Meet our people:

Lauren de Seinne

Paavo Stubstad

Adolph (Fred) Thal

Drawing from studies in physics and architecture and from professional experience in precision mechanics and audio recording, Fred (Adolph Friederich) founded ATAE in 1986, near California's Silicon Valley. The work at that time was on improving the quality of pre-recorded cassettes for the record industry. Prior to joining the technical services department at Otari Corporation, Fred asked two respected former Ampex engineers for help with improving an audio tape machine design. They each suggested that he study a Studer A80. That good advice was taken and today the A80 and A820 (successor to the A80) form the heart of ATAE's reproducer remanufacturing program.

Fred is now managing director and senior product designer at ATAE. Viewing servo controlled, microprocessor supervised, constant tension, precision guidance analog magnetic tape transports as textbook examples of complex mechatronic design, he adopts a systems engineering perspective and hires the most qualified engineering talent for each specialization.

Our location:

ATAE is located in northern California's Sierra Nevada foothills, in a historic former gold mining community made famous for highest-quality professional broadcast electronics manufacturing by Dr. Donald Hare's (later Tektronix's and today Belden's) Grass Valley Group.