At this year’s AES convention in New York, phantom power developed by the Neumann company was inducted into the well-known TECnology Hall of Fame. As pointed out by Wolfgang Fraissinet, President of Marketing/Sales at Neumann Berlin, “This is yet another indication of the important role played by the Neumann company in the development of professional audio technology.”

The development of phantom power, which for decades has been an established technology worldwide, has an interesting history. In the year 1966, Neumann presented a new series of transistorized microphones to Norwegian Radio. For compatibility reasons, Norwegian Radio requested that these microphones be operated using phantom power. Due to the limited daylight hours during the winter months, the studios used an auxiliary lighting system fed by a central 48 V power supply. This was therefore the voltage used for powering the microphones. This was the origin of 48 V phantom power, which was later standardized in DIN 45596, and which today is available with every professional mixing console.