Audio-Technica has been revealed as distributor for Optimal Audio – Focusrite plc’s new commercial audio brand – in no less than 17 territories across Europe and Africa. The company will assume distribution activities at launch on 20 April 2021.
The news follows unveiling of Focusrite’s seventh brand at a special online event which showcased a number of product launches, including ‘SmartAmp’ amplifiers, in-ceiling, on-wall loudspeakers and subs, and WebApp to make system set-up straightforward,
Promising a “fresh outlook”, Optimal Audio has been in development for three years, with “extensive” R&D across product and software, in a bid to simplify what Focusrite calls the “unnecessarily complex world” of commercial audio. The brand is intended as a “one-stop solution” for small to medium-sized commercial installations, with a focus on supporting multi-zone venues.
“Optimal Audio provides a streamlined product offering working seamlessly together to deliver high quality sound that is easy to install and can be operated by anyone, not just engineers.,” explained Focusrite Group CEO, Tim Carroll. “Alongside its own dedicated staff, a number of colleagues from across the group – most notably within Martin Audio – have helped to bring Optimal Audio to fruition. In the long term, our ambition is that the brand will have its own distinct team.”
Dom Harter, now MD for both Martin Audio and Optimal Audio, added: “Optimal Audio maybe a young brand, but as part of the Focusrite Group it has an impressive pedigree. We have combined innovation and experience to simplify commercial audio, and by launching more than twenty products at the outset, Optimal Audio has created a high-quality, comprehensive, multi-zone, one-stop, commercial audio offering.”
The full list of territories in which Audio-Technica will have sales responsibility for Optimal Audio is as follows: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
