When Philippe Chenevez was a lad, with shaggy hair in the style of Gyro Gearloose and a pair of Harry Potter glasses, the first thing he would always do when he got home from school was gaze at the photo taken by Brassaï in 1935 of Pierre Dac at his microphone.
This portrait hung proudly in the hall of the family home. Philippe used to talk to it, saying: "You know what, when I grow up, I'm going to be behind a mic, too."
Philippe's parents were ardent fans of Pierre Dac, never missing an episode of the Signé Furax drama that had millions of ears glued to the radio. In 1957, Guy Mollet, the then-prime minister, interuppted a parliamentary meeting by declaring to journalists "Gentlemen, I have to leave you, it's time for Signé Furax."
Signé Furax, Le Boudin sacré, episode #1 © Europe 1 - 1956
Listen to the next episodes on Youtube Years later, Philippe Chenevez, having gained a national diploma in cinema studies with a major in Sound from Vaugirard-Louis Lumière in 1984, began studying acoustics and vibrations at the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts [Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers - CNAM]. He graduated with an engineering degree.
He spent the next six years in sound production, then had a stint at VDB. During all this time he kept thinking of the portrait of Pierre Dac. At times it was an obsession.
He noticed during his short career as a boom operator that it was tough to find the perfect handling for extremely sensitive microphones. The famous Beyer M 160 had enjoyed its moment of glory and was on the way out, with all sound mixers, apart from a few die-hards, insisting that electrostatic mics were the way forward. So in 2005 he decided to start making a mic suspension, inspired by Brassaï's photo, in which the mic is held in place by springs.
Springs? Springs! But of course! Everything was already there!
The OSIX family was born; then it grew, adding the famous windshields with cage suspension.
It met with immediate, worldwide success. Often imitated, never equalled, Cinela blazed a trail for a new approach to microphone suspension.
As with the first computer mouse, which was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1964 and sold recently for 25,000 dollars, might our first OSIX prototype one day fetch a similar sum?
Pierre Dac, who was member of the Resistance during the war, joined De Gaulle in London and became one of the voices on the BBC for the daily broadcast Les Français parlent aux Français [French people are talking to French people]. He introduced a type of humour that until then had been unknown in France, the equivalent of what English spakers refer to affectionately as "nonsense".
One of his many quips can be translated as: "If Galileo cameback to Earth, he would bawl at a bad dancer: and yet she moves!"
Sixteen years before Coluche, he ran for president of France as the leader of the MOU or the "United Undulatory Movement" [Mouvement Ondulatoire Unifié] (which was so dear to Philippe Chenevez).
Since "mou" also means soft in French, his rallying cry to the masses was: "Times are hard, long live MOU!"
Come back quickly, Pierre Dac, hard times have turned absurd.
This portrait hung proudly in the hall of the family home. Philippe used to talk to it, saying: "You know what, when I grow up, I'm going to be behind a mic, too."
Philippe's parents were ardent fans of Pierre Dac, never missing an episode of the Signé Furax drama that had millions of ears glued to the radio. In 1957, Guy Mollet, the then-prime minister, interuppted a parliamentary meeting by declaring to journalists "Gentlemen, I have to leave you, it's time for Signé Furax."
Listen to the next episodes on Youtube
He spent the next six years in sound production, then had a stint at VDB. During all this time he kept thinking of the portrait of Pierre Dac. At times it was an obsession.
He noticed during his short career as a boom operator that it was tough to find the perfect handling for extremely sensitive microphones. The famous Beyer M 160 had enjoyed its moment of glory and was on the way out, with all sound mixers, apart from a few die-hards, insisting that electrostatic mics were the way forward. So in 2005 he decided to start making a mic suspension, inspired by Brassaï's photo, in which the mic is held in place by springs.
Springs? Springs! But of course! Everything was already there!
The OSIX family was born; then it grew, adding the famous windshields with cage suspension.
It met with immediate, worldwide success. Often imitated, never equalled, Cinela blazed a trail for a new approach to microphone suspension.
As with the first computer mouse, which was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1964 and sold recently for 25,000 dollars, might our first OSIX prototype one day fetch a similar sum?
Pierre Dac, who was member of the Resistance during the war, joined De Gaulle in London and became one of the voices on the BBC for the daily broadcast Les Français parlent aux Français [French people are talking to French people]. He introduced a type of humour that until then had been unknown in France, the equivalent of what English spakers refer to affectionately as "nonsense".
One of his many quips can be translated as: "If Galileo cameback to Earth, he would bawl at a bad dancer: and yet she moves!"
Sixteen years before Coluche, he ran for president of France as the leader of the MOU or the "United Undulatory Movement" [Mouvement Ondulatoire Unifié] (which was so dear to Philippe Chenevez).
Since "mou" also means soft in French, his rallying cry to the masses was: "Times are hard, long live MOU!"
Come back quickly, Pierre Dac, hard times have turned absurd.
