Behringer thinks BIG as new installation products are unveiled in Las Vegas

The products were unveiled at an exclusive press gathering held at the Wynn Encore hotel.

The Behringer Install Group venture was originally conceptualised by Costa Lakoumentas, Behringer’s VP of installed and commercial sound, and has received considerable support from Uli Behringer, the founder and chairman of parent company the Music Group. Commenting on the new division, Mr Behringer cast his mind back to the NAMM 2009 show: ‘I said at NAMM that Behringer would no longer be a me-too products company, and would become a technological leader. I have always been fascinated by the installation business but it really clicked into place when I met with Costa and we bounced off ideas together.

‘It was only in late 2009 that Costa presented a product road map, so we booked the booth here at InfoComm for the first time in anticipation that we would deliver these new products to the show. Not only have we achieved that with the eight new product families within this division, but we have 11 patents pending and a second phase of ground breaking product development in line following the launch of the 50 new products that you see here.’

The formation of BIG has been a whirlwind romance for industry veteran Mr Lakoumentas. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time in China over the past few years, whilst working on product development and manufacturing, and was introduced to Uli. He explained that he wanted to expand into the installation market, but I wasn’t clear on the company’s ability to move forward. We stayed in touch and I finally had the opportunity to visit the production facilities in China and was blown away by what I saw. More than 3,500 employees working in one million sq-ft of production and office space and a lot of attention to quality.’

With big ambitions for its new division, the green issue hasn’t been lost on Behringer as power efficiencies play a large theme in the design of the new products, including the MA4000 and 6000 series of power amplifiers and mixers, as well as the SN series of mixer amplifiers and AX series of power amplifiers. ‘These products are designed to run day and night for years and run at 90 per cent power efficiencies so that the savings in power alone will pay for the products very quickly,’ enthused Mr Behringer.

Mr Lakoumentas went onto explain the rationale behind the Eurocom family. ‘The Eurodesk and Euroline series of products are synonymous with quality and price performance that cannot be beat in the MI market and we wanted to take the Euro element into the communications sector. Our engineers have created unique industrial designs and combined them with advanced technologies, reliability and energy efficiencies.

‘We took a ground-up approach to efficiency so that the amplifiers come with switch-mode power supplies and a Class-D design to drive high-impedance loads presenting an amplifier with an efficiency of well over 80 per cent. This is a notable advancement, both in terms of energy and cost value, together with our commitment to the environment. In terms of design, the front panels of our rack mounted products has become the exclusive interface of the end user such as the bar worker or retailer, while the back panels have been carefully engineered for the systems integrators. We have created a fully automatic feedback suppressor in the SN6232 which is aggressively priced and has just two user interface buttons – reset and bypass. That’s all the end user will ever need.’

Many of the new ergonomically designed rack mounted products have front panel covers that conceal the dials and buttons and the design of the new loudspeakers has also been given a sleek interior designer attracting makeover, the likes of which has rarely been applied in the systems integration market. The 2000 series of ceiling speakers come with polished and smoked chrome edges while the 4000 series of foreground on-wall injection moulded speakers come with a waveguide taken from Behringer’s studio monitor designs. ‘We want to bring studio designs and audio quality to BGM applications, while making the speakers easy to mount and install for the systems integrators,’ explained Mr Lakoumentas. ‘These products you see here have achieved that.’

The move into installed sounds marks a considerable milestone in the development of the Behringer brand, with Uli Behringer having championed the cause of end-users in the MI, live sound and recording sectors for the past 21 years by creating affordable products.

‘I started the business from my bedroom whilst studying sound engineering, because I wasn’t content paying $2,000 for a microphone once I’d taken it apart and realised one could be made better for much less money,’ he explains. This philosophy put Behringer on a fast track to success and now the manufacturer has a payroll of some 3,500 employees with its own manufacturing plant in China, aptly called Behringer City. The company’s R&D largely takes place in Makati City in the Philippines. ‘We own everything from the concept and R&D to all aspects of the manufacturing and as a result we are in complete control,’ concluded Mr Behringer.

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