Meyer Sound Responds to Market Conditions in 2020

	Steven Tanger Center

By adapting to changing conditions, both geographically and within market verticals, Meyer Sound reports the company is poised for a period of growth, innovation, and market leadership in 2021 and beyond. By focusing on markets only minimally affected by the pandemic as well as global regions experiencing lesser economic impact, the company will finish 2020 ready for the future.

"We are fortunate to be a privately owned company and one that is solutions-oriented rather than strictly product-oriented, both of which helped us to make the changes quickly in response to the global pandemic," says John McMahon, senior vice president. "While our Constellation acoustic solution led the way for us in 2020, new technologies from the ULTRA-X20 to Spacemap Go underscored that innovation remains at the heart of Meyer Sound Laboratories."

McMahon cites the continuing global dominance of Meyer Sound's Constellation acoustic systems. "Because these systems are installed in performing arts centers, corporate headquarters, and universities, all of which have stable funding sources not dependent on short-term ticket sales, these projects were largely unaffected."

Domestic Constellation projects completed since March or currently underway are in Illinois, North Carolina, California, New York, and Oregon, with global projects slated for Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Taiwan, and Japan. Constellation aside, major direct reinforcement system installations run the gamut from an arena in Nebraska to a convention center in Australia.

At the beginning of the year, Meyer Sound launched two new compact, self-powered loudspeakers at the ISE trade show in Amsterdam -- the ULTRA-X20 compact point source loudspeaker, and additional variants the ULTRA-X22 and ULTRA-X23, and USW-112P compact subwoofer.

The company announced two highly-anticipated software applications in the second half of the year. MAPP 3D, a new system design and prediction tool, was released in mid-August for download from the Meyer Sound website. The software provides highly accurate, three-dimensional renderings of predicted sound system performance.

Spacemap Go, a breakthrough tool for spatial sound design and mixing, was made available for iPadOS in the Apple App Store in October. Spacemap Go can transform the thousands of Meyer Sound GALAXY Network Platform processors in the field into powerful, flexible, and user-friendly tools.

Audio post-production for film/video not only weathered the downturn, but to some degree has benefited from stay-at-home orders. Meyer Sound has enjoyed strong sales in this market with its Bluehorn System -- offering flat phase and amplitude response across the full audio bandwidth.

Not surprisingly, high-end residential cinema has been another fast-growing market both domestically and globally, with upscale home installations now representing the lions' share of Bluehorn System sales. Several exquisite Meyer Sound systems, also subject to NDAs, have been installed in homes of well-known Hollywood luminaries and business leaders.

The worship market is showing remarkable resilience, with congregational giving generally holding steady. With increased down time opening an opportunity for renovations, houses of worship like Gateway Church in Texas have upgraded to new Meyer Sound systems.

The high-tech sector also survived -- and even thrived -- in 2020, with Meyer Sound leveraging its Bay Area location and proprietary technologies to continue collaborating on large-scale corporate installations for Silicon Valley-based companies. "We cannot publicize the companies because of NDAs [non-disclosure agreements]," says McMahon, "but these are among the largest and most sophisticated corporate installations we've ever done."

Despite the pandemic, many of Meyer Sound's rental customers have found innovative ways to put their inventories to use. Systems have been deployed for numerous "drive-in" concerts and outdoor worship services, while new Spacemap Go technology has spurred use of rental systems in diverse applications, from sound art at a museum in Austria to a "virtual home crowd" at a 100,000-capacity collegiate football stadium in the USA.

In 2020, Meyer Sound named a strong, dynamic executive team to run the day-to-day business with Meyer Sound co-founders John and Helen Meyer, president and CEO and executive vice president. This cross-functional team allows for nimble decisions and flexibility to adapt in demanding times. The leadership team includes: John McMahon, senior vice president; Mike Ulrich, vice president of operations; Marc Chutczer, vice president of R&D; Pablo Espinosa, vice president and chief loudspeaker designer; and Maureen McGraw, vice president of administration.

Other key appointments and promotions in 2020 include: Tim Boot, director of global marketing; Amy Luley, director of sales operations, US; Mary Molnar, technical services manager, Americas; Dennis Tholema, technical services manager, International; Jocelyn Moras, director, Latin America operations; and Wolfgang Leute, managing director, Germany.

A team of next-generation engineers developing future loudspeaker and digital products for a range of solutions from worship to corporate are supporting the ongoing innovation into the future. This includes the recent promotion of Katrin Rawks to director of loudspeaker engineering and Ianina Canalis as application architect, spatial audio specialist.

"We know this has been a challenging year for customers, especially those who are focused on live events," says McMahon. "While we are humbled by the lessons of 2020, we are well-positioned and ready for 2021 and beyond. We are so grateful for the continued collaboration with our dealers and distributors globally. We look forward to providing our customers with the innovative audio solutions that they have trusted for more than 41 years."