Gilles Gameiro, Founder and Architect Designer of Birdland Audio products, was born on July 25th, 1966, in Paris, France. From the very beginning, he has had two passions in his life : music and electronics, a rather unusual match which is responsible for his creating Birdland.

As a musician, Gilles has quite an uncommon gift indeed, which is called "an absolute ear": in other words, he can listen to any tune and write it down on paper or play it immediately, in the same way most of us are able to write down a sentence we have just heard. No wonder Gilles parents had him attend the Conservatoire de Sucy-en-Brie, a fine art music school, where he graduated with a "Fin d'études de solfège" in only 4 years.. while 9 years are usually required in order to graduate.

Gilles has not only artistic mind, he also has a scientific mind. This accounts for his early passion for electronics (and later on for computer science). That's why he studied electronic engineering at the Lycée Technique Dorian - Paris XI^ème where he graduated with honors. At the time, formal programs in computer science did not really exist in classical electronics studies: therefore Gilles studied programming on his own, beginning with Z80 assembly language. While many teenagers were/are interested only in playing games, Gilles was interested in creating them: by the time he was 17, he had published and sold two successful games on the ZX81 and Sega platforms.

But Gilles was also very interested in electronics applied to sound reproduction, because listening to his parents old fashion stereo just didn't produce the same emotion and realism as going to listen to the symphonic orchestra itself at the salle Pleyel in Paris. He managed to create his first amplifier at the beginning of an long-time quest for the perfect device for listening to music the way it should sound. He agrees with a funny smile though that even his parents stereo sounded better at the time.

Meanwhile, Gilles understood that the market for software engineering was growing at a much more impressive rate than the market for electronics engineering. He therefore decided to focus his future career upon software without forgetting hardware... and music.

Working as a Senior Software Engineer for Digital Research lead him to move to the United-States. When the networking giant Novell acquired Digital Research, the team he worked for became Novell's Embedded Systems Technology (NEST). He became a key member of that group and his work lead him to work directly for Novell U.S.A., first half the time, then full time when Gilles was definitely relocated to Monterey, California.

As Gilles never neglected his musical gift, he has devoted long portions of his spare time designing and building amplifiers as well as studying other manufacturers' models and accoustic theory. Finally, the Pleyel was born, burning the midnight oil, because the audiophile was still seeking the sound which he at last achieved. In is own words, he recalls, "I knew that was it when I heard it. I could close my eyes and feel the majesty of Chopin, the Drama of Mozart, the swing of Oscar Peterson.. that was music the way it was supposed to sound".

And in case you'd ask, Gilles' first name is best pronounced "jeel", not "djeelless"