The awards are given to honor technically innovative products as well as companies and individuals who have excelled in sound for television, film, recordings, and concerts.
In 1990, the TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio, a 501(c)(3) (non-profit) public benefit organization that also offered scholarships and worked to mitigate noise-induced hearing loss,[1] assumed responsibility for the awards.
[4] Similarly, a pioneering or innovative person is chosen annually for the honor of induction into the TEC Awards Hall of Fame.
[9][10] In 2007, at age 92, Les Paul presented the award to musician, songwriter, and producer Al Kooper.
[13][14][15] At the establishment of this award category at the AES Convention in San Francisco in October 2004, the initial 25 inductees included the venerable Edison cylinder (1877), Emile Berliner's flat disc recorder (1887), and Alan Dower Blumlein Stereo Patent (1931).