8 l December 2013
www.psneurope.com
reviewoftheyear
Partners. Reflecting on a year that also saw the company launch the Qu-16 compact digital mixer, A&H MD Glenn Rogers tells PSNEurope that the new relationship with Electra Partners has “enabled A&H to focus again on the development of key new products and introduced some new ideas and opportunities, which will allow A&H to enter a new phase of growth. The investment has already seen the expansion of the R&D team to help accelerate new product introductions. We have an excellent catalogue of existing products, and with a number of exciting prospects in development the future looks good for A&H.” Book-ending the year were two significant acquisitions for global entertainment technology giant Harman. In February, the group completed its purchase of lighting company Martin Professional in a move that appeared to underline a pattern of convergence between AV disciplines. Then, in October, Harman snapped up Duran Audio, the Dutch-based beam- steering specialist and install market mainstay.
Looking back on an
eventful 12 months, Harman Professional Division president Blake Augsburger tells PSNEurope that the Martin deal “broadened Harman’s portfolio of professional AV technologies and allowed us to take our strategy of being a one-stop solutions provider of powerful, cohesive systems with a single point of access and accountability. The Duran Audio acquisition enabled us to strengthen our electro-acoustic offerings to the core systems integration market, but also provided a valuable on-ramp for EN54 compliance, [as well as] access to new verticals we did not previously address.” In a year that might
reasonably warrant the epithet ‘unsettled’, at least one major manufacturer confirmed that it was not looking for a new home. Still riding high on the success of its groundbreaking Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) technology, Martin Audio had been the subject of rumours about its future ownership during 2012. But speaking to PSNEurope editor Dave Robinson in October this year, MD Anthony Taylor sought to put the record straight: “We’re not actively out there saying, ‘please buy us’. There was some interest but it
Harman’s Blake Augsburger
Andreas Hildebrand (left) and Ralf Michl of ALC NetworX at NAB 2013
“The investment [by Electra Partners] has already seen the expansion of the R&D team to help accelerate new product introductions”
Glenn Rogers, Allen & Heath
never crystallised. So it’s business as usual.” The same message was
radiating from AIR in mid-November. (For the full story, see page 22.) Responding to the pressures of an industry that is changing more rapidly than ever before has also prompted a glut of striking new partnerships. The result of long discussion between loudspeaker manufacturer APG and Italian amplifier maker Powersoft was the launch of a range of APG-branded amps at Prolight + Sound 2013. DiGiCo and Waves Audio, meanwhile, said they were seeking to accommodate higher track- counts and more demanding applications with their range of DiGiGrid hardware and processing solutions.
NETWORKING: EVOLUTION, NOT REVOLUTION Bored of hearing/reading about the ‘networking revolution’? A sense of fatigue would be understandable at the sheer weight of discussion about protocols, standards and ‘real world applications’ these past few years. But fully- fledged networking is coming whether we like it or not, and 2013 was again rich in related developments. The AVB (Audio/Video Bridging) movement that promotes media transport and
interoperability through standards developed by the IEEE AVB Task Group of the IEEE 802.1 standards committee took several decisive steps forward. With a complete package of standards for the pro-AV market now complete, AVB-promoting organisation the AVnu Alliance announced the initiation of bridge and end- point certification for pro-audio devices. New AVnu member Axon demonstrated AVB video at key trade shows, while BMW became the organisation’s first European car maker. “Our membership now stands at 65,” says AVnu Alliance president/chairman and Harman VP research & innovation for the Corporate Technology Group, Rick Kreifeldt. “AVB is evolving to increasingly broad areas of automotive, CE and
industrial controls. From an AVnu perspective, we will have our first wave of certified products and will be opening up certifications in the other areas mentioned. Expect a lot of activity in professional video as we see that ecosystem growing quickly.” While we may have several
years to wait before AVB becomes a daily default, Audinate’s Dante – a media networking technology sometimes regarded as a stepping stone to AVB – continues to assert its market dominance. Just in time for IBC, Audinate announced that Studio Technologies had become the 100th Dante OEM partner – the adoption of Dante among AV manufacturers having doubled in the
previous year alone. At press time, CEO Lee Ellison revealed this number had grown again: “This past year we’ve seen amazing growth with respect to OEMs – we expected about 90, and it’s 120 – but also with the number of products that have been deployed that have Dante. We’ve shipped over 4 million channels of Dante into the market since July 2013; in the last 12 months, about 20+ OEMs have been developing solutions around our Ultimo I/O board. “We began by focusing on
robust, reliable, high performance but easy to use solution. The next level, and what we’ve done over the last 12 months, is to build out into health and network monitoring – performance and statistical information.” Simultaneously, another
A&H Qu-16 compact digital mixer
networking technology, Ravenna, has continued to rise in profile as an alternative solution, particularly in the broadcast market. Lawo, Genelec and Neumann are among the companies to have expressed support for the technology, which has in some quarters been perceived as a ‘European answer’ to AVB. Most recently, Digigram announced that it would be implementing Ravenna across its full product line, kicking things off with the introduction of a new soundcard. Andreas Hildebrand, senior
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