EM ACOUSTICS: SCIENCE IN THE SERVICE OF ART

Borne out of a collective passion for music and technology, EM Acoustics was founded by high school friends, Ed Kinsella, and Mike Wheeler in April 2002. Now famed for creating solutions which move air particles for multiple markets, the Cranleigh-based company began life as a fledgling rental, recording and manufacturing outfit. “After 18 months, we realised we didn’t have enough kit to be a rental company and not enough demand for recording work, so we decided to focus entirely on the loudspeaker design,” Wheeler recalled. It would go on to be a wise decision some 21 years later with the company having registered its most profitable year to date.

Af ter spending most of his university holidays working for a local loudspeaker manufacturer, simultaneously selling his own formative creations to his student union in the early 2000s, the idea of creating a loudspeaker company was something which appealed to Wheeler. “After talking my student union into investing in my loudspeakers, I naively thought – with the confidence that you can only get aged 21 – that I understood everything about how the industry operated, but I couldn’t have been more wrong…”

Wheeler now devotes the lion’s share of his time at EM Acoustics to overseeing the engineering and drawing of creations, as well as the operational side of the business, while Kinsella focusses on acoustic design.

“W hen you start something like this from scratch, your face is so close to the grindstone, you don’t always notice how far you’ve come,” Kinsella said. “It is nice to take stock and realise how we’re diversifying the business model to cater for a range of markets, which helps inform the core business.”

Like most companies, work ground to a halt in the summer of 2020. Wheeler recalled the sudden realisation that any back-up or parachute ideas the company had amid the COVID-19 pandemic were no longer viable.

“Sadly, we had to make people redundant, which I hope I will never have to do again. While we take the business seriously, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, and everyone who works here is considered a friend. Having to let close to half the company go at that point was not fun.”

There was, however, the luxury of time imposed by the lockdown. With an unprecedented amount of freedom, EM Acoustics improved internal processes, explored new revenue sources, and experimented with technical solutions for the aerospace industry. The product that emerged from that research now represents a significant part of the company’s success and helps fire the broader R&D process.

“As well as the devastating effects of the pandemic, we had the space to consider our mission statement and the freedom to explore new and emerging technologies and markets,” Kinsella reported. “Whenever you are exploring the limits of technology, you get a better understanding of what is possible.”

Wheeler looked back on milestones within the company’s portfolio. “The first product with market attraction was EMS-81, which began opening doors for us. It’s 12-inch brother followed, which led us to form a relationship with Autograph Sound and talented sound designers like Greg Clarke,” he stated.

“It became apparent early on in my usage curve that something special was happening at EM Acoustics. There is a healthy, clear, and demonstrable ethos to the operation, and an uncommonly strong moral compass which guides the product portfolio,” commented Clarke – who is now involved with the outward messaging of the brand and remains a source for Wheeler and Kinsella to cite when it comes to market trends.

“M y parallel life as a sound designer can be quite solitary – working with EM Acoustics is a collegiate exercise, which I love. It’s a brand in which I fundamentally believe.”

Clarke first specified EMS-81X boxes w hile designing a system at Bristol Old Vic. He recalled first hearing t he compact t wo-way multipurpose loudspeakers in action. “ The system just sounded beautiful. I hadn’t heard small boxes perform so well before. Using EM is now a f undamental part of my being able to create as a sound designer. I’m not just familiar with the tools; I also understand their c apabilities and strengths, and I am able to communicate preferences and honest feedback f rom t hose operating in t he field.”

Having curated the beginnings of a family of small, passive t wo-way speakers, EM Acoustics expanded its remit to include arena/ stadium-scale solutions w ith t he introduction of a horn loaded subwoofer.

“The Q uake provided us w ith inroads into ex port in t he United States, G ermany, and our first bite at rock n’ roll, w ith Q uakes touring Eu rope w ith Nine Inch N ails and Nightwish,” Wheeler recalled. Subsequently, t he company focussed on t he smaller, passive products.

“We began a working relationship w ith Sound By Design in Woking, which resulted in the creation of our first stage monitor, t he M -12.”

The H ALO line array systems followed, and t hen t he first product in t he Reference Series (the R10) was released just before t he COVID-19 pandemic struck.

“ There isn’t enough money in t his industry for our products to not be f un,” K insella noted.

“T he idea w ith t he Reference Series is to provide end users t he ability to enjoy and har ness an intuitive system, alleviating stress, meaning that engineers can have an enjoyable show using w hat m ay be a house r ig. Even if they h aven’t used our products before.”

This t heory was put to t he test at Worthy Farm in 2022 w ith EM Acoustics’ products making t heir m aiden appearance on Gl astonbury’s Acoustic stage. The c all c ame th rough from an engineer telling us of the opportunity and although we k new t he system was entirely c apable of performing in t he environment, it was not an area where we had a g reat deal of experience, so we hesitated. Then, we t hought of our 22-year-old selves getting t he s ame phone c all and it became im possible to s ay no!” W heeler exclaimed. T he original system deployed was a l arge format H ALO-A line array, u nderpinned by Qu ake subwoofers. R10 and R12 models performed f ront, out and side fill d uties, and a full stage monitor r ig completed t he package.

“We h ad a brilliant response f rom engineers who used t he system – everyone was h appy, so we were invited back. T his year, we deployed broadly t he s ame system but experimented with a delayed sub array to smooth the coverage out and used R12 loudspeakers as m ain outfills. Being invited back means something went well, which is more of a testament to the box design than us,” he said, modestly. T he response f rom engineers and acts at t he 2023 festival h as, W heeler reports, been “universally positive”.

Glastonbury h as also proved an im portant research mission for t he founders.

“Understandably, t here c an be a reluctance from customers to divulge areas where we need to m ake improvements. It’s valuable to understand ourselves where we can make upgrades and t he best way to do t hat is by being in t he field, sometimes literally, and having to t roubleshoot, particularly in m arkets where we h ave less direct experience,” W heeler said, explaining how t he Reference Series was born out of desires and suggestions made by engineers operating in multiple environments.

“ Ultimately, Ed and I k now a lot about t he physics of our product, but h aving deployed a system at Glastonbury, we can see how some of the tweaks we make can be beneficial in real-world scenarios.”

Kinsella added: “You really find out the ergonomic nature of a speaker when they’re thrown onto a truck!”

With demand for loudspeakers greater than ever, EM Acoustics has garnered a broad range of customers, particularly in the live entertainment and touring sector.

“It is a market we’re approaching tentatively as speaker design is ever-evolving and fast-paced, but it remains a career goal and aspiration of ours,” Wheeler reported.

Hoping to bridge the gap and leave behind a legacy in the pro audio world, EM Acoustics will continue to take on and learn from opportunities by putting its systems through their paces, according to its founders. “We will continue to invest in designing, developing, and creating solutions based on market desires,” Wheeler explained. “As sound systems get more complicated, the technical support for a ‘big, small company’ like ours means growth while maintaining our ethos and identity,” he added.

In closing, Kinsella reviewed the company’s mission statement of ‘putting science in the service of art’. “I’ve never believed that there is a real distinction between science and art – a good scientist thinks artistically, otherwise they are just crunching through spreadsheets,” he commented. “Science is making nature the subject of your considerations and trying to find elegant ways to quantify things. There’s no point in just being a dreamer. We want to create good and reliable products that are equally fun and practical.

“After 21 years, there’s still a lot of progress to be made and work to be done, which doesn’t yield itself to computer horsepower. That said, it will be interesting to see the influence of artificial intelligence,” he concluded. “Fundamentally, in the words of Duke Ellington: ‘If it sounds good, then it is good.’” www.emacoustics.co.uk

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