The Musée des ondes Emile Berliner is located in the historic factory of the ''Berliner Gram-o-phone Company'' in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. The museum is a technical history Museum about the development of music recording and subsequent industries. For the project to celebrate the Centennial of Broadcasting in Canada the museum received the ''Governor General History Award'' in 2020. Berliner Gramophone display

Building and museum

The factory was since its construction in 1907 until 1924 the world headquarters of the

Berliner Gramophone Company Berliner is most often used to designate a citizen of Berlin, Germany Berliner may also refer to: People * Berliner (surname) Places * Berliner Lake, a lake in Minnesota, United States * Berliner Philharmonie, concert hall in Berlin, Germany * ...

. Emil Berliner was the inventor of the flat record with a lateral cut. Emile Berliner moved his company from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

in the United States to Montreal, Canada in 1900, after a legal battle surrounding the use of Berliner's trade name "Gramophone," withdrew his right to this trade name in the USA. He built his first own factory for the ''Berliner Gram-O-Phone Co. Montreal'' in 1907 on a property in Saint Henri, Montreal. After 1929, the factory became part of

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

Canada. At the end of the 1950s, the first Canadian Satellite, the

Alouette 1 ''Alouette 1'' is a deactivated Canadian satellite that studied the ionosphere. Launched in 1962, it was Canada's first satellite, and the first satellite constructed by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States. Canada w ...

, was finalized here. The MOEB was founded in 1992 by five Montreal citizens inside of the former record factory in Saint Henri. Since 1996, the museum creates yearly temporary exhibitions. In 2019 the museum added a permanent exhibition. The collection of the museum consists of approximately 30.000 objects. Besides a large collection of locally produced shellac records, the museum holds objects related to recording technology, broadcasting technology, different recording media and also objects related to the development of satellites. The objects date from the pioneering time of the music industry until the time of digitization. A weekly workshop for retired sound engineers, record collectors, historians, engineers, etc. takes place since 2006, known as the ''Club des vieilles lampes''. Around 1990, after RCA Victor had moved to a now location in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, the building, known today as „Édifice RCA“ was converted to a mixed use office complex The museum distributed several showcases throughout the building. Emile Berliner a son bureau

Exhibitions

* From the gramophone to the satellite (1996) * Happy birthday Nipper… an exhibition with a 100 year bite (2000) * The Audio Chain (2002) * 50 Years of Television in Montreal (2003) * Marconi (2004) * Montreal, the Cradle of the Recording Industry (2008) * Goodbye Broadway, Hello Montréal (2010) * Montreal radio in Wartime (2015) * Montreal in Space (2016) * Design Montreal RCA (2017) * 100 years of radio broadcasting in Montreal (2019) * Herbert S. Berliner: Building the Canadian Recording Industry (2022)

Publications

Early Radio Innovation in Canada, Canadian Marconi Company (1895-1938), by Denis Couillard. Bilingual, French and English, 2020, ISBN 978-1-7770988-0-3,

References

External links

website of the museum

Société des musées du Québec

La grande histoire du son à Montréal au Musée des ondes Émile Berliner

Preserving St-Henri's history of sound: Musée des ondes Emile Berliner located in former RCA Victor factory

Artefacts Canada, Collection Musée des ondes Emile Berliner

Émile Berliner et la RCA Victor

{{coord missing, Quebec Music museums History museums in Quebec Technology museums in Canada Museums in Montreal Manufacturing buildings and structures