Posts in category: Press Release

When Optimal Audio began its journey to simplify the somewhat opaque world of commercial audio, Managing Director Dom Harter placed great emphasis on creating a team that would take an open-minded approach. After all, if this often overly complex world was to be demystified and re-presented in an accessible and easy to deploy product range, being wedded to too many preconceptions would very likely inhibit progress. The audio knowledge and experience was, without doubt, present in abundance – the trick would be to retain a fresh approach throughout, and so avoid any undue influences from the past. In a move both inspired and calculated,  Product Design Engineer, Charlotte Critchley, was added to the team. A recent graduate of Loughborough University’s Industrial Design course, it was deemed that Charlotte would bring the necessary design expertise without the ‘baggage’ of a traditional audio background, thus offering a fresh ‘outsider’s’ perspective. She explains:

“During the early stages of my involvement I quickly realised that it was actually quite helpful not to have any pre-conceived notions about how things should be. Engineering Manager Matt Rowe gave me a rough brief and outlined the main principle, which was to keep things simple. He showed me a few examples of projects he’d worked on, so I could acquire a basic grasp of the concept, but I was very much free to explore my own ideas.”

Charlotte, tasked to work on the Zone (zone audio controllers with DSP and WebApp) and  Zonepad (Zone wall controllers), began to sketch out some ideas…

“I went online and found inspiration from a number of areas that weren’t audio related. It was all pretty minimalist in style, which seemed to fit the overall plan. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing to make sure I stayed on the right track as regards functionality, but it seemed that as things progressed, my approach was working. I started experimenting with some 2D imagery on Photoshop and Illustrator, and presented a range of ideas to the team. We had some discussions  on what we liked and didn’t like, and I’m pleased to say that the ones I leaned towards found favour with everyone. That gave me a lot of confidence that we were on the right track.”

At this point, Charlotte moved the process towards developing finalised 3D models through CAD, honing the designs to ensure that they had characteristics in common that could be harnessed moving forward into new products. Reflecting on the project, Charlotte points to the team’s undiluted enthusiasm for the task at hand:

“I think that bringing someone onto the project who was not steeped in traditional audio ‘norms’ was definitely a productive move. There was no resistance to the ideas that I brought to the table, just an honest conversation about how well they would serve the aims of the brief. It was really exciting to be a part of seeing something through from inception to completion – seeing the finished product and thinking ‘I did this!’. I know everyone on the team felt just the same, regardless of their levels of experience!”

Across a period of around twelve months, the product designer made a highly significant contribution to the Optimal Audio story, and in doing so provided the perfect metaphor for the company’s objective. In true Optimal Audio style, convention was put firmly to one side in favour of a fresh approach, with Charlotte playing a key role in helping to deliver a simple, yet highly effective solution…

“Matt’s been here since the start of the journey, and it’s his insight, experience and expertise that’s helped develop our DSP Controller strategy…” 

Dom Harter, MD Optimal Audio.

After graduating in Electronics from Kingston University, Matt Rowe began his career as a technician at BSS Audio. Having worked his way quickly through the ranks, he took his first major step in the industry working on the development of Soundweb London. Matt recalls his time there with affection, referencing the ‘small company’ dynamic that allowed team members to become involved in any aspect of product development. Being able to address the wider fields of software, industrial design and even artwork, suited his inclination for getting under the skin of every aspect of a project. This multi-disciplinary approach has informed an impressive career…

After ten successful and highly productive years at BSS, Matt’s next challenge was at Soundcraft where as a Project Leader working across all departments he was hired to recover the completion and delivery of the Si series of consoles, Soundcraft’s first major development of a medium scale digital console. Once again, the cross-functional approach favoured by Matt overcame a number of issues to deliver a series of successful product releases including Si Compact, Expression and Performer. The theme continued…

During Matt’s time at Soundcraft, his interest in cost-engineering continued to grow. Taking on the challenge of developing and producing high-end products without any compromise on quality, but where cost was always kept in perspective, became another area for careful attention. A move into analogue followed, working for HARMAN International on the offshore development of Soundcraft’s Signature and Notepad Series compact mixers, a task that again demanded the application of Matt’s expertise and wide-ranging insight. Justifiably proud of his achievements, and by now considering the possibility of a new direction, Matt had a productive conversation with former colleague Dom Harter. The now Martin Audio MD outlined his idea for a new commercial audio brand that could challenge what he believed to be the prevailing over-complexity that characterised the sector, and invited Matt aboard.

The idea of being involved from the very beginning in creating a whole new end-to-end ecosystem of products, including DSP controllers, amplifiers and loudspeakers, proved irresistible. Here was the perfect opportunity to bring to the table all the areas of Matt’s experience and skillset, and apply them to an innovative, cost-effective, uncluttered, high-quality system for which there was a clear and present need in the market. Far from being a deterrent, Dom Harter’s long list of what this new brand should set out to achieve proved to be a roll-call of shared principles. Matt grabbed the opportunity with both hands and over the last two years has been instrumental in the creation of Optimal Audio.

Consistent with an outlook that was shaped during his earliest days in the industry, Matt’s role draws on precisely that desire to cross the demarcation lines and bring into play the widest possible knowledge-base necessary to support the ground up development of a new brand. In so many ways, Matt has come full circle from those BSS Audio days  – the small team, the sharing and overlapping of responsibilities, and the desire to create versatile and adaptable audio solutions is his perfect habitat – his Optimal environment, you might say…

Marketing Director James King gives some insight into the processes behind the establishment of this new commercial audio brand…

Following the launch of Optimal Audio, it’s been gratifying to see the overwhelmingly positive response that has greeted our approach to commercial audio. This is the first time I’ve worked on a brand from its inception, and the development process was challenging but thoroughly enjoyable. Most importantly, it was fundamental to successfully fulfilling our specific ambitions.

