Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, RØDE continued to add to the VideoMic range with a variety of models to meet the needs of every kind of videographer under the sun, including stereo versions and compact models for smartphones. The audio-visual market remains one of RØDE’s best-performing sectors and few self-respecting videographers would dream of shooting anywhere without one of the company’s shotgun mics on their camera. Once again, it was a case of being the right product at the right time. The Videomic addressed the latent demand in the burgeoning prosumer video market for a directional microphone that would capture much higher quality sound than the microphones built into video cameras. In 2004, RØDE launched to the step of producing its first on-camera microphone for video shooting. Throughout the rest of the 1990s, the company improved and expanded its microphone line-up, including a new version of the original NT-1, which today remains one of the most popular studio microphones on the market. The decision to base manufacturing in Australia meant that RØDE was able to adopt a vertical integrated manufacturing model that would speed up production and shorten the pipeline between design and the market. That was back in 1992 and it was at this point that Peter Freedman decided he should invest in production facilities in Australia rather than outsourcing production to Asia or buying in products to modify. RØDEįollowing the success of the original NT-1, the company went on to develop the NT-2, another large diaphragm condenser microphone with an expanded feature set. on the map as a premium manufacturer of microphones. It went on to be a massive seller and put RØDE. The RØDE NT-1 microphone was first known as RODENT-1. RØDE is unusual in the audio world for being a family company and one of the most recognizable audio brands ever to come out of Australia. There was something different about RØDE in much the same way that Australia itself is set apart from the rest of the world when it comes to geography and wildlife. RØDE soon carved out a reputation for making high-quality audio products at an affordable price point and a knack for innovation and that would later set them apart in the market. It turned out that Peter was a natural-born businessman after all. RØDE went from strength to strength thanks to some clever and insightful decisions about the types of products to develop. Before long the name was modified to RODE NT-1 and as a nod to the family’s Scandinavian heritage, the Swedish a streg character replaced the letter O and RØDE was born. In Peter’s words: “Sales went off like a rat up a drainpipe” and, as a result, the microphone became known as RODENT-1. The team at Freedman Electronics set to work modifying and improving the microphones to improve the performance and ready them for sale. He looked around to gauge interest in the product before taking the plunge and importing 20 of the microphones. It was in that dark moment that Peter remembered seeing a condenser microphone on a visit to a trade show in China a decade before with his father. By his own admission, Peter wasn’t a natural-born businessman, and he readily admits his lack of experience, coupled with a savage downturn in the Australian economy in the late 1980s, almost brought Freedman Electronics to the brink of bankruptcy, coming close to wiping out everything that Henry Freedman had worked so hard for. Sadly, Henry died in 1987 and his son Peter inherited the family business. Over the years that followed, the company built up a solidly successful business by providing a full service across the spectrum of audio products and the family settled into Australian life as the company flourished.
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