History

Smart Controller Pty Ltd first started as an honours software project by Angelo Fraietta, Algorithmic Composer, which is a compositional tool that enables composers to construct musical structures by connecting virtual objects -- like metronomes, counters, etc... -- with virtual patch cables.

During this project, Angelo became an internationally sought out consultant and mentor for MIDI developers for the Windows platform. Angelo was subsequently awarded the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts Award in Theoretical Studies for the project and graduated with First Class Honours 1n 1999 for the project.

After graduating, Angelo was employed by Hunter Watertech (now Serck Controls) as a software engineer, developing embedded firmware for time critical telemetry systems. Twelve months later, Angelo was offered an APA scholarship from the University of Western Sydney as a Ph.D. candidate to develop a high performance embedded multimedia controller for embedded systems in the creative arts field. The Ph.D. project, "The Smart Controller: an integrated electronic instrument for real-time performance using programmable logic control", heavily utilised the RTEMS real-time operating system, which was originally designed for guided missile systems for the US Army.

During his research, some of the technology developed was used by companies, such as Quikscribe and Healthinc, who specialise in digital dictation and transcription for the legal and medical fields. Although their fields appeared to be completely unrelated to the original research, the high performance algorithms developed during doctoral research enabled these companies to obtain the maximum performance from their systems.

Also, during the doctoral research, Angelo developed a number of MIDI controllers, and was later commissioned by artists, many of whom were under the auspices of the Australia Council, to help develop responsive environments and interactive instruments.