With a legacy rooted in cinematic excellence and iconic sound, THX Ltd. has lengthy stood on the forefront of high-fidelity audio and video innovation. With Tuyen Pham as Chief Government Officer, the corporate enters an thrilling new chapter — one outlined by cutting-edge innovation, world growth, and a sharpened concentrate on the way forward for immersive media experiences.
An engineer by coaching and an entrepreneur by intuition, Pham brings over twenty years of business expertise to THX. On the helm of THX, Pham is marrying the model’s storied heritage with a imaginative and prescient for the following era of leisure. He brings not solely deep technical experience but additionally a worldwide perspective, having efficiently led cross-border operations, constructed multicultural groups, and raised vital monetary capital all through his profession.
As per Pham, his mission is obvious: to protect the gold normal of THX certification whereas pushing the boundaries of audio and visible excellence for in the present day’s customers — whether or not they’re watching movies, taking part in video games, or listening to music.
On this unique interview with Benzinga, Pham shares his imaginative and prescient for THX, the improvements on the horizon, and the way he plans to proceed delivering world-class experiences in a quickly evolving digital panorama. This is an excerpt from the interplay.
Share your journey from founding A-Volute to main THX. How have your experiences formed your imaginative and prescient for THX’s future?
I am deeply centered on innovation, a key issue that helped A-Volute succeed in opposition to a lot bigger manufacturers up to now. At THX, I am constructing on its sturdy legacy of branding whereas driving improvements that actually profit the top consumer. Not like A-Volute, the place regardless of powering hundreds of thousands of units, making a recognizable model was a problem, THX already has a longtime popularity constructed over 40 years.
My imaginative and prescient for THX stays true to its founding mission—delivering the perfect audio and video experiences. I’m pushing for improvements that aren’t simply new for the sake of it, however sensible and significant for customers. This method ensures that we keep forward of tendencies and proceed to offer worth with every new gadget and expertise we assist create.
THX has a storied legacy in audio excellence. How do you propose to steadiness this heritage with the necessity for innovation in in the present day’s market?
Every little thing is transferring rapidly nowadays with modifications in habits, platforms, and expertise. China, significantly Shenzhen, is on the forefront of innovation in AI, robotics, {hardware}, and client electronics. THX is dedicated to staying forward of those tendencies and forecasting future ones to reshape how we devour media.
Our purpose is to stay on the forefront of high-end audio high quality whereas leveraging our branding, audio-marketing, business experience, and expertise to assist companions push boundaries. As an illustration, we just lately helped launch the primary THX-certified ARC-V 5 headphones, a big milestone within the business. This displays our dedication to serving to manufacturers validate and market their merchandise whereas integrating cutting-edge audio applied sciences, just like the immersive THX particular audio expertise for a very high-quality listening expertise.
The partnership with Skullcandy brings THX Spatial Audio to a broader viewers. What does this collaboration signify for THX’s strategic path?
We need to be in every single place, that means that we need to assist each gadget, and Skullcandy is a really well-known model, particularly within the US and Europe, and this additionally helps us to achieve a youthful era. And that is very key for us, to have the ability to put the THX branding within the entrance of eyes of all generations. And it helps Skullcandy to convey THX expertise on board to achieve and market to the audiophile audiences which is a THX sturdy swimsuit.
In fact THX could be very well-known for the cinemas and a variety of motion pictures, particularly with DVDs, we’re having the THX brand at the start, however how can we proceed that, and the way we will expose extra customers to THX, and this is without doubt one of the methods we’re doing it, helps new companions to do this, and likewise assist them to combine new applied sciences there.
So is Dolby one of many rivals? I’d say Dolby is usually a companion, as a result of now we have some merchandise like Soundbars from SCI Robotics or ZTE that may decode Dolby and have THX collectively. Typically we’re rivals, however I’d say that we’re all within the audio subject, and what’s very attention-grabbing to me is that all of us have the identical mission, to ensure the audio is sweet, and to ensure to teach concerning the significance of audio.
Along with your background in immersive audio, how do you see THX influencing the evolution of audio experiences throughout totally different platforms?