The process began back in 2018, when it was clear to us that there was a good opportunity to develop a dedicated commercial audio brand. It was also apparent that simplicity should be the overriding driver of the brand – simple product selection, simple to install and simple for the end-user to operate. This idea, however, was not a case of dumbing things down – it was more about a careful selection of products for development, where unnecessary complexity was stripped away, and an architecture was created in which the products worked seamlessly together. In conjunction with Dom Harter, managing director, I wrote a simple brand story outlining these core beliefs, identifying the target market and how those within the end-to-end sales chain would benefit. This thinking then gave us the guardrails for the development and design of the products which Matt Rowe, engineering manager, took on with gusto, as well as providing the basis for the marketing approach.

We felt that it was also prudent to develop the brand logo at this early stage. Always keeping the watchword of simplicity at the front of our thoughts, the task proved surprisingly easy, and the Optimal Audio logo was developed from adopting an appropriately unfussy approach. What wasn’t foreseen at the time was just how the logo would naturally inform the brand architecture at a much later stage – suggesting that the clear approach to its origination was intuitively on the money.

Fast forward to 2020. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, we continued to work on product development and began to flesh out more of the brand architecture. The latter proved quite challenging as we tried to establish the right style and approach. Many concepts were originated but most were shelved. Colours came and went, photography went round in circles, and copy development was a process of continual refinement (and the odd argument). Then eventually our chief art designer broke the deadlock, proposing an approach which we could immediately see had strong potential. Taking inspiration from the logo, he showcased how everything we needed to reference could be represented in a double icon graphic approach – product categories, applications and key messages. Suddenly everything just clicked; it all reflected the simplicity of the brand’s approach, and was differentiated from other competitors in the sector. We had our basis to move forward.

Fast forward again to the start of 2021. Given that all the products were coming nicely to fruition, we decided on an April launch date. There was, however, still much to do. We needed to further refine all the brand communications, write all the product copy, develop the website, produce a company brochure, photograph the products, devise the launch event… the list appeared endless and daunting! In what proved to be a masterstroke, we appointed Gavin Eldridge to the team, with whom Dom and I had worked with in support of #WeMakeEvents. He really helped to project-manage the whole thing, getting deeply stuck in to every aspect, helping both to keep me sane and everything else on track. As it transpired, the ‘final sprint’ was full-on sixteen week race until we arrived at the launch event itself. Everything was in place, ready to unveil…

And breathe…

Focusrite plc’s acquisition of Sequential brings legendary synth brand under our group umbrella

We’re excited to welcome legendary synthesizer brand Sequential to the Focusrite Group of audio brands, following the latest acquisition by our parent company, Focusrite plc.

Sequential’s synths have made a huge impact in music for decades, and continue to inspire music makers all over the world. Instruments such as the classic Prophet® 5 — the world’s first fully programmable polysynth, designed by Dave Smith and launched in 1977 — and the futuristic Pro 3® hybrid monosynth, which combines analogue and digital in a powerful paraphonic instrument, show Sequential’s dedication to the craft of synthesizer design.

While Sequential will continue a business-as-usual approach as a separate entity, we’re looking forward to sharing the stage together, and growing with each other to inspire music makers, audio engineers and concertgoers for years to come.

Welcome to the family, Sequential! 

https://www.sequential.com/

Audio-Technica has announced their appointment as distributor for Optimal Audio – Focusrite plc’s new commercial audio brand – in no less than 17 territories across Europe and Africa. The company will assume distribution activities at launch on 20 April 2021.

Focusrite Group’s seventh brand, Optimal Audio has been in development over the past three years to simplify the often unnecessarily complex world of commercial audio, as Focusrite CEO Tim Carroll explains, “Optimal Audio provides a streamlined product offering working seamlessly together to deliver high quality sound that is easy to install and can be operated by anyone, not just engineers.”

Dom Harter, now Managing Director for both Martin Audio and Optimal Audio, describes the focus of the brand as “offering a one-stop solution of control, amplification and loudspeakers for small to medium-sized commercial installations, with a focus on supporting multi-zone venues. At the forefront of the eco-system are four and eight-zone, powered and non-powered Zone controllers that have DSP at their heart. There is currently nothing else at this price point on the market which has the functionality and versatility to allow such a quick and simple setup.”

Compatible with any device, Optimal Audio’s WebApp makes system set-up straightforward, allowing installers as much access as they require to configure EQs, devise presets and structure time-of-day routines. Once completed, venue staff can then be presented with a simple, intuitive user interface which allows them to operate the system.

Audio-Technica Europe CEO Robert Morgan-Males said, “we are delighted to be entering into such a strategic distribution partnership with Optimal Audio for our EMEA direct markets. It’s an exciting, innovative new brand that shares Audio-Technica’s values of delivering quality audio for all while perfectly complementing our best-of class, end-to-end signal chain portfolio of distributed brands; from microphone though processing, to speaker. This distribution agreement allows us to yet again strengthen our commitment to providing customers with efficient, effective and streamlined solutions, and we’re looking forward to working with Optimal Audio as the brand builds and grows over the coming years.”The full list of territories in which Audio-Technica will have sales responsibility for Optimal Audio is as follows: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.