ABOUT US: Meet Anders, Gerben and Chuck
View the Procella History & Technology Slide Show
2005: The first version of the speakers that were later to become the Procella Audio speakers, were designed in 2005 by Anders Uggelberg for the DTS Theatre at the DTS Europe headquarters in Twyford, some 20 miles west from London, in the Thames Valley area in England.
Watch 360o Panoramic video of this theatre
DTS Theatre with Procella Audio system
Anders Uggelberg was then the Director of Cinema Technology for DTS Europe. When the expansion of the DTS offices brought the opportunity to build a state-of-the-art in-house preview cinema, Anders was asked to design this facility. Anders is a THX trained and certified cinema designer with a long track record as both a cinema designer and as a speaker designer. With over 300 cinemas and professional studios to his name and his first speaker design dating as far back as 1978, this in-house assignment for DTS Europe was nothing short of a dream job for Anders.
Some of the cinemas and studios Anders designed:
* Sandrews ‘Biopalatset’ screen 1, the first THX approved cinema in Scandinavia
* EuropaStudios ‘THX-mix1’, the first THX approved mix room in Scandinavia
* Kinopalatsi, the first THX certified cinema in Finland
* SF Bio ‘Filmstaden Sergel’, the largest multiplex in Sweden
The specific requirements for the DTS Theatre asked for a medium size room of about 30 seats, with superior audio and video capabilities from both cinema and home entertainment sources, such as 35mm film, e-Cinema, and movies and music from DVD, in every existing DTS surround sound format. On top of that, the room had to be capable of taking in new technologies as they would come along, such as the expected Digital Cinema (DCI) standard and new optical disc formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
The first compromise that needed to be found was the type of speakers and the layout of the speaker system. With the different requirements from the cinema and the home entertainment side of the company, DTS needed a speakers system that could handle both with equal capability and prowess. As no such speaker system could be found in the market, Anders and his colleague Gerben Van Duyl decided to design the speakers themselves, based on the exacting requirements of the DTS Theatre. Rather than compromising ‘down’ to a lowest common denominator, the design was aimed ‘up’ at the highest common denominator between the cinema and home entertainment requirements. Taking the best of both cinema speaker design and HiFi home speaker design, Anders improved on both through meticulous acoustic design, careful selection of the very best driver components, sophisticated mathematical modeling and finally, performance testing and optimising. This design was finalised and built by a specialist speaker factory in Sweden and installed in the DTS theatre in the summer of 2005.
DTS Theatre, Procella speakers being installed
The system was based around a few key principles: the use of identical speakers for the screen channels and for the surround channels providing 'identical voices' around the room; the use of closed box cabinets for superior transient response and group delay characteristics compared to bass reflex cabinets; the use of a constant directivity waveguide and carefully matched crossovers for superior dispersion characteristics; the use of a three way system using ideal components for bass, mid and high; the use of professional quality, high-efficiency drive units capable of superior dynamic range and ultimately SPL (if so desired); the use of professional audio controllers or Digital Signal Processors (DSP) which control all of the audio in the room and allow very detailed fine-tuning of the acoustical result.
As the DTS Theatre was being built and the speakers were being installed, Anders decided that his now rekindled love for designing cinemas and speakers was too strong and he left DTS Europe, to start working as an independent designer again.
2006: The first project that Anders designed was for the BAFTA in London, where DTS helped implement a 7.1 system in the Run Run Shaw room. It brought Anders and Gerben back together again as a project team, as Gerben was the project manager for this installation.
Uggelberg and Van Duyl (who is a BAFTA Sound Chapter member) at the BAFTA install
The successful implementation of the speaker design at DTS and at the BAFTA prompted Gerben to start thinking about a commercially available speaker system based on the learnings from the original design. A few phone calls later between Gerben and Anders, and the comprehensive re-design of the Procella Audio speaker system had begun.
In June of 2006, the second generation Procella Audio speakers were built and launched at the CEDIA Expo 2006 exhibition in London by the UK distributor for Procella Audio, Pulse Marketing.
In September 2006, DTS sponsored a Procella Audio equipped demo room at the HiFi News Show in Heathrow, London. The system consisted of a Procella Extended configuration, totalling three P815 screen speakers, six P8 surround speakers and six P15 subwoofers. After a gruelling 24 hour set-up effort by Procella, DTS, Pulse and Yamaha engineers, this room wowed the crowds at the show. The second day a small, glass trophy appeared in the room, courtesy of HiFi News. The system had won the Best Demonstration In Show award.
Gerben Van Duyl with HiFi News Award
2007/2008: Procella Audio Ltd supplies high quality speakers systems to professionals and consumers around the world who want to build small cinema rooms, preview theatres, recording studios or home cinemas with the same exacting audio quality as the DTS Theatre.
