In Conversation with Lorenzo Coppini,& Marco Vitti , Architettura Sonora

Lorenzo Coppini, CEO of B&C Speakers and founder of Architettura Sonora

“Unique both indoors and outdoors: making a garden or swimming pool an exclusive environment, is actually a part of our Mission”- says Lorenzo Coppini.

The global High-end Luxury Audio market is constantly evolving, driven by the need to maintain excellent acoustic quality, along with elements more and more integrated with the surrounding environment, both in terms of aesthetics and connectivity with all the other technological systems interacting in the same environment (Video and Lights above all). “This evolution is clearly perceived in India and AS’s offering for this specific market focuses precisely on this aspect”, says Marco

Vitti, Sales Director, Architettura Sonora.

Speaking about the uniqueness of the brand,

“The Indian market is experiencing a phase of great excitement and evolution, an evolution focusing on the customer’s need, laying down the direction to be taken. Today we can describe this direction as the awareness of being able to offer uncompromising excellence”, adds

Lorenzo Coppini, CEO of B&C Speakers and

founder of Architettura Sonora says, “The essence of Architettura Sonora is contained in the search for a combination of acoustic quality and aesthetic beauty. The whole Audio industry follows this principle, but what makes AS different from all the other competitors in this market, is its innovative and simple design at the same time: a Cube, a Sphere or a Cylinder represent basic geometric shapes but that simplicity, combined with the natural luxury finishes (of marble and other stones) and with the impressive acoustic quality is exactly what makes us unique.”

Which cities or zones, in India, witness maximum sale and why? People of which segment are the primary buyers of high-end home audio systems?

“After discussing that with our official AS distributor SMATO, we’ve agreed that instead of concentrating on activities zone or city wise, we should be partnering with the top interiors and architects of the country and prove to them the aesthetic and the acoustical value of the brand. India is a big country and the geography is quite varied in terms of culture and lifestyle and thus AS finds a way to fit into any luxury home across the country. Nevertheless, the need for quality in a captivating design is transversal, therefore we’ve decided to generally turn to all those refined customers, who invest in beauty and functionality uncompromisingly”, answers Marco.

Would you like to run us through the company’s journey and enlivening experiences in the global luxury audio industry till now? What are the

challenges the company overcame on the way?

“AS has faced many challenges ever since its birth (in 2009). First of all, creating a company division with its own peculiarities and needs, different from the Parent Company’s (reminding you all that AS is a division of B&C Speakers, the worldwide leader in the design, production, distribution and marketing of professional electro-acoustic transducers since 1946), was a big challenge. But the real challenge was to design a line of speakers by using natural elements (such as marble, stone, concrete or metals - such as aluminium, brass, steel), and create refined objects that didn’t look like traditional loudspeakers, without compromising on the acoustic performance”, states Lorenzo.

What are the latest innovations in the Home audio segment? What are the major contributions of these innovations to luxuryavid lifestyles of the urban mass?

“As mentioned above, the Audio and Home Design worlds essentially require high connectivity between domestic systems: in fact, an audio system has to communicate with the lighting control system too, with the Home Cinema, etc. and everything must be done through simple operations, the so-called home automation. Clearly, this must be done without losing the acoustic quality, oftforgotten in favour of the Visual quality (which, on the contrary, is more and more defined), even if it should be considered equally important. The “consumer” segment is increasingly attentive and aware of this combination of connectivity, quality and aesthetics”, explains Marco.

How would you differentiate the Indian and Global markets for aesthetically appealing speakers/audio systems? What, according to you, are the primary reason/reasons behind the dissimilarity?

“There are extreme pragmatic markets such as North America, Germany, Japan, where design, shapes, aesthetics are of secondary importance compared with functionality. In other markets such as ours - Italy - and many others, the aesthetic appearance is of equal importance with functionality, as the object has to communicate its essence, like a piece of furniture or a painting. I believe that India belongs to the second category: the shape and finish are always at the centre of the attention of the Indian market, given its culture, history and sensitivity”, conveys Marco.

How would you define the growth graph of the industry 5 to 8 years down the line?

“At AS, we usually define our growth, that of our trade sector, as very stimulating in qualitative terms, and significant in more quantitative respects, such as numbers and turnover. We’ve noted that the whole market is in great turmoil, a ferment that cannot ignore the combination of beauty and functionality, which exactly is the essence of AS”, concludes Lorenzo.