Profile
of Ortofon
Ortofon was founded in 1918 by two Danish engineers, Axel Petersen
and Arnold Poulsen. These two pioneers had one very clear objective
in mind - to put sound onto film, and with this, they established
the Electrical Fonofilms Company A/S, which later on was renamed
Ortofon A/S. A few years later, in the Palace Theatre, Copenhagen,
they were able to present the first fully-synchronized sound
films and in so doing, created a world sensation.
Ortofon was also the first company to produce an outdoor sound
film recording. The founders took out several patents and issued
licences to film companies the world over for their "System Petersen
og Poulsen", which is even to this day the basis for film with
optical sound.
Until the second world war, Ortofon's growth was based entirely
on the sound film. However, during the war and immediately afterwards,
production was re-organized to include record cutting and reproducing
equipment. The first Moving Coil cutterhead was produced as early
as 1945, and the Moving Coil principle was then further developed
to enable production of, first, mono cartridges and, later, also
stereo cartridges.
During this busy period of growth, equipment was also being
developed for broadcasting networks and recording studios. It
was not until later that the Company decided to specialize solely
in the development and production of cartridges. Unique experience
at both ends of the recording sequence results in unsurpassed
performence from every Ortofon cartridge. |
