Preamplifier, dbx 10/20 and 14/20 automated graphic equalizers, the dbx PPA-1 Personal Noise Reduction System, and others under the dbx, Audio Dynamics, and ADC brands. He also worked with semiconductor manufacturers on ICs used in the dbx Noise Reduction licensing program. He began his career at automated test equipment manufacturer Teradyne.

Mr. Hebert holds four patents in the audio electronics field and has two more pending. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) as well as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and has authored and presented several papers for the AES. He earned a BSEE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979.

Lane Czekala

Director of dbx-tv Business Development

Mr. Czekala has over 20 years of product marketing, sales, engineering, and operations experience in high-tech companies across the consumer electronics, cable TV, and satellite communications industries. Since joining dbx-tv, in 2003, he has been instrumental in expanding the dbx-tv digital licensing business, and has productized several IP cores.

Prior to joining THAT Corporation, Mr. Czekala served as the Director of Business Development, at Electronic Systems products (ESP), then a prominent electronics-engineering consulting firm owned by Arris. Among other things, he was responsible for commercializing a digital BTSC encoder core as well as other technologies.  Prior to ESP, Mr. Czekala held various software engineering and engineering management positions at Panasonic, Digital Video Systems, and Wegener Communications.

Mr. Czekala earned an Executive MBA from Emory University's Goizueta Business School in 1998 and a BEE from Auburn University in 1988.

Masaya Ishikawa

dbx-tv Manager, Japan

Mr. Ishikawa has worked in the audio business for 40 years. He has served as the Far East Manager of the dbx-tv IP portfolio since 1984, when he joined BSR, then the parent of dbx Inc.  He is responsible for planning and promoting the suite of dbx-tv technologies to semiconductor and equipment makers in Japan and other locations in Asia.

During Mr. Ishikawa's tenure at BSR, he managed all dbx licensees in Japan and the Far East. After BSR and before THAT Corporation acquired the dbx patent portfolio in 1994, he continued to manage its patents in the region for the various owners of the portfolio.

From 1990 through the early 2000s, Mr. Ishikawa also represented Desper Products, a US startup company in Asia. His role at Desper was to establish its Spatializer brand name as a leading surround-sound system for televisions and other audio devices.  He was successful in licensing Spatializer to several major IC and consumer electronics companies.

Prior to his involvement with dbx-tv at BSR, Mr. Ishikawa's work history includes time with Sansui, where he was one of the key promoters of the QS quadraphonic system. There, he worked closely with Pete Townshend to produce the sound track for "Tommy", the famous rock opera, in QS. Mr. Ishikawa also worked with Sansui's R&D engineers to help them author and present technical papers for the Audio Engineering Society (AES), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and other international shows and conventions. In the early 1990s, Mr. Ishikawa proved instrumental in the transfer of the Finial Laser Turntable technology from the United States to Japan, a patented technology which allowed lasers to read black vinyl discs.

Mr. Ishikawa holds a degree in English from Sophia University, and he remains very active within its alumni association.

Xu Fen (Colin)

dbx-tv Manager, China

Mr. Xu is a technology executive with over 25 years of success selling and marketing electronic components within China, both for industrial and consumer applications.

He joined THAT Corporation in March of 2011 to head up the dbx-tv operations throughout the greater China market.

For more than a decade prior, Mr. Xu had started and then run the North China division for an authorized distributor of Fairchild and Samsung semiconductors.  Before that, he had similar experience with another such semiconductor distributor, authorized by Harris and Intersil.  Prior to that, he had served as the Sales and Marketing manager for Philips Semiconductor Shanghai.  He began his career as an officer of the Electronic Industrial Ministry of the China Central Government, enhancing the distribution channel for ICs made by state owned manufacturers.

Mr. Xu graduated from Xidian University in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in Micro Electronics.

CK Song

dbx-tv Representative, Korea

Mr. Song has worked in the audio business for more than 30 years. He served as Purchase and Quality Control Manager in Korea for PHILIPS for 20 years.  During his tenure at PHILIPS, Mr. Song worked with a wide range of audio products, from headphones to Hi-Fi audio components. He also worked for BSR, the noted turntable manufacturer.  In conjunction with Mr. Ishikawa, Mr. Song worked for Desper Products to license the Spatializer surround system to Korean manufacturers for televisions and other audio devices.

Prior to joining PHILIPS, Mr. Song worked for a Japanese trading company, and is fluent in Japanese.  He is experienced in international trade for electronics components including integrated circuits. Earlier in his career Mr. Song created and managed his own computer software company, and remains interested in software and programing development.

