INSIDE VIEW Renkus-Heinz

RENKUS-HEINZ

Harro Heinz, Co-founder

Renkus-Heinz is mainly synonymous with digitally steerable loudspeakers. The precision placement of sound means audio isn’t reflecting off reverberant surfaces and instead offers a high quality and intelligible experience for the listener in challenging acoustic environments. The company was a very early adopter in digital beam steering technology. The breakthrough introduced several new solutions to market, including the company’s Iconyx series and its new ICLive X Series, which Renkus-Heinz notes is “the culmination of more than a decade of experience in steerable line arrays.” Renkus-Heinz also offers many non-steerable solutions – from point-source loudspeakers to line arrays to subwoofers – that leverage its many proprietary technologies. In short, the company has developed a complete line of loudspeaker offerings resulting in superior sound around the globe. This better-sounding world was the original vision of Harro Heinz, who co-founded Renkus-Heinz in 1979. Today, Harro still has that original vision in mind. Harro remains Chairman of the company that bears his name and is actively involved in every part of the business – from product development and engineering to sales and marketing. And with 2020 now behind us, Harro says it’s time to plan for a resurgence of integration activity. “It is time to be strategic, to plan ahead, and to be innovative with how we use technology,” Harro said. “It’s time to plan for the return of AV installations in 2021. It’s time to plan for the new normal in the world of AV.” Nearly all of Renkus-Heinz’s manufacturing takes place at its Foothill Ranch, California headquarters. This allows the company to provide custom design and unique paint applications to its solutions. The company has worked diligently to meet all federal, state, and local health and safety regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring it continues to ship product to its partners. “Our commitment to adhere to the regulations allows us to continue to ship product, continue to employ our team, and continue to hire new staff,” said Chief Financial Officer, Monika Smetona. “We look to go above and beyond the requirements set out for health and safety. Everyone at the organization is a member of this family, and we want our family to remain safe.” Family is a core value at Renkus-Heinz. Monika is the daughter of Harro Heinz. Harro’s son, Chief Technical Officer, Ralph Heinz, and Harro’s grandson, Product Manager, Brandon Heinz, are also on the team. But as Monika pointed out, the last name isn’t a consideration when building a family connection throughout the office. Work anniversaries in the double digits are common, with 20-year and 30-year milestones increasingly being celebrated. “Treating everyone as a member of the family is a critical part to how we do business,” said Monika. “The result is that we have decades worth of experience and people who passionately believe in what they do. It’s exciting to come to work because of that connection. And it has proved to be critical as the company continues to grow.” And growth remains the goal – especially in 2021, as the company plans for the ‘new normal’ in the world of AV. “We are extremely focussed on how we grow along with our partners,” said Graham Hendry, Vice President of Strategic Development at Renkus-Heinz. “We want to ensure we are committed to shipping products and offering support that will help our dealers, integrators, consultants, distributors and endusers in every market possible. Our goal of helping people put sound where you want it most – on the audience – is still in full effect. And we can back that up by pointing to specific, strategic moves we’ve made over the past year.” One such move was the company’s efforts to ensuring security in the manufacturing supply chain in 2020. That effort proved

critical in the aftermath of a fire at microchip manufacturer, Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM). “We have enough parts in stock to ensure no disruption with supply and to meet our ambitious production expectations,” said Graham. “Even as we look at increasing sales numbers, we are in a position where we can confidently continue to deliver on product. We will also be able to comfortably continue innovating and introducing new products on our road map.” This is important, the company says, because the innovators on staff remain ambitious. Under the direction of Ralph Heinz – respected in the industry for his work in pioneering accessible digitally steerable loudspeaker technology – the company introduced multiple new products in 2020. This includes an entirely new line of products – the Iconyx Compact Series – that offers small-footprint, digitally steerable loudspeakers ranging in height from 3.3ft (one-metre) to 13ft (four-metres). “We want to make sure our cutting-edge technology is available to everyone,” said Ralph. “When we look at developing a new product, we focus on ensuring we will make the lives of our partners easier. That means amazing sound you can put where you want it, of course. But it also means enabling quicker, easier installation. It means supporting technologies in the form of software and mobile applications. It means ensuring you have the correct form factors for the jobs that are in demand. It means working collaboratively with partners to give them exactly what they need to ensure they can win bids and wow audiences.” That effort dovetails with the company’s plan to position professional audio as a solution that enables people to return to physical spaces in 2021. “We’re very aware that the way professional audio will be used going forward has been altered somewhat,” said Graham. “We believe that commercial audio has become even more important. We are working with our partners to develop new audio workflows for schools, offices, churches, and more. There is now a need for in-person and remote hybrid setups across nearly every vertical, and we are building and shipping the correct solutions to enable those uses.” One example, Faith United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, shifted to video streaming during the pandemic. When social distancing practices became more clearly defined, they developed a hybrid model – allowing a few in-person worshipers to join them at the church while they continued the video stream. But upon that hybrid return, a discovery was made. With the on-site sound system running, the audio on the stream became increasingly unintelligible. To improve both the sound quality on video and on-premises, the church turned to Renkus-Heinz. “By keeping the sound precisely positioned on the audience, you ensure there is no audio reflecting off reverberant surfaces or walls,” Graham said. “This means your video stream still sounds great even with amazing audio on-site. This will be a big trend in schools, office spaces, and churches as we return to in-person use. That’s why we are focussed on increasing our outreach with partners to work with them on these new workflows.” Renkus-Heinz recently hired Karan Kathuria as its new Director operating across Asia, Oceania, and SAARC, and promoted Dudley McLaughlin to the new position of National Sales Manager covering North America. Garrison Parkin took up the position of Western Regional Sales Manager. “There are reasons to be optimistic as we enter 2021,” Dudley said. “With this new team structure, we will be able to better support everyone who relies on our solutions. These moves mean dealers, integrators, consultants, and end-users across North America will each have an additional point of contact with Renkus-Heinz. And we believe offering that increased level of support and collaboration will be key moving forward.” Renkus-Heinz is renowned for the design and manufacture of engineered audio solutions, digitally steerable arrays, powered and nonpowered loudspeakers, and fully integrated point source systems. Harro Heinz co-founded the company in 1979 in Foothill Ranch, California, and Renkus-Heinz’s business operations and manufacturing continue to operate from the city to this day.

www.renkus-heinz.com

Pick and Place Machine

The pick and place machine in the Surface Mount Technology room.

Surface Mount Technology

Nearly all of Renkus-Heinz’s manufacturing takes place at its Foothill Ranch, CA headquarters. In the Surface Mount Technology room, solder paste is printed on a PC board in preparation for parts to be placed by the pick and place machine.

Woodshop

Plywood loudspeaker parts are cut in the woodshop using a Computer Numeric Control Router.

Tulsa Church

Faith United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma switched to Renkus-Heinz solutions for its local sound – and to improve the sound quality of its streaming video content.

Ribbon Cable Assembly

Ribbon cable assembly takes place in the Electronics Assembly department.

ICLive X Family

The ICLive X Series is the culmination of more than a decade of experience in steerable line arrays and is the latest evolution of the medium-format, steerable line array in the Renkus-Heinz line. The ICLive X offers all the benefits of Renkus-Heinz’s steerable technology – allowing for sound to be digitally positioned precisely where you want it: on the audience.

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IN DEPTH

INTERVIEW

Siamäk Naghian & Piia Riitta Bergman, Genelec

REPORT

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