About Us

Hymn Technology Ltd was established in 1996 to market and distribute an American electronic hymn player in the UK. Founding directors Alan Kempster and Martin Phelps, who between them had amassed over 50 years experience in the organ industry, saw the huge potential for a unit that could accompany congregational singing in the absence of either musician(s) or instrument(s). The US-manufactured product sold well, but it became apparent after a while that churches needed a far more advanced and complete solution to what was clearly becoming a huge problem - the lack of competent musicians in churches up and down the land.

Based in part on feedback from their existing customer base, Hymn Technology drew up a detailed specification for a new generation of player and commissioned one of the UK's leading software and hardware design houses to put together a complete technical design. Key requirements were that the unit had to be portable, that the tune repertoire had to be upgradeable, that the sound quality had to meet the highest critical standards and, above all, that little or no musical or technical skill would be required to operate it. A new extended file format was developed in order to achieve the specification's exacting musical requirements.

The daunting task of choosing the core tune repertoire of nearly 3000 items and then digitally recording them was accomplished in-house over a period of two years.

The original Hymnal Plus HT-300 came on to the market in the autumn of 2005 and was an instant success, with major coverage in virtually all the main UK national newspapers as well as widespread media coverage around the world. Word soon reached the USA and so many enquiries were received that a custom US version (with a substantially different repertoire and book list) was designed and produced. Now replaced by the HT-400 US, the product is sold in the USA through a small network of specialised distributors.

All versions of the The HT-400 US are manufactured entirely in the UK, although unavoidably some components are sourced from abroad. This localisation means that any technical issues, be they hardware or software, can be readily investigated by the relevant in-house experts.

Hymn Technology has a policy of continuous development and an integral part of this is the constant review of new hymn books for inclusion in the ever-growing list of additional repertoire, available both at the time of purchase and retrospectively.

THE NEW HYMNAL PLUS HT-400

 The original Hymnal Plus HT-300 came on to the market in the autumn of 2005 and was an instant success, with major coverage in virtually all the main UK national newspapers as well as widespread media coverage around the world. Now replaced by the HT-400 US, the product is sold in the USA through a small network of specialised distributors.

Co-Founder & Director  Alan Kempster

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