Dr.
Jonathan Halliday, former Director of Wyastone Estate
Ltd., Technical Director of Nimbus Technology & Engineering,
and sole electronic and optical designer of the Nimbus-Halliday
Laser Beam Recorder, has died near his home in Herefordshire
UK, aged 60.
Dr. Halliday was a central part of Nimbus’s varied business
from 1982 when he joined the Founding Directors of Nimbus Records.
His initial contribution, the creation of a Laser Beam Recorder
(LBR), was to enable the company to make the massive leap from
LP to CD manufacturing. For this development he, and mechanical
designer Gerald Reynolds, earned a Queen’s Award for Technology.
In 1984 Nimbus opened the UK’s first CD plant, and went
on to build two further factories; in 1986 at Cwmbran, South
Wales, and in 1987 at Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
In 1992 the company began to sell the Nimbus-Halliday LBR to
CD factories around the world. Its advanced capabilities were
quickly recognised, and Toshiba and Time-Warner recruited Nimbus
to develop production mastering equipment for a new video format,
which would eventually result in the DVD standard. As a consequence
Nimbus-Halliday mastering equipment became an international
success, and Dr. Halliday a valued contributor to the development
of optical disc formats. Eventually Nimbus won a second Queen’s
Award, this time for Export Achievement.
Although Dr Halliday will be most remembered for his technical
brilliance, it was his deep love of music that made him the
perfect addition to the Nimbus Board. In 1984 he designed Nimbus’s
Ambisonic ‘surround-sound’ microphones and was always
an important voice in determining the company’s approach
to sound recording.
The tragedy of early on-set Alzheimer’s, diagnosed in
his early 50s, rapidly confined him to an entirely self-contained
life at his home, also Nimbus headquarters, Wyastone Leys near
Monmouth, and since 2008 at a local care-home.
Jonathan’s creativity, knowledge, skill and generosity
were witnessed by a generation of the company’s staff
and customers. In the Board Room he was at the heart of Nimbus
for more than 20 turbulent years, and his fellow directors greatly
miss his contribution to our work and his presence in our lives.
Dr Jonathan Halliday Born 3rd August 1950, Died 2nd June
2011.
Educated St Catherine's College, Oxford (Physics) &
Clare College, Cambridge (PhD Radio Astronomy).
--
Antony Smith
Business Director
Wyastone Estate Limited
Nimbus Records
