Inventors of World’s Smallest Lavalier Microphone Tapped for Technical Achievement Award

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has given a Technical Achievement Award to Chris Countryman and Omer T. Inan for the engineering of the subminiature high-performance Countryman Associates lavalier microphones. The Academy’s Board of Governors announced the recipients for this year’s Scientific and Technical Awards on February 2, 2021. The Scientific and Technical Awards will be presented at a virtual event on February 13, 2021. The overall Oscars ceremony will be broadcast live on ABC on April 25, 2021.

Chris Countryman, president of Countryman Associates, and Omer T. Inan, former chief engineer of Countryman Associates and current associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, engineered a suite of lavalier microphones that lead the industry due to their high performance, rugged construction, and small size. The B3, B6, and B2D Countryman lavalier microphones are used in a variety of entertainment settings including live theater, concerts, television, and motion pictures.

The series includes both directional and omnidirectional lavalier microphone offerings, which allow for versatility depending on the visual and audio needs of a scene or situation. Each product in the series is designed to be easily hidden, extremely durable, and able to provide full frequency sound pickup without compromising the visual aesthetics of a scene. The B6 and B2D microphones are also the smallest in the world, measuring the diameter of a No. 2 pencil lead.

Below is the official text from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which outlines the Award.

To Chris Countryman and Omer T. Inan for their engineering of the subminiature high-performance Countryman Associates lavalier microphones. Originated by company founder Carl Countryman (1946–2006), these meticulously crafted subminiature microphones are easily concealed. Their spectral response-shaping filters, cable mounting and capsule design contribute to their wide adoption by motion picture production sound mixers.

 “We are deeply honored to accept this award for our subminiature lavalier microphones. This work has been a passion for me and my family going back decades now. It is humbling to think that the work we do means so much to the expert crafters and storytellers in the film industry. The innovation you see today with Countryman Associates was established over 40 years ago by my father Carl Countryman. I wish he was here to see how far we have come. I know he would be proud,” said Chris Countryman.

About Countryman Associates
For more than 40 years, Countryman has focused on developing microphones and accessories that deliver maximum gain before feedback, with the highest possible rejection of wind, vibration, interference, and other unwanted sounds. The result is warm, clear vocals in speaking and singing applications, delivering natural audio reinforcement that requires almost no attention from the sound engineer or the performer. For additional information about Countryman Associates, visit the company online at www.countryman.com.    

About the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is one of eight schools and departments in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. All ECE undergraduate and graduate programs are in the top 10 of the most recent college rankings by U.S. News & World Report. Almost 2,400 students are enrolled in the School’s graduate and undergraduate programs, and in the last academic year, 872 degrees were awarded.

Over 100 ECE faculty members are involved in 11 areas of research, education, and commercialization – bioengineering, computer systems and software, digital signal processing, electric power, electromagnetics, electronic design and applications, microsystems, optics and photonics, systems and controls, telecommunications, and VLSI systems and digital design.

About the Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the world's premier research universities. Ranked eighth among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities, the Institute enrolls almost 39,800 students within its six colleges. Georgia Tech is the nation's leading producer of engineers, as well as a leading producer of female and minority engineering Ph.D. graduates. In FY 20, Georgia Tech received $1.04 billion in sponsored research and development expenditures and acquired $1.06 billion in total sponsored projects funding. Visit www.gatech.edu for more information.