On May 1^st 2007, Danish audio and video specialist DK-Technologies marks its 20^th anniversary.

During the past two decades the company has responded to numerous changes within its core markets of broadcast, music and post production. As a company, it has never been afraid of change and has consistently pushed the boundaries in its bid to develop new technologies that satisfy the needs of its professional customers.

"Although DK is now 20 years old, it remains, at heart, a young company that prides itself on innovative thinking," says DK-Technologies CEO Karsten Hansen. "We aim to embrace new ideas without constraints. Alongside our standard range of products, we also have a technical platform from which we can create bespoke products that solve specific problems for audio and video professionals. Conceptual thinking has always been our core philosophy and we believe in bringing an open minded, no constraints approach to the entire industry."

The company's history can be plotted by way of key events that have helped to drive it forward. The timeline is as follows:

1987: On a sunny May 1^st, Karsten Hansen launched DK-Audio from his bedroom in Denmark with the aim of using his extensive knowledge and experience of the broadcast industry to develop complex, custom-designed matrix systems for individual broadcasters.

1988: Friends at Denmark's Radio supplied the company's first orders and soon his conceptual approach to design was being sought out by broadcasters who had specific monitoring, networking and routing problems that couldn't be solved by applying off-the-shelf solutions.

1991: The BBC placed an order for an audio monitoring system, which was installed at Broadcasting House, London, and is still in use to this day. This particularly system involved monitoring 4,000 audio sources and channelling them into just eight control disks.

1993: DK introduced its first stand-alone audio metering system that could be sold as an individual unit. The MSD550 was based on recently introduced DSP technology and incorporated LCD screens showing clear visual representations of the audio signal.

1994: DK showed its MSD550 at the AES Convention in Vienna and thus paved the way for a new series of products known collectively as Master Stereo Display units. "Most people thought this was just a toy, a funny thing that was interesting but had no serious application," Hansen says. "However, we saw it as a conceptual solution - something that combined a large amount of functionality into one small box. We recognized a requirement for this type of metering, but it took a while for other people to see its potential because most of them were monitoring in stereo and were still working with traditional oscilloscopes and bargraphs. As soon as their thoughts turned to the future and the growing interest in 5.1 surround, they realized where we were coming from and began to take these new meters more seriously."

1995: The six person team that now maked up DK moved to new offices near Copenhagen in order to focus on development of the MSD range. A distributor network was also established to help sell the products worldwide.

1997: DK set up a branch office in the UK, under the direction of Andy Page.

1998: DK introduced its first 5.1 surround meter, the MSD 600C MkI. To help engineers monitor these complex audio signals, DK introduced a revolutionary new display technology called JellyFish, which takes its name from the shape the signal produces on the LCD display.

2001: DK bought the Studio Products Division (PTV) from ProTelevision Technologies A/S. This immediately doubled the company's staff and pushed it into the video market, making it possible for DK to explore many synergies between audio and video product development.

2004: DK set up a German office under the direction of Poul Wachman, who joined the company from PTV.

2005: The company was re-named DK-Technologies and converged its audio and video product lines under one banner. The re-branding reflected the way that DK's R&D team were developing products that combined both applications.

2005:  Karsten Hansen's son Thomas Hansen Holm joined the company as deputy general manager and a member of the board of directors. His technical knowledge and management experience continues to make him a valuable addition to the DK team and he is actively putting his fingerprints onto new product development.

2005: DK acquired Danish company Dag2000, which produced digital bargraph and stereo peak programme meters for the broadcast market. This acquisition enabled DK to offer a full range of metering options with a variety of displays.

2006: The launch of DK's new Spinner display at IBC effectively re-invented Waveform monitoring by allowing video professionals to see at a glance - and in colour - exactly what was happening to their video signal. Spinner combines the benefits of traditional waveform monitoring with the convenience of histograms by showing the red, green, blue, and luminance components in the video signal. It is optimised to provide usable information to align video cameras and to monitor video production and video signals in post production.

2007: Jørgen Broberg joined DK as Director of Sales and Marketing and began to take over the reins from Paul Wachmann, who is due to retire at the end of this year. "Poul has been a fantastic asset to the company and a true ambassador who is well liked and respected throughout the industry," says Hansen. "We are all very sorry to lose him to retirement but feel sure he has deserved the rest! This year's NAB and IBC exhibitions will give our customers on both sides of the Atlantic an opportunity to wish him well."

2007: This year DK will uses the NAB platform to launch StarFish - a new display for its audio meters that allows audio engineers to see what they are hearing when they are listening in surround sound. Based on the company's JellyFish display, the StarFish goes one step further by displaying an image of the acoustic audio levels as they are experienced by the listener. This information is given alongside the images already provided by JellyFish, which shows audio levels supplied to the centre, left/right and left/right rear speakers.