Stereo Tool Creator Hans van Zutphen Speaks at KBP Convention

Hans van Zutphen, the Dutch developer behind the Stereo Tool broadcast audio processor, spoke at this week’s Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) convention. Thimeo Audio Technology, the company behind Stereo Tool, said its team spent the week visiting customers in the Philippines. 

The visit follows a Radio World Best of Show award for Stereo Tool 11 at IBC 2026. The release includes an updated final clipper to control peaks and a new version of MicroMPX, which can carry a complete FM composite signal from the studio to the transmitter over an IP connection.

How Stereo Tool became a broadcast processor

In 2001, van Zutphen started an internet radio station that streamed hard trance in mono at 56 kilobits per second. To improve its sound, he wrote his own compression and stereo-to-mono tools. In 2004, he turned those tools into a Winamp plug-in he called Radio Tool. He renamed it Stereo Tool before releasing it publicly in September 2005.

Stereo Tool’s move into FM began when a Dutch broadcaster asked for help getting a louder signal. That request led van Zutphen to work on clipping, which controls audio peaks. He later used a 192 kHz sound card to generate an FM stereo signal and added Radio Data System (RDS) support so stations could send information such as their names to compatible receivers. Both FM stereo and RDS encoding appeared in Stereo Tool 3.0 in April 2008. 

Stereo Tool 11.08

Thimeo released Stereo Tool 11.08 on November 12, 2026. The update restores libVLC support for incoming audio streams and reinstates the revised backup-input switching introduced in version 11.06. It also adds MicroMPX meters for the FM stereo pilot, RDS and composite FM peak levels. Thimeo offers downloads for Windows, macOS and Linux, including builds for ARM-based devices such as the Raspberry Pi.