Harttech

Harttech S.p.A. (formerly known as Hartpool Sound And Vision and Hartpool Sound And Vision Technologies) is a Salerian multinational electronics conglomerate headquartered in Hartpool, Hopfield, Saleria. The company was founded in 1950 and develops, designs, manufactures, and sells a wide variety of consumer electronics, ranging from appliances, computers, media players, radios, set-top boxes, smartphones, stereos, television sets, and many others.

As Hartpool Sound And Vision (1950-1984)
Harttech was founded in 1950 by Basileo Zaccheo and Greyson Kennedy as Hartpool Sound And Vision S.p.A., a manufacturer of record players and transistor radios in Saleria until 1959, when the company began to venture into the consumer electronics market by manufacturing television sets.

In 1959, Hartpool Sound And Vision released their first television set, the Hartview HV-501. The product became a commercial success for the company.

In 1974, following the introduction of color television in Saleria, Hartpool Sound And Vision released their first color television set, the Hartview HV-501. It was available in NTSC, PAL and SECAM markets.

In 1982, Hartpool Sound And Vision released the Soundchild, their first ever portable cassette tape player. It was created in response to the success of the Sony Walkman.

In 1984, Hartpool Sound And Vision ventured into the computer market for the first time with the Hartdesk Personal Computer (commonly referred to as the Hartdesk 1000). On the same year, the company was renamed to Hartpool Sound And Vision Technologies S.p.A.

In 1989, Hartpool Sound And Vision released their first laptop, the Hartbook 1000. On the same year, the company released their first portable CD player, the Soundchild CD.

In 1998, Hartpool Sound And Vision Technologies, together with Philips, Pioneer and Sony, developed the Digital Laserdisc home video format. The company released the Harttech DLD-750, which it was considered to be the first Digital Laserdisc player. On the same year, Hartech released their first flat screen TV, the Hartview HV-W5000. The TV features a 34-inch 16:9 plasma screen with composite, SCART, S-Video, and DMPI inputs. In addition to that, the company released their first MP3 player, the Soundchild Go. The MP3 player was available in both 32MB and 64MB models.

In 1999, Hartpool Sound And Vision Technologies released their first smartphone, the Hartphone 1000. It featured a 96x65 monochrome display with an ARM7TDMI processor, 128KB of system RAM and 32MB of system storage with the capability of playing MP3 files. A revised model, the Hartphone 1500, was released in 2000. The model featured 256KB of system RAM and 64MB of system storage.

As Harttech (2000-present)
In 2000, Hartpool Sound And Vision Technologies was renamed to Harttech.

In 2010, Harttech decided to discontinue the cassette version of Soundchild, due to the decline of cassette-based portable music players.

Subsidiaries

 * Harttech Semiconductor
 * Harttech Software Development

Headquarters
NOTE: Section under construction

As of August 2021, Harttech has the following headquarters in:

Europe, Middle East and Africa

 * Saleria
 * Italy
 * United Kingdom
 * United Arab Emirates
 * South Africa

Americas

 * United States
 * Argentina
 * Brazil

Asia Pacific

 * Australia
 * Japan
 * Malaysia