Apple have recently hired ex SSL and Sony Oxford engineer Peter Eatty as Director of SoC (System on Chip) Audio Processing.

According to his web site Eassty has a long and respected career in audio.

Peter Eastty obtained a B.Sc. in Applied Physics from the University of Durham, (1969) and immediately began creating digital signal processors. His first, built for the university’s electronic music studio, was in daily service for decades. He spent seven years with Electronic Music Studios Ltd. (EMS) in London creating two 192-channel digital signal processors for the company’s in-house studio…

Peter was then invited to start the digital mixing console project at Solid State Logic in Oxford. He gathered in the team he led in the creation of the SSL O1, a combined digital audio recorder, editor, and mixing console. During his years at SSL he developed an integrated software/hardware approach to real-time digital signal processing which was later to become the basis for successful DSP based audio products for SSL, Oxford Digital, SONY and others too shy to be named.

In 1988 with a few key team members, he then started Oxford Digital Limited, having traveled to Japan to secure a long-duration contract to design digital hardware, software, and consoles for SONY. As Chief Engineer, his technical role in the project included overall system design of both software and hardware, with key contributions in the design of DSP algorithms and ASICs. The result of this work, the SONY OXF-R3 digital audio mixing console, is still highly regarded by its users for both sound quality and ergonomics. Peter spent thirteen years as Chief Consultant Engineer at SONY Oxford, Pro-Audio R&D. He was responsible for creating the world-leading team in the real-time processing of 1-bit digital audio (DSD). These advances played a vital role in enabling SONY/Philips to introduce the Super Audio CD. In 2005 he started a new incarnation of Oxford Digital with John Richards and designed hardware, silicon and software for a range of companies in the professional and consumer audio areas.  

Peter has been chair of the UK section of the AES, has presented numerous papers at AES Conventions. He also gives frequent presentations at an international level. Whether dealing one-to-one with world famous musicians and recording engineers or lecturing on DSP to a full auditorium in North America, Japan, or Europe he uses his knowledge of the subject, and a little humor, to inspire and inform.

The story originally reported by Mac Rumors is unclear as to how Eastty’s vast skills will be used, however they speculate;

Details on Eastty’s role as Director of SoC Audio Processing are unknown, but he likely is using his DSP expertise to improve the audio quality of Apple’s hardware. Earlier rumors suggested Apple was working to add support for 24-bit audio files in iOS 8 and create a new 24-bit capable version of its In-Ear headphones, but those reports have not yet panned out.

We feel sure that whatever the role some exciting audio technologies will be coming from Apple, let’s hope they are not just limited to phones.