 Hidley was experienced in the development of audio technology, having collaborated with Madman Muntz in the development of the first car stereo in 1959, and along with Amnon "Ami" Hadani, he had previously set up another recording studio in Hollywood, TTG Studios, in 1965.The layout of the rooms at Westlake Studios aimed for an acoustic design that could give a fairly flat frequency response at the recording position, with low reverberation delay and extensive use of bass traps.As the need to transfer audio material between different studios grew, there was an increasing demand for standardization across the recording industry; the success of Hidley's acoustic design was copied at other sites, and "Westlake-style" rooms spread to a number of other studios by the late 1970s.