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Founder of SAE, Bill Lee originally set up the company in 1998 to manufacture amplifiers to sell in his home country of China and the local Asian markets. However, it wasn’t long before companies from further afield spotted the potential in SAE products and wanted to work with Bill on OEM manufacturing. In 2009 Bill extended his expertise into loudspeaker technology, and most recently has started designing and developing a new range of LED screens.
SAE GUANGDONG
Guangdong Province is the home of the Chinese light- ing, sound and video industries. There is a plethora of manufacturers in the area and you could - and some industry figures do - spend weeks visiting factories sourcing equipment. The companies vary in size and ability but one company that always stands out in product design and corporate profile, and seemingly exhibits at every industry exhibition is SAE. On a recent trip to the area I thought I’d drop in and talk to its founder and driving force Bill Lee.
Bill has a typical industry background, whilst studying electronics at university - and a three year stint after- wards - Bill was a DJ. This led to him work for ACE in the early 1990s, followed by jobs at YaJiang Lighting, Top Plot and HDL Lighting. These varied roles in both audio and lighting distribution and manufacturing led Bill to decide to go it alone in 1998. He established SOUNDSTANDARD Audio Engineering, swiftly short- ened to SAE, in Foshan Guangdong Province.
www.mondodr.com
Originally set up to manufacture amplifiers, the brand SAE was intended for the Chinese and surrounding Asian markets, but soon European and American companies recognising the quality of the product started to request OEM manufacturing, this now accounts for 70% of the amplifier output. Bill moved into speaker manufacturing in 2009, an ever expand- ing range producing speakers for the huge Chinese karaoke market to small line arrays. As with everything manufactured by SAE, its speakers are designed not just with audio performance in mind but with design aesthetics. The year of 2009 also saw the company move to a new purpose built facility, the four units consist of offices, showroom space and R&D, an em- ployee apartment block and two blocks for manufac- turing. The original manufacturing facility was retained and is now used as a metal shop, cabling manufactur- ing and packaging production.
Currently the workforce stands at 300, with over 30
employed in R&D alone. Manufacturing consists of a mixture of automated and manual systems, PCB assembly is carried out by machine and final assembly and testing done manually. A cell structure is used on the manufacturing floor to allow maximum flexibility in changing which products are manufactured. The man- ufacturing split is 80% amplifiers versus 20% speak- ers, up to 350 amplifiers can be manufactured a day. Outside of the OEM business China is still the major market for SAE branded products taking up 60% of manufacturing, and this is growing by an incredible 30% a year. Further developments in the amplifier line include the integration of European companies DSP and TCIP technology into the final product. In a new development Bill has expanded and driven his R&D team to develop LED screens, a departure from the audio roots but one Bill feels can benefit from his engineering expertise and market knowledge. SAE has shown a range of screens at recent outings
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