Wheatstone purchases PR&E

WORLD: Wheatstone Corporation has acquired the console manufacturer Pacific Research & Engineering (PR&E) from GatesAir. The purchase comprises PR&E assets and intellectual property, including audio consoles, networking systems, furniture lines, all designs and trademarks, engineering files and tooling.

Following the deal, the PR&E console brand sits under the Wheatstone umbrella, joining several other brands that have been acquired by North Carolina-based manufacturer of professional broadcast audio equipment. Auditronics was acquired by Wheatstone in 1999, while Audion Labs was taken over in 2015. The Audioarts Engineering and VoxPro brands also fall under the Wheatstone umbrella.

‘We have a respect for the PR&E brand that goes way back,’ said Wheatstone CEO Gary Snow. ‘They were considered the Mercedes-Benz of consoles at one time, and today, the name PR&E still stands for quality. Our intention is to not only restore the PR&E brand, but to grow it and give existing as well as new customers the mobility to easily transition to IP networking.’

www.wheatstone.com