Three Australian engineers – David McGrath, Brian Connolly and Marcus Altman – formed a new enterprise to develop advanced digital signal processing applications Aka Lake. The Lake name was inspired by a modest pond near their offices in Adelaide. Lake quickly expanded, and following relocation to Sydney, soon developed the Huron Digital Audio Workstation. The DSP architecture of Huron contains advanced proprietary algorithms that were adapted for sound reinforcement applications in future generations of products.
The late, Bruce Jackson – renowned technical innovator and tour sound engineer (Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand) – joined with Lake’s David McGrath to develop a new digital processor for sound reinforcement applications. They set up shop in Santa Monica, California.
Renowned tour sound company Clair Brothers, headquartered in Lititz, Pennsylvania decided to back development of the promising new technologies. Clair Technologies LLC was formed in 1997 by Clair, Jackson, McGrath and Ed Meitner to produce the new live sound processors, initially built exclusively for Clair.