IVL’s early focus was on developing technology and products for music education. A fast and accurate technique was developed using microprocessors to identify the pitch of notes played on musical instruments. First products were sold by IVL in 1984 to the music education market – the intent being to provide an aid to musicians learning to play on pitch.

Unable to reach price points attractive to music institutions, we turned our attention to the professional music market. In the late 80’s, manufacturers adopted a digital interface standard called MIDI – Musical Instrument Digital Interface. This allowed products from different manufacturers to connect together and operate in unison. Addition of a MIDI output on IVL pitch detection products allowed musicians to “drive” a synthesizer from a wind or stringed instrument. Musicians could now access synthesized sounds from a traditional instrument and take advantage of the growing interest in synthesized music.

A line of pitch to MIDI conversion products followed for both horn and guitar players. These products were manufactured in Victoria by IVL and distributed worldwide through a US company with a strong presence in the music market – Digitech.

A new technology, pitch shifting, was released in the late 80’s. These products built on IVL’s patented pitch detection and added the ability to shift the pitch of music notes to create harmony. The effect was to create, for example, an electronically generated horn section to a trumpet player’s melody. Strong interest was shown by singers in IVL’s pitch shifting and harmony technology. A new product line was introduced in the early 90’s offering natural-sounding and musically correct harmony for singers. The Vocalist series of products were highly successful and won a number of high profile awards.

In the mid-90’s, IVL introduced vocal harmony to the Japanese commercial karaoke market. Meeting with strong market acceptance, IVL gained a major share of karaoke company customers.

IVL released a line of consumer karaoke products in the early 2000’s incorporating a number of innovative features developed for professional and consumer markets. These handheld karaoke players plugged in to a TV to display lyrics and music was purchased by downloading from IVL’s web site. Ten years ahead of iTunes success, the concept of downloading music over the internet was too advanced and complicated for most consumers to grasp in volume and, although sales were made to customers such as Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Toys ‘R Us etc., demanding price pressures in the consumer electronics market made it difficult to achieve profitability. The TV Star product won “Best Product of 2002” award from Business Week. While consumer sales represent a minor proportion of IVL current sales, we continue to seek ways to apply IVL’s proprietary technology to larger markets.

IVL refocused attention over the past two years on the music industry and has achieved good success with Vocalist Live products distributed through Digitech.

In the fall of 2008, the first in a new line of products for the DJ market was released in partnership with Stanton Magnetics Inc. – a strong brand in the DJ market. The first product has gained enthusiastic market acceptance and additional products are planned. This DJ product line will generate substantial growth in IVL’s sales and profits.