Uniken

Creator
University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit
Call Number
Nf 378.944 UNI
Created/Published
Kensington, N.S.W. : University of New South Wales, [1975]-2015
Issue
1987, no. 2 (6 Mar., 1987)
Images
8
View Catalogue

Contents

Text

UNIKEN  

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES  

No. 222 (No. of 1987)  

Published fortnightly by the Public Affairs Unit  

Registered by Australia Post Publication No. NBF 4388  

March 1987  

Unique UNSW  

sound system  

takes on  

American market  

The problems of finding local manufacturers and financiers to back  

research and development are common for Australian inventors. But,  

Associate Professor Harvey Holmes of UNSW’s School of Electrical Engin-  

eering and Computer Science and one of his former postgraduate students,  

Joe Hayes, are overcoming the hurdle.  

Their pre-amplified split signal acoustic contourer (PASSAC) is  

unique product that can amplify the acoustic sound of stringed instru-  

ment. The PASSAC gives back to stringed instrument the natural  

acoustics coming from the soundhole which would normally be lost to  

electronic contact pickups.  

It has found ready market in  

the large US music industry and is  

already being used by such notables  

as Sting, Dire Straits and Leo  

Kottke.  

Mr Hayes, an acoustics engineer  

and amateur guitarist, hit upon the  

idea when preparing thesis on  

loudspeakers and approached the  

Innovation Council of NSW for  

advice. The Council approached  

Professor Holmes and the idea  

began to become reality.  

Soundhole resonance  

After tranforming the acoustic  

relations to electronic terms,  

Professor Holmes designed sophisti-  

cated circuitry to simulate the  

soundhole resonance and restore  

the natural ‘body’ to the pickup’s  

sound.  

Having taken the PASSAC from  

concept in 1983 to the finished  

product in 1985, the pair found  

their work was only beginning.  

Manufacturing, financing, market-  

ing, patenting and quality control  

were terms they would encounter  

frequently in the months ahead.  

Realizing the Australian market  

was too small to realistically launch  

the product, Professor Holmes  

contacted friend living in Silicon  

Valley, Allan Madden, who became  

‘their man in the United States’.  

Using Mr Madden’s seed finance  

and his marketing and entrepren-  

eurial expertise, the fledgling  

Australian company has since sold  

several thousand PASSACs in  

short period of time and expects  

sales to increase both on the huge  

US market and from planned  

venture into the more fragmented  

European market.  

While the PASSAC continues to  

find friends with bands and soloists,  

funds from sales and seed capital  

have been poured into research and  

development of other innovative  

products. The company has now  

developed an even more sophis-  

ticated product, the PASSAC  

Sentient.  

According to Professor Holmes  

it is the most advanced guitar-MIDI  

interface to be developed and will  

be aimed at much bigger market  

than the PASSAC. (MIDI stands for  

Musical Instrument Digital Inter-  

face device which ‘translates’  

sound information from an instru-  

ment into form that digital  

synthesiser can ‘understand’.)  

This sort of innovative manu-  

facturing and export-oriented com-  

pany is very rare in Australia.  

‘Australian manufacturers usually  

take the attitude that it’s wild  

world and they don’t want to get  

into it’, Professor Holmes says.  

‘We haven’t gone for outside capital  

yet but if we do it may have to be  

in America where they judge you  

on the product and the team, rather  

than the amount of real estate you  

own.  

‘As company we only want to  

do innovative things and not  

compete with existing products.  

Continued page  

High acceptance  

rate for first  

ACCESS Scheme  

intake  

The recently appointed co-  

ordinator of the ACCESS Scheme  

at UNSW, Ms Robyn Horwood,  

says all those who have been  

involved are delighted with the  

high acceptance rate in its first  

year of operation.  

Of the 75 offers made to Higher  

School Certificate students whose  

education had been disadvantaged  

by circumstances beyond their  

control, 68 have accepted and  

enrolled in courses and another two  

have accepted and deferred their  

enrolment for one year.  

The ACCESS Scheme was ap-  

proved by the UNSW Council in  

March 1986 to assist students  

whose secondary education had  

been affected by social, environ-  

mental or physical conditions for  

period of at least one year, and  

whose HSC score would not nor-  

mally gain them place in courses  

at the University.  

‘Although it was not widely  

advertised and publicized until  

August last year there were 340  

applications by mid-October’, Ms  

Horwood says.  

Among the problems encoun-  

tered by those accepted for 1987  

were low family income and  

associated difficulties; attending  

geographically isolated schools, or  

ones with limited facilities, high  

teacher turnover and restricted  

range of subjects; serious medical  

problems either of the student or  

the student’s family; and language  

problems suffered by refugee stu-  

dents and those from non-English  

speaking backgrounds.  