We’re at the moment centered on two key initiatives to push spatial sound to the following stage. The primary is our involvement within the Alliance of Open Media (AOM), particularly throughout the IMF workgroup, the place we’re serving to to develop the Eclipsa audio format that has been introduced. This new format permits content material creators to encode media utilizing a very free codec, making it accessible for all client electronics to decode and expertise multi-channel audio, 3D sound objects, or superior ambisonics.
By making this expertise freely out there, we intention to broaden the adoption of spatial audio and improve the general audio expertise for customers. The second initiative, which we introduced at GDC, Razer Wyvrn, entails the event of a sport developer’s plugin. This THX sport plugin, provided on the Wyvrn platform, shall be built-in into sound engines throughout video games, enabling them to output spatial sound, with the primary output being within the IMF format. By pushing these boundaries, we’re working to show extra individuals to the advantages of spatial audio, each in gaming and different media experiences.
THX’s applied sciences are actually built-in into varied client electronics. How do you guarantee consistency and high quality throughout these various purposes?
THX possesses deep experience in audio and video expertise and advertising, with a selected concentrate on audio. Our core asset is our information of what constitutes nice audio, how one can measure it, and how one can assist companions construct higher merchandise. We provide this experience to assist companions enhance their designs, from {hardware} to part choice. Some companions come to us early within the course of, permitting us to information them by the {hardware} design, part selections, and even the supplies used contained in the merchandise.
Our dedication to high quality extends all through all the course of. When certifying an audio product, we carry out over 450 measurements, together with electrical and acoustic exams, to make sure top-notch efficiency. We determine areas for enchancment, leaving little room for error. The THX brand represents the best efficiency achievable at a given value level.
In an period the place audio expertise is quickly advancing, what challenges do you foresee, and the way is THX getting ready to handle them?
So the primary facet is audio. So the output of audio, it’s both headphones, now there’s a brand new class of OWS, open wi-fi stereo headphones. There shall be, I’m certain, a variety of new classes.
So we all the time do R&D to have the ability to categorize these outputs, after which additionally maintain our certification program updated to that. In order that’s the very first thing. I believe additionally on the, there’s AI, which is impacting quite a bit, all of the audio processing.
And naturally we’re prepared for that, we’re utilizing increasingly more AI features, like within the software program you will note, you could have camera-based AI head monitoring, which follows your head and might compensate the motion of your head when you’re taking part in a sport or when you’re watching a film. So we’re integrating increasingly more of these applied sciences. So there could be a change on how, let’s say, the content material is generated by AI, however we’ll be sure that these contents all the time sound nice or all the time look nice.
Wanting forward, what are your aspirations for THX by way of innovation, market presence, and client engagement?
I need the THX brand to be in every single place and to grow to be actually the emblem that offers belief to the top customers. My imaginative and prescient for the THX brand is to make it a common image of belief and excellence. When customers see the THX brand, they need to be assured that the product delivers the perfect efficiency out there at that value level. Not like some manufacturers that solely carry out a single measurement, THX conducts lots of of rigorous exams to make sure each product meets the best requirements. We’re dedicated to doing the laborious work, serving to our companions enhance their merchandise and obtain constant high quality.
At the moment, THX has a worldwide presence, with headquarters and R&D primarily based in California, together with places of work in Europe and China. We have had a footprint in China for over eight years, with places of work in each Beijing and Shenzhen, and we even have a presence in Taiwan. Because the demand for high-quality audio and video units will increase, we’re focusing extra on increasing our operations in Shenzhen. We’re constructing a big lab to help our companions with exact efficiency measurements for each audio and video merchandise, providing fast turnarounds to maintain up with the quick tempo of the business.
Whereas we have already got sturdy partnerships in Europe, our major focus for the following few years shall be in China, significantly Shenzhen. The area is turning into a hotbed for innovation, with many rising manufacturers within the tech house, making it a key space for THX’s growth and development. We’re excited to be on the forefront of those developments and proceed serving to manufacturers convey top-tier merchandise to the market.
