Specialists in sound ASK

SPECIALISTS IN SOUND

After a couple of difficult years shared by most other Italian companies, the future looks bright for audio systems specialist ASK, as Barbara Rossi finds out from Mr Bianchi, the company’s business development manager.

ASK was established by three smallmedium companies cooperating with each other: Sipe, Autosonik and Zendar. Initially the link between the three was of a strictly commercial nature, but then in the 1990s, at the request of common clients, as well as thanks to the vision of the then two CEOs, Mr Tontini and Mr Paterlini, the companies decided to reinforce their collaboration and unify their strengths, thus forming a single group.

“This is what has generated the unusual combination of different product lines, which although belonging to the “infotainement” area, are not contiguous. In fact, we are specialised in both transmission (radio frequency antennas and wires) and audio systems,” explains Mr Bianchi. “Over the years these two divisions have shared resources in terms of management and basic structure, but they have also become strongly specialised and have put down firm roots where they could better develop thanks to the availability of specialists and know-how, with audio having found a home in Ancona (central Italy), DPS/electronics in Germany, and antennas in Reggio Emilia (northern Italy). We can proudly say that today ASK is among the very top companies specialised in top performance audio systems design and manufacturing, which it completely develops in-house for the audio sector (loudspeaker), as well as for electronics and proprietary algorithm-based sound processing software (DSP).”

An open and flexible business model has allowed the company to reach an excellent international position in the top automotive sound system field - for instance they have collaborated with the biggest worldwide Hi Fi and automotive companies, leading Companies at international levels for both auto and home products – while at the same time not losing sight of new markets and technologies. ASK is fully aware of the know-how and added value that it can offer to partners, or even competitors, and it is ready to build synergies able to bring economic advantages to both parties, but first and foremost to the final client. Important local partnerships have been set up with universities: Parma for acoustics, Ancona for electronics and Florence for radio frequencies; ASK also collaborates with Chinese universities such as Xian and Nanjing. “In some cases, ASK has established a strong and direct presence in local markets, those where industrial investments are prevalent – for instance Brazil, where we are market leaders, and China where with our two sites we are important players – while in other settings we collaborate with local partners, as we do for instance in India where for some time now we have been supplying clients, achieving a presence on the transmission market currently covering 80 per cent of local manufacturers. Furthermore, in 2012, we re-established our presence in the USA (Detroit), while we can say that our strategy of production localisation undergoes a continuous analysis and is re-defined every two to three years. ASK has always viewed emerging market countries not merely as a potential for low cost production, but also as a source of skilled human resources (engineers in particular); this is exemplified by the very advanced lines for the production of high transmission data wires used for video and general data (HSD).”

Important investments have also been made in China, so as to support the growth of the Asian market, and these will guarantee ASK the Hi Tech status bestowed by Chinese Government Bodies in 2013. Our Chinese investments have amounted to a new plant in the north of the country, as well as the expansion of our current site to 10,000m2, with 1000m2 dedicated to R&D. Alongside this, there is also an important antenna measurement site developed in partnership with local bodies. Another important investment was made towards the end of 2010/beginning of 2011, with the start up of a new plant in Tunisia focused on wire and antenna transmission production.

Believers in values

“Our company culture is transmitted at local level in terms of values. A ‘heavy’ local team is always present in our foreign companies; in China, for example, all the first-level management, including a general manager, are local and have ‘grown’ in the company since 2006... something which is not easily achievable in a market with such strong salary and ‘role’ inflation, but essential to ensure a continuing presence in the future. “

“Today’s market trends, with continuing market turbulence and the currently shifting centre of gravity of the automotive sector, make us choose a local production path (China for Asia, Brazil for South America, Poland for Europe, and Italy for Italy) whenever possible because this model allows us to increase our client “service” level, providing the ‘just-in-time’ and flexible supplies demanded by the market. Another reason pushing us in this direction is our aim of maintaining resources at local level as far as possible (Poland for Poland, China for China and so on). This increases the satisfaction level of all the stakeholders and makes our company more solid and well-rooted, even if sometimes it can cause the loss of a few percentage points in terms of profit.”

After three rather difficult years the ASK growth plan forecasts a 20/25 per cent yearly growth for at least 2 or 3 years, already consolidated in terms of order portfolio.

Advanced research

The growing importance of on board comfort, entertainment and full connectivity is a significant push for ASK both in audio and in signal transmission in general. At the beginning of 2008 the ASK management recognised the strategic importance of setting up a department focused on advanced research, mainly targeted at the development of ANC, Active Noise Control) and AVC, Active Vibration Control systems, in addition to the development of non-conventional loudspeakers and audio systems, and loudspeakers able to survive in extreme conditions in hostile environments. These activities have led the company to register five patents, two concerning ANC systems applied to kitchen extractor fans and three regarding tape and vibration-based acoustic transducers.

The actively silenced kitchen extractor fan prototype manufactured by the company has a residual noise level which is well below that of any other extractor fan currently on the market with a similar performance (speed/ air load). In the architectonic sector particular interest has been raised by vibration based transducers (magnetostrictive or magnetodynamic shakers) due to their ability to produce ‘sound’ when vibrating, on a large variety of surfaces (walls, glass, furniture and others), while remaining completely invisible. Tape transducers were presented at the latest edition of ‘My Yacht’, where they were strongly appreciated for their mechanical and acoustic features, as they clearly offer a higher performance than traditional systems, with an extremely reduced thickness (a depth of only 4 cm).

“The results achieved in areas which are currently considered highly sensitive have allowed us to initiate numerous collaborations with leading partners in their field of expertise, ranging across a number of sectors,” Mr Bianchi concludes. n