Ralph Heinz: Pro audio trends and the future for Renkus-Heinz

In a rare, in-depth interview, Renkus-Heinz SVP Ralph Heinz tells Headliner about the biggest challenges and opportunities in the pro audio market and what the future holds for the business…

How has Renkus-Heinz been faring during the pandemic? What measures did you take early on to deal with the problems it has caused the industry?

Renkus-Heinz weathered the pandemic well, thanks to the committed team we have in place. While this has been an incredibly challenging time for our partners across the industry, there have also been very exciting and impressive moments due to the innovative, energetic, and enthusiastic attitude of the people around us, including our distribution and sales partners, along with our global in-house staff.

However, the pandemic wasn’t the only industry challenge. The AKM factory fire, for example, resulted in a substantial microchip shortage. Although Renkus-Heinz utilises AKM semiconductors in many of its professional loudspeaker offerings, strategic supply chain management decisions from the past year ensured all products, including our digital beam steering solutions, remained available, ready for custom fabrication in our company’s Foothill Ranch, California manufacturing facility and clear to ship to customers. That remains true today: we are open for business.

What kinds of trends have you seen in the market over the past 18 months?

Over the past two years, we’ve seen many unique uses and needs for audio in the installation and live sound market. Worship spaces, for example, now understand that hybrid congregations require a loudspeaker solution that interacts less with the room to deliver the virtual audience cleaner live stream sound. Digitally steerable audio solutions are an incredible and demonstrable fix for hybrid worship services. Steerable loudspeaker technology is seen just as much in government and corporate use. Courtrooms, city council chambers and meeting spaces all need to ensure the on-site sound works harmoniously with the video conferencing platform or live stream.

How is the touring market looking at the moment? Is this area of the business starting to show signs of recovery? If so, in which sectors?

The most evident indicator of the market recovering is the return of live event ticket sales. The world is finding ways to host events safely again which is a good sign for those in the touring world.

What impact has the pandemic had on the installation market?

The pandemic’s impact is seen through the adoption of new hybrid workflows – i.e. remote and onsite. During the pandemic’s beginning, some voiced concerns around onsite AV disappearing or diminishing due to remote participation. This concern now proves to be far from the truth. The need for audio installations is vital moving forward as work from anywhere concepts, hybrid worship events and distance learning opportunities become increasingly expected. The challenge for the manufacturer and integrator now is ensuring the AV systems on-site operate elegantly with remote participation.

We’ve seen the crucial role digital beam steering plays in these setups because of its intelligibility and capability to place sound exactly where you want it. Additionally, steerable solutions mean less reverberant sound is picked up by microphones used for streaming.

Has the company been ramping up its efforts in the installation sector?

We’ve been innovating around the identified needs with new product offerings. The expanded Iconyx Compact Series, including the new ICC12/3, ICC24/3, and ICC36/3 provides more integration options for the installation space. The narrow profile of the line blends into nearly any environment, while the exceptional control of directivity helps with challenging acoustics. The compact size of the ICC Series makes the exceptional performance of beam-steered line arrays available to even the most architecturally sensitive spaces. The -RD1 models improve interoperability and flexibility through Dante audio-over-IP functionality.

Have the past 18 months presented opportunities to invest further into things like product development and R&D?

Absolutely. We continue to innovate and invent. At heart, Renkus-Heinz is a company backed by the science of sound. Because of this dedication, it’s hard to say we’ve been any further invested in R&D than we have been historically, per se. After all, innovation is core to our offerings.

What have been some of your key releases during this time?

In addition to the Iconyx Compact Series – which delivers performance and directivity to spaces where even standard Iconyx arrays may be too large – we have introduced two additional lines.

The CA/CX121M, introduced in March 2021, 12-inch stage monitor serves not only as a monitor but is also an excellent choice for portable and installed PA functions. The CA/CX121M offers the flexibility to be used as a pole-mounted side fill or as a sound reinforcement system without the need to rotate or reconfigure the drive unit.

The stage monitor/multipurpose loudspeaker combines Renkus-Heinz’s unrivaled standards of quality and innovation with next-generation coaxial driver technology. With identical horizontal and vertical off-axis performance, the artist is allowed greater freedom of movement without changes in frequency response – a capability made possible with acoustically time-aligned point source, phase-coherent devices. The result is maximum intelligibility and transparency in a highly capable and compact package.

The S Series adds the SA/SX28 subwoofer, a highly compact yet impressive subwoofer allowing for flexible and discreet placement in a variety of install and portable scenarios. The SA/SX28 extends low frequency response and increases system headroom in conjunction with Renkus-Heinz’s full range loudspeakers. The SA/SX28 also offers an ideal low frequency complement for use with many of Renkus-Heinz’s other systems, such as the Iconyx and ICC Series.

We also have an unannounced upcoming product that will broaden our range of solutions for customers that I am extremely excited about. It’s coming soon, so please stay tuned!

How much of a focus is the commercial and residential audio market for Renkus-Heinz?

While not a major area of focus at the moment, we sometimes see our solutions utilized in commercial and residential spaces by those aware of our impressive offerings. You see Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers show up in some really fun locations. Recently we heard about a boat builder that only uses our loudspeakers on their mega-yachts because of the weatherization capabilities. We would never say never to entering these markets in a more direct way, but right now we remain highly invested in the world of engineered sound.

What are the biggest opportunities in the market for Renkus-Heinz at the moment?

Without giving too much away, we believe there is a huge opportunity to offer digitally steerable solutions to integrations where an upgrade – as opposed to complete retrofit or new installation – to a current system makes more sense.

And what are the biggest challenges?

The past year has presented many challenges, and all of them have been overcome thanks to the fantastic team we have in California and the teams we work with around the globe. Moving forward, we will continue to protect our supply chain as much as possible and continue with our industry-famous innovation or steerable sound solutions. Doing that insulates us from all types of challenges and provides our partners with confidence in our products and company.

Are there any new products or announcements you can tell us about at present? What are your plans for the remainder of 2021 and beyond?

Only that there is an exciting one – in my opinion – just on the horizon! I apologize for teasing it, but it truly is right on the cusp of being announced and I don’t want to ruin the launch. That said, we suspect it will enable our partners to win more business in more locations across the world.

More broadly, you can always expect many new offerings from Renkus-Heinz to give integrators and customers immersive and high-quality sound. We are committed to our craft and we will keep engineering sound solutions for all going forward!