I have been involved with audio fidelity, power and grounding and professional sound recording my entire adult life — more than 35 years of high-end audio engineering experience and design.

It all started in 1977, when at the age of 25, I designed and installed my first studio, Broad Recording Studios in Honolulu, HI.

From years of working as Chief Engineer and General Manager of top recording studios, including Los Angeles' Record Plant, The Complex, Record One and Skywalker Sound to advising for Walt Disney's Imagineering, I have also engineered the recording of albums for artists such as Laura Nyro and Roy Orbison.

I personally design and engineer a product line of power equipment for the world of high-end Home Theatre, which provides a cleaner and more reliable picture and sound — blacker blacks with less noise for the picture, and cleaner sound with less background noise.

For over 25 years, I have on numerous occasions had problems in getting a system as noise free as I felt it should be. In all of these instances IT WAS NOT A PROBLEM WITH THE AUDIO WIRING (or installation) but a problem with the power distribution system design and implementation. Cleaning up the power cleaned up the problem.

So in response to this challenge I launched Ground One to address the specific power and grounding requirements unique to Professional Recording Studios and High End Home Theater Installations.

Ground One is a consulting firm that concentrates on the specific and unique electrical power and grounding requirements for the entertainment industry.

We start with a site analysis of your existing ground system and electrical distribution. This analysis consists of measuring ground system resistivity, harmonic content of current, and percent of distortion of the power waveform. All of these are critical to the performance of your system. We offer a number of tiered solutions to address system performance shortfalls.

The fact is that power quality and grounding are the foundation of any electronic system. Keeping voltage distortion and harmonic noise content to a minimum in the power distribution system is essential for high quality sound and picture.

Keeping noise and transients to a minimum is ABSOLUTELY necessary for the reliable operation of the new Hard Drive based audio and video systems. UTILITY POWER AND GROUND ARE SIMPLY NOT ADEQUATE IN THESE SITUATIONS.

The first step is for us to review your existing loads and wiring block diagram. Then we would schedule a site survey. After our initial site analysis we will determine the best approach to improve your system. During this visit we determine if more testing is required and we will make our recommendations on further work needed. We then will prepare a report for your review outlining further work.

After you review our report we will schedule a meeting / phone call. At this time we will put together a list of the required components to upgrade your system. This will also include the ideal location of ground rod and sub panel for best performances. If necessary we will schedule job site visits to consult with your electrical contractor. After the installation is complete we will schedule a final power quality analysis to verify power quality.

Best regards,

Art Kelm