The Dublin-based firm Trinity Venture Capital is part of a consortium supporting a €5 million management buyout (MBO) at Audio Processing Technology (APT).

APT is a Belfast-based technology company that develops sophisticated audio-compression technology for broadcasters and film studios. It supplies technology to George Lucas's team at Skywalker Sound, which is working on the Star Wars film Episode III Revenge of the Sith.

Trinity Venture Capital has teamed up with Belfast venture capital firm Crescent Capital and the management of APT to buy the firm from its owners, the British firm Solid State Logic.

Bank of Ireland is also providing debt funding to the new owners to help develop the company's sales and marketing efforts to some of the world's biggest broadcasters and telecoms firms such as the BBC, British Telecom and Fuji TV in Japan.

APT was originally a spin-off company from Queen's University in Belfast founded by Steven Smyth, a researcher who developed his PhD thesis on audio compression algorithms into a successful commercial venture.

The firm's technology enables broadcasters to compress audio data into extremely small units that can be transmitted very efficiently from the production table to transmitter towers and out to listeners.

Skywalker Sound uses it to enable its directors to work remotely away from its production studios, which are located 70 miles away from San Francisco.

The director, Peter Jackson, also used APT's technology to work from his suite at the Dorchester hotel in London while communicating with the Abbey Road production studio on the music score for Lord of the Rings, according to Jon McClintock, APT's commercial director.