About us - THe History OF GSP

From start-up to systems supplier

In 1984, three research associates at the Technische Universität Berlin, Dipl.-Phys. Gerhard Hettwer, Dr.-Ing. Helmut Loebner and Dipl.-Ing. Günter Breidbach, made the leap to self-employment and founded GSP Sprachtechnologie Gesellschaft für elektronische Sprach-systeme mbH. They were supported by the director of the Institute for Telecommunications Engineering at the Technische Universität Berlin, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus Fellbaum, who remains one of the company’s shareholders to this day. The shareholders – who soon gained the additional support of the business graduate Gerhard Höpfner – chose to base their company in the Berlin Centre for Innovation and Start-Ups (BIG) in Ackerstrasse in Berlin’s Wedding district.

Rightwards: Dipl.-Phys. G. Hettwer, Dipl.-Kfm. G. Höpfner, Dr.-Ing. H. Loebner, Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Fellbaum, Dipl.-Ing. G. Breidbach

The company's first clients were the Technische Universität Berlin, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and Deutsche Fernsprecher Gesellschaft mbH.
Dipl.-Ing. Kostas Nulis joined the company’s founders and on behalf of Hitachi company designed an announcement module. That was the first device which GSP produced as a
small batch.

Speech output unit fitted in a demonstration system

While in the early days the company still focussed on scientific problems in the field of language technology, it was soon developing solutions to meet concrete market requirements. It produced equipment for master displays for industry, mining, lifts, museum guide systems and for audio control of microsurgery microscopes.

Left-hand image: GSP’s electronic speech recognition system as used in a Leitz/Wild surgical microscope. Full control of the microscope’s functions using speech recognition enables the surgeon to completely focus on the operation with his hands and eyes. The speech recognition system steers the microscope’s control motors using relays. Right-hand image: Visitors to the Wolfsburg Car Museum receive optimal information through a combination of GSP’s electronic speech output system and Sennheiser’s wireless infrared transmission technology. Visitors are able to choose their own paths through the museum, receiving the correct information for every exhibit through their infrared headphones.

The company also developed announcement systems for announcements in train stations and local public transport vehicles. This subsequently evolved into a particularly significant growth segment for GSP.

In the second half of the 1980s, GSP gained public transport companies in Dortmund, Regensburg, Berlin, Nuremberg and Frankfurt am Main as clients. In 1989, for a global retrospective of the works of the conceptual and object artist Ed Kienholz GSP provided audio announcement modules for the artworks.

From 1990 onwards, it gained new orders from the Rostock, Magdeburg and Frankfurt an der Oder public transport companies. A year later, GSP first provided products for the end-customer German Federal Railways (now: Deutsche Bahn AG) through the Electrotechnical Locomotive Works in Hennigsdorf (now: Bombardier Transportation GmbH). In 1994-95, GSP supplied Deutsche Bahn AG with a large number of units of the first control computer equipped with GPS for fitting in electrical and diesel traction units and train sets for local public transport.

To increase its production capacities to meet rising demand, in 1995 the company relocated to Focus Mediport, a technology centre in south-west Berlin. At its Teltowkanalstrasse office in Berlin-Steglitz, GSP currently has 150 employees active in the fields of development, production, marketing and administration.

Since 1995 GSP has supplied integrated information, safety and entertainment systems for public transport passengers. Its clients are leading train fitters such as Alstom Transport GmbH, Bombardier Transportation GmbH, Siemens AG (Transportation Systems) and Stadler Pankow GmbH, CAF S.A. plus Europe’s largest railway company, Deutsche Bahn AG.

You can find further success stories under References.