Company News
Listen Expands Engineering Leadership Team
Teo Bal
Listen has strengthened its product development team with the addition of two new senior managers with a vast range of industry experience. Engineering Director, Teo Bal, and Product Manager Ed Srenger will collaborate closely to drive innovation and strategic direction throughout the product design and development process.
Engineering Director, Teo Bal, brings a wealth of experience in engineering practices, project management and innovation leadership to the team. He is a veteran of the automotive audio industry, having held senior engineering roles at industry leaders including Bose, Harman, Dura, and Marelli. He has a Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering from Tri-State University and is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Teo has taken on the direct leadership of Listen’s engineering and product development team, managing every software release and hardware product from conception to manufacturing. Outside of work, Teo enjoys soccer and skiing, and loves to benchmark the latest and greatest technology products – particularly audio and entertainment technology and VR.
Ed Srenger
Product Manager, Ed Srenger, brings significant expertise in voice-enabled solutions, hands-free systems, and infotainment systems, gained through software engineering leadership roles at Amazon, Nuance, Continental and Motorola. He holds a masters degree in speech and signal processing, as well as an MBA. At Listen, Ed will work closely with our customers as well as our internal engineering team to drive product and algorithm development and ensure that Listen’s audio testing innovations are synergistic with customer needs. Outside of work, Ed enjoys the great outdoors, particularly hiking, skiing, biking and traveling. Ed will be meeting many customers over the coming months to truly understand their needs.
Listen Celebrates 25 Years
2020 is Listen’s 25th anniversary! When Listen sold its first product in 1995, it was the first soundcard-based audio measurement system, and its competition was often human listeners. Now, with an installed base of well over 10,000 systems and the industry-wide adoption of both soundcard-based architecture and highly automated sequence-based measurement, Listen is still leading the way with new algorithms and product development to meet the changing needs of the marketplace. In this article, reprinted from Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook, Listen founder and president, Steve Temme, shares his story.
New Software Engineers
Listen has expanded its software team with the hiring of 2 new engineers Josh Thibeault (left) and Dan Donato (right).
Josh graduated from Tufts University in 2019 with a Bachelors Degree In Mechanical Engineering. While at Tufts, he played varsity football and was part of the Tufts Electric Race Team. Outside of work, Josh enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, and listening to music.
Dan holds degrees in Computer Science and Economics from University at Buffalo. Prior to joining Listen, he has worked as a firefighter and testing video games. In his spare time he develops virtual reality games, plays roller derby, and plays the trumpet.
New West Coast Sales Applications Engineer: Anastassia Tolpygo
Anastassia Tolpygo has joined Listen, Inc. as West Coast Sales Applications Engineer, based in the San Francisco Bay area and will be the main point of contact for our customers in California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. She has a strong background in vibration and FFT analysis, having supported sales and applications for Crystal Instruments the past 5 years. Prior to that she held positions encompassing sales, technical support and QA in a variety of high-tech companies, including Plantronics and Sena. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics from UCSC. This expertise in mechanics and acoustics, combined with sales and applications experience enables her to truly understand and appreciate customer needs. Anastassia happens to be fluent in Russian and is keenly passionate about audio. Outside of work, she practices various types of dance, critiques music online and enjoys time with family.
Seminar at Sound Hub
Today, Steve Temme presented on how to measure voice activated devices such as smart speakers, hearables and automotive audio, as well as how to use SoundCheck for basic audio measurements at Sound Hub Denmark, the world’s leading audio innovation hub and co-working space.In the morning, he presented the basics of SoundCheck, and taught attendees (many of whom had access to the SoundCheck system at Sound Hub) how to build a test sequence in SoundCheck. recommendations for the equipment used. After lunch, he explained in depth how to test voice activated devices such as automotive infotainment systems, hearables, and smart speakers. These devices are complex to test as they have numerous wired and wireless connections and often contain signal processing, both on the record and the playback side. In this session, he outlined the test configurations, tools and techniques that enable accurate measurement of the audio performance of such devices under the many various real-world conditions in which they are used.
New Support Engineer – Devin Vaillancourt
Devin Vaillancourt has joined the technical support team at Listen, where he will be working closely with Steve, Mark L, Cam and Mark D to help our customers with their audio measurements. Devin graduated from UMass Lowell in 2016 with a degree in sound recording technology. Prior to joining Listen, he worked as an audio technician for a production services company where he gained extensive knowledge of using, calibrating and troubleshooting audio interfaces, and other recording hardware and software. In addition to his technical experience, Devin is a keen musician – outside of work, he plays in several bands, records and engineers music, and teaches drums.
New Manufacturing Manager: Ryan Burgess
Ryan Burgess has joined Listen as Manufacturing Manager, responsible for all manufacturing functions including supply chain, assembly, test, Quality Control, and product delivery. Ryan is an experienced manufacturing professional with 20 years’ experience in Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Quality Control Systems. He attended Clark University focusing on Computer Science, minoring in Mechanical Engineering, and also holds several certifications including a Six Sigma Green Belt, certified internal auditor and LEAN Bronze certificate. Prior to joining Listen, Ryan has held management roles in the mass notification industry, aerospace industry, industrial technology, and a global technology solutions company. In his free time Ryan enjoys spending time with his wife and six children, music, sports, and home improvement.
New Sales Director: Joe Kushi
Joe Kushi has joined Listen as Sales Director. Joe is an experienced international sales manager with over 25 years’ experience in both domestic and international sales and sales management. He also holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in business, languages and international business. In prior positions, he has sold a variety of hi-tech products including data acquisition and imaging systems, audio and video QA equipment, telecoms and security infrastructure equipment. He speaks 5 languages (with varying degrees of fluency), has lived in Paris and Brussels, and has opened offices and managed reps around the world. Outside of work, Joe enjoys traveling, listening to music, and playing drums.
