Success Stories
A Hamilton Region Success Story
PV Labs & VitaSound
How a leading Hamilton entrepreneur facilitated the growth of two Hamilton high-tech industry leading companies
Mark Chamberlain 
has a history of growing successful innovative companies, and Hamilton’s own PV labs is just one of them.
Due in large part to his vision, some of the most high tech cameras in the entertainment industry are being built in Hamilton and used around the world.
PV Labs makes stabilized aerial camera platforms and motion management solutions for cinema and broadcast.Their technology has been used in the making of films like Wall Street, The Last Airbender and Clash of the Titans, and is currently being used tofilm Hawaii Five-0 andWild Planet: North America. It has also been used to film Academy Award-winning films, and events at the Vancouver and Beijing Olympics — such as cross-country skiing using cameras mounted on snowmobiles.
They currently employ close to 85 people in their Hamilton offices and are continually commercializing new technologies and finding ways to help grow the Hamilton economy.
But, Chamberlain’s help in supporting local entrepreneurs doesn’t stop here. Three years ago, he and his partner Ty Shattuk decided to hold a regular “open-mic” night called “Innovation Night” in a local pub. Here, anyone could step up and present a business idea.
It was on one of these nights that Dr. Filipe Pango along with McMaster University researcher Dr. Suzanna Becker stepped up and presented their idea. They had come up with proposed new hearing aide that instead of magnifying sound, helped stimulate damaged nerves in the eardrum. They had already been granted some funds from the Ontario government to help with their idea, but were running out of money to complete their project.
As soon as he heard the idea, Chamberlain and his partners were sold. They decided to help Pango and Becker commercialize their revolutionary device by acquiring a company that already manufactured some hearing devices. The newly acquired company, VitaSound , began manufacturing hearing devices that implemented the new technology.
VitaSound now produces custom-fit hearing aids, along with an entire hearing health care line that is rolling out all over Canada. They have also begun creating hearing centres in some local pharmacies — 15 so far — complete with audiologists.
“It was a strong partnership between researchers, entrepreneurs, commercialization experts and the Ontario government that resulted in a world’s first in hearing device health care,” says Gora Ganguli, VitaSound CEO. “It was not only the funding that we benefited from, but also the amazing amount of mentorship the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) provided to us. They and the new Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE) are so far ahead of everybody. It’s really the model everyone should follow.”
See also:
- News Release: Supporting Innovation And Creating Jobs In Hamilton
- Backgrounder: Supporting Innovation and Creating Jobs Across Ontario
- For the Media
