Press release: How a music producer is revolutionizing TV sound

A small device ensures balanced volume and intelligible dialog when watching TV

On the occasion of the 25th World Television Day on November 21

Reinbek, 2021 November 16. Sometimes innovations that change the world come about by chance. Gunnar Kron from Hamburg has such a moment, when he, as a music producer, receives the order for a music packaging for a TV station, which is actually technically not feasible. That was the birth of the audio technology HDSX – High Definition Sound Expansion, which, further developed, has just come onto the market in a small device that lets you experience TV listening in a completely new way.

The HDSX TV Sound Optimizer is the latest development from the founder of Kronoton, which is based in Reinbek near Hamburg. Simply installed between the TV and external speaker system, the device optimizes the soundtrack while watching TV or streaming in real time. Unlike soundbars, this makes quiet spots louder and clearer, while loud spots stay as they are. Thus, dialogue that can finally be heard well follows blockbuster sound effects without having to readjust the volume with the remote control.

“The large volume differences, for example when switching between different TV channels or even just when the commercials start, annoyed me extremely. You always have the remote control in your hand. I wanted to change that,” Gunnar Kron recalls. This is a fact that almost three quarters of all Germans feel the same way, as confirmed by a representative survey conducted by Kronoton. Since his company has been working on smart technologies that improve sound for more than ten years, it was obvious for him to solve the problem himself.

Gunnar Kron is an expert in the field of audio. He has been involved with music and technology his entire professional life. After a classical instrumental education with piano, cello and drums, he first worked as a presenter, production manager and program director at various radio and TV stations in Hamburg. With his own music production company, he not only produced songs, but specialized mainly in broadcast and station packaging. Until the foundation of Kronoton he worked together with different artists as composer and music producer.

A few years ago, an order for the station packaging of an internationally operating TV station presented music producer Gunnar Kron with a seemingly unsolvable task: The jingles had to be able to be played in mono, stereo and surround without any loss of sound. This challenge could not be solved with the state of the art at that time. Gunnar Kron did not let himself be stopped and achieved the supposedly impossible. He developed an algorithm and thus expanded the sound field in the room without restricting the listeners’ freedom of movement. His production was thus compatible with all three playback technologies and always sounded individually optimal. That was the beginning of HDSX.

He now holds nearly 20 patents in Germany and abroad that revolutionize sound and are integrated into products such as soundbars.