In many ways the Procella Audio speakers are the same as the speakers built for the DTS Theatre. However, they are different and better as well. The Procella Audio speakers are a complete re-design, resulting in better cabinet designs and shapes; they deploy better mid-range woofers for the critical mid-range frequencies and they enjoy many acoustical improvements, all resulting in even better audio quality.
2009: Procella Audio Svenska AB is founded and a new factory is opened in the middle of the Swedish woods, where all the Procella Audio loudspeakes are manufactured and critical parts such as cross-overs are hand-made.
2010: Procella Audio USA is formed to make Procella loudspeakers available in the U.S.
Gerben Van Duyl - Anders Uggelberg - Chuck Back
Gerben Van Duyl is a founding partner in Procella Audio and he is responsible for global business development and management.
Gerben Van Duyl studied Geography and International Business in Groningen, The Netherlands.
In 1997 Gerben moved to London, where he worked for DataCash (UK) Ltd as their first sales & marketing manager. In 1998 he joined Intershop AG, the German e-commerce software company as marketing director for the UK. Gerben joined DTS (Digital Theatre Systems) in 2002 as director of business development for consumer content. As such he was responsible for the strong growth of the number of DVD titles carrying the DTS sound formats in both movies and music. This role also made Gerben the designated public speaker for DTS in Europe on expert topics such as DTS surround sound formats, DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc at industry conferences and public events such as the HiFi News Show.
In 2006 Gerben left DTS and co-founded Procella Audio Ltd together with Anders Uggelberg.
Gerben is also managing director of MAREOR, the Australian distribution company for several high-end cinema products and of course Procella Audio loudspeakers.
Gerben is a full voting member of the BAFTA (British Academy for Film and Television Arts) and member of the BAFTA Sound Chapter, since 2003.
Gerben lives in Sydney, Australia.
Anders Uggelberg is a founding partner in Procella Audio and he is responsible for product development and production. The loudspeakers Anders has developed for Procella are very much the result of a career focussed on achieving perfect image and sound in rooms large and small, whether they are cinemas, recording studios, post production sound stages or home theatres.
Anders Uggelberg studied mathematics, physics and architectural acoustics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and Industrial Design at the Swedish Institute of Arts and Crafts.
In 1978, Anders co-founded A&T Ljudproduktion AB in Stockholm and as a consultant to the exhibitors in Scandinavia, he was responsible for the projection and sound design of over 300 screens and several mix studios built during the eighties and nineties. In 1990, Anders was among the very first group of cinema designers and audio engineers from Europe to graduate from THX training with Tomlinson Holman. Anders introduced the THX concept to Scandinavian exhibitors and to date holds responsibility for over 100 THX certified premier run theatres and mix rooms.
In 1998 Anders joined DTS as the director of cinema products for DTS' Cinema division in Europe, in which capacity he was responsible for technical support, service, and product development of all DTS cinema products.
In 2005 Anders left DTS and in 2006 he co-founded Procella Audio Ltd together with Gerben Van Duyl.
Anders is a board member of the ICTA (International Cinema Technology Association) since 1997, a published member of AES (Audio Engineering Society) and a member of the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) since 1980.
Anders lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
Chuck Back rounds out the Procella Audio team, joining in 2009 as the company launched operations in the United States. Bringing 30 years of high-end audio executive experience to Procella, he directs the U.S. office.
From 1979 to 2007, Chuck worked for Miller & Kreisel Sound Corporation, where in 1989, he became a company principal and Executive Vice President. Responsible for all aspects of day-to-day operations for the highly-regarded loudspeaker manufacturer, he led the company to a tenfold growth in size. Assuming the role of chief brand evangelist, he helped to build M&K into a prestigious consumer and professional audio brand in the global marketplace.
Chuck’s participation in industry organizations and events has included the Audio Engineering Society, the Consumer Electronics Association (and CES show), the Home Theater Specialists of America, and the Professional Audio/Video Retailers Association, among others. He has also been a member of the CEDIA Manufacturers Council, NARAS (Grammys), the Compact Disc Group and the DVD Audio Council.
Most recently, Chuck worked as a public relations and marketing consultant to several companies, where he participated in product development and assisted in the launch of several new products. He also operates a small telescope and eyepiece company started by his late brother.
While in college in his native Ohio, where he earned a degree in journalism, Chuck entered the audio/video business. As advertising manager for a rapidly growing audio retailer, he created newspaper, radio and television advertising and was the live talent for both radio and television ads. He is grateful that no video tapes of the television ads remain.
Chuck lives in Venice Beach (Los Angeles), California.