Personally, Mr. Song appreciates music and is a Hi-Fi audio enthusiast. He is also an avid photographer who likes to work with both analog and digital camera formats.

Mr. Song holds a degree in Engineering from Seoul National University, and is very active within his alumni association.

Matt Easley

dbx-tv Engineering Manager

Mr. Easley joined THAT Corporation in January of 2006.  He brings over 20 years of engineering design and management experience to the team. He currently oversees all engineering development of the dbx-tv brand.

Prior to joining THAT, Mr. Easley was the Digital Design Manager at Electronic System Products (ESP), a prominent electronics-engineering consulting firm with a focus on the telecommunications sector. Among his many accomplishments for ESP, he lead the development of several digital implementations of legacy TV decoders and encoders, starting as far back as the mid 1990s. He began his career designing modems at Hayes Microcomputer Products.

Mr. Easley holds four patents related to television audio encoders/decoders, and three patents related to modem design.  He received his BEE in 1980, and his MSEE in 1983, both from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Timothy Brault

dbx-tv Product Manager

Mr. Brault is currently focused on further development of dbx-tv’s audio enhancement products and ongoing market outreach.  Mr. Brault has served in this position since the start of 2012.  Prior to that he was involved in THAT's marketing department for five years, at first in THAT's IC business but over the past few years increasingly concentrating his efforts on dbx-tv.  In 2011, in addition to his responsibilities for THAT, Mr. Brault began teaching a course on advanced audio theory at Bay State College and has worked for numerous years as a studio and live sound engineer.

Prior to joining THAT, Mr. Brault was a student at the University of Massachusetts (Lowell), where he earned his Bachelor of Music degrees in Sound Recording Technology and Music Business (a dual degree) and a Master of Music degree in Sound Recording Technology. He is a drummer, and plays regularly with his bands.

Matt Barnhill

dbx-tv Senior Digital Development Engineer

Mr. Barnhill joined THAT Corporation in 2005.  He is currently focused on developing and enhancing algorithms to improve television sound, including Total Volume and Total Sonics.  Prior to that, he was involved in developing various Verilog® implementations of the dbx-tv BTSC encoder and decoder, as well as dbx-tv's worldwide TV audio decoder.

Prior to joining THAT, Mr. Barnhill served as Senior Electrical Engineer at Electronic Systems Products (ESP), then a prominent electronics-engineering consulting firm owned by Arris.  At ESP, he was involved in legacy TV-audio encoder and decoder development under Mr. Easley.

Prior to ESP, Mr. Barnhill held positions at Texas Instruments and Raytheon.  At the latter,he developed forward-looking infrared (FLIR) military targeting systems.  Mr. Barnhill holds three patents, and has three more pending.

Mr. Barnhill received a BSEE with high honors in 1995 from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2003, also from Georgia Tech.

Chris Hanna

dbx-tv Senior Digital Development Engineer

Mr. Hanna joined THAT Corporation in 1992, left in 2000, and re-joined the company again in 2006.  He has over 20 years’ experience as a hardware/software engineer working in embedded systems and DSP. His current focus is developing and enhancing algorithms to improve TV audio, including Total Sonics and Total Volume. He has also been responsible for the digital designs of new mixed-signal ICs within THAT's integrated circuit (IC) business unit.

During 2000 through 2006, Mr. Hanna held various engineering development positions with Lexra Inc. and LoJack.  He developed an optimized DSP function library and audio decoder software (MP3, Dolby Digital, and AAC) as well as embedded firmware for a low-power wireless early warning theft detection system. Prior to 1992, he served as a development engineer at Raytheon, where he developed the architecture for a DSP subsystem for a SATCOM modem.

Mr. Hanna is a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), and has presented numerous papers the society's conventions.  He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He holds 2 patents, and has 2 more pending. Mr. Hanna received his BSEE from Manhattan College in 1982, and his MSEE from Northeastern University in 1994.

Scott Skinner

dbx-tv Support Engineer

Mr. Skinner joined THAT Corporation in July of 2005 and is responsible for evaluating licensee implementations of the company's dbx-tv intellectual property. Prior to joining THAT, he was a Senior Platform Support Engineer at EMC.  Before that, he was a Senior Electrical Engineer at Temptronic.

Mr Skinner has a lifelong interest in audio, which began in the 1970’s when he joined the dbx, Inc. "Special Products" engineering group.  He worked side by side with the designers who created the highly regarded 160 series of audio processors.