Other problems included in-  

adequate home study conditions,  

excessive family responsibilities and  

lack of support towards completing  

education.  

‘Most of the students tended to  

suffer from more than one dis-  

advantage’, Ms Horwood says. ‘A  

student who came from low  

income environment usually had  

excessive family chores and many  

refugee students had language diffi-  

culties and disrupted schooling,  

some having no schooling at all for  

period of time.’  

Students of the first intake have  

entered virtually every Faculty,  

including Medicine which account-  

ed for seven enrolments.  

‘Those undertaking science  

courses were advised to enrol in  

bridging courses’, Ms Horwood  

says. ‘And, additional academic  

tuition is planned in chemistry,  

physics, mathematics, computer  

science and civil and electrical  

engineering.’  

The Student Counselling and  

Research Unit organized special  

sessions during UNIPREP and the  

Library Education Unit is organiz-  

ing workshop during Session One.  

And, because number of the  

ACCESS students have language  

problems, special English classes  

have been arranged to assist with  

skills, seminar presentation,  

grammar and construction and  

comprehension.  

‘We’re using existing services  

where possible’, Ms Horwood says,  

‘and supplementing them where  

necessary’.  

She says that 95 per cent of the  

intake were HSC leavers. ‘There are  

other special admission schemes on  

campus catering for older students  

and students of Aboriginal descent.’  

‘Those of us in the Registrar’s  

Department involved in the Scheme  

are hoping for high success rate,  

as are the great many people  

around the University who are  

contributing to the Scheme.  

‘And the students who have  

accepted are delighted to have been  

given the chance and many have  

said how grateful they are for the  

opportunity to enrol here’, she  

says.  

First days  

For over three thousand (mostly) young people the last week of  

February and the first week of March gave them their first  

contact with life as university students. UNIKEN’s photo-  

grapher caught some of the reactions of UNSW’s 1987 freshers  

(see inside for more pictures).  

Public Affairs Unit  

Stuart Holley reflects on his decision to enrol in Engineering at UNSW but  

says it was an easy one to make because of the quality of the course. Reflected  

is Diane Booth (Engineering).  

Kevin Doig  

First Year Arts student, Susan Meadow, found plenty to smile about on her  

first day at UNSW despite the gloomy weather.  

Rob Simms  

Rob Simms  

ACCESS Scheme co-ordinator Robyn  

Horwood had busy time during  

UIMIPREP processing 68 enrolments for  

the first intake of the Scheme. She says  

she is delighted with the number of  

acceptances.  

Associate Professor Harvey Holmes of UNSW’s School of Electrical Engineering and  

Computer Science, with the PASSAC which has found ready market in the United  

States.  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-252045803

APA citation

University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit & University of New South Wales, issuing body. (1975). Uniken Retrieved May 25, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-252045803

MLA citation

University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit and University of New South Wales, issuing body. Uniken Kensington, N.S.W: University of New South Wales, 1975. Web. 25 May 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-252045803>

Harvard/Australian citation

University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit & University of New South Wales, issuing body. 1975, Uniken University of New South Wales, Kensington, N.S.W viewed 25 May 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-252045803

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit.
  | author2=University of New South Wales, issuing body.
  | title=Uniken.
  | year=1975
  | section=volumes : illustrations ; 30-43 cm.
  | issn=0312-7877
  | issue=1987, no. 2 (6 Mar., 1987)
  | location=Kensington, N.S.W
  | publisher=University of New South Wales
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-252045803
  | id=nla.obj-252045803
  | access-date=25 May 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

Citations are automatically generated and may require some modification to conform to exact standards.

Download

Select the images you want to download, or the whole document.

Available formats
TIF high resolution
Include
All
Current

Or select a range of images:

Selected: 1 - 8 (8 Images)

Order

You can order a copy of this work from Copies Direct.

Copies Direct supplies reproductions of collection material for a fee. This service is offered by the National Library of Australia

Include

Or select a range of images:

1 - 8 (8 Images)

Share

Share on Twitter

Share on Facebook

What can I do with this?

Copyright varies by issue and article

Reason for copyright status
Serials have an open range of dates.

Copyright varies with each issue and article. You may have full rights to copy, or may be able to copy only under some circumstances, for example a portion for research or study. Order a copy where circumstances allow or Contact us for further information.

Copyright status was determined using the following information:

Material type
Literary, dramatic or musical work

Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply.

For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Share Close

Copy and paste one of these options to share this book elsewhere.

NOTE: We've tested EMBED on blogspot.com blogs as well as self-hosted Wordpress blogs. This feature will NOT work on wordpress.com blogs.

About this book Close