GREAT OUTDOORS

The team at Soundcast is aiming to reinvent both its product range and the ways in which we can listen to music alfresco.

Soundcast’s speakers are built to deliver music in the great outdoors. We ask Oscar A. Ciornet about the reinvention of the Soundcast brand.

Oscar A. Ciornei is the president and CEO of Soundcast. He was recently in Australia to launch the company’s latest range of indoor/ outdoor powered loudspeakers, which is being distributed in Australia by Advance Audio. Sound+Image caught up with him a er the launch. SOUND+IMAGE: You’ve been with Soundcast for three years, but you have a long history in the audio business? OSCAR CIORNEI: Yes, I was recruited by Pioneer in 1971, but I went out on my own and founded the OAC Group in 1977, which I still own. It’s a strategic consulting and business development rm focused on launching and enabling products and services, and helping companies achieve fast-start growth for maximum success — mainly companies in the audio and music businesses. S+I: So in that time you must have worked with some famous audio companies? OAC: Oh yes — over the years I’ve been involved with Boston Acoustics, Harman International, Telarc, She eld Mobile Fidelity, ClearOne, DTS, GRP Music, Nest, Russound, SpeakerCra , SnapAV, Atlantic Technology and, of course, Soundcast. Since I became a consultant I’ve personally coached more than 232 CEOs in audio and music companies and have seven times been appointed as interim president or CEO at companies that asked for my help. S+I: And that’s how you became involved with Soundcast? OAC: Yes, I was brought in as a consultant in March 2013 to improve the pro le of the company. At that time, although they had their own Outcast product, they were primarily building products for other audio companies on an OEM basis… products for big-name companies, such as Bose. S+I: We hear that you weren’t initially impressed by the Outcast product? OAC: I thought they looked goofy, but I also found that they sounded great — which wasn’t surprising, the company was steeped in a rich history of audio and owned dozens of valuable audio patents. So I could see the potential for growth and signed on as a consultant. S+I: Two years later, you sold Soundcast to the private equity investment rm Hancock Park Associates. Why did you do that? OAC: Well, that’s what I was hired to do! A er the sale, HPA demanded that I take over as the CEO and run the company, a er which they gave us ten million dollars to develop a whole new product line. All the new products you see here tonight are the direct result of that investment. S+I: e styling is totally di erent from the products the company was building before… the ones you said looked ‘goofy’.

OAC: We looked at what other companies were doing, and then conducted extensive consumer research in 29 countries with our own customers, asking them how they lived in their own homes — how much time they spent indoors and how much outdoors, what type of cars they owned, their incomes, their lifestyle… it was very comprehensive. When we analysed the results, we realised our customers were very re ned individuals most of whom had incomes of around $230,000 per year. Oddly enough, they also mostly owned Apple devices! And 80% of them listened to our products outdoors. S+I: What exactly did you change? OAC: Obviously the styling, but we also invested in better drivers. Whereas before we were using polypropylene cones we now mostly use aluminium cones, and we upgraded all the roll surrounds to butyl rubber — which is better for outdoors — and we now use neodymium magnets. e one thing we kept the same was the sound quality, because rst and foremost, Soundcast is about superior quality audio.

And we broadened the line. e old products were at a price point that was so high that they only appealed to music lovers and people who insisted that any music they played outdoors should be really loud. Now you can own a Soundcast product at an a ordable price, such as the VG1, which retails for $249. But like car companies which have their entry level models but also build luxury models, our top-line VG7-SE, which will be released in Australia in June, will retail for $2199. S+I: What’s the di erence between the current VG7 and the SE version? OAC: e SE will use the same drivers, but it is 16 centimetres taller than the VG7, has double the ampli er power and double the battery life, as well as all the same features — including [Bluetooth] AAC and aptX. S+I: Double the battery life? Impressive! OAC: We’re constantly aiming at having all our products able to operate continuously for between 10 and 20 hours on battery at a volume level at least 40% of maximum. at’s a substantial volume level. We’re also looking to keep recharging times — for a total recharge — down to 3 to 5 hours. S+I: You don’t have a fast charge option? OAC: No. If you read the newspapers or travel by air, you already know that batter- ies can cause issues. As a CEO, I feel I have a responsibility to ensure that none of those issues can happen with our products, so our engineers have built in protection circuits to prevent situations like over-charging and overheating, as well as fault detection. And we have our batteries built speci cally for us: you can’t use a generic battery in our products. You can never say never, of course, but I am con dent about the safety of our batteries and charging technologies. S+I: You now also have smaller and lighter models. OAC: Our research showed that in addition to people wanting to listen to music in their backyards, on picnics, and at the beach, they also wanted music while they were travelling, so that’s now an important aspect of our design brief with any product we build. It also means that we have to ensure our products are ruggedised and shock-resistant. S+I: We like the new black and ‘anthracite’ colours, but won’t consumers want colour options? OAC: You only think that because like me, you’re old-school. But our research showed that millennials and Gen-Xers don’t think like us, they don’t have a ‘does it come in pink’ mentality. What they want is elegance and good sound. ere’s also the fact that coloured plastics break down when exposed to ultraviolet light, so if a coloured product is used outdoors, not only will the colours fade, but the coloured surface itself will degrade and start to feel ‘tacky’. Our two ‘black’ colours are completely UV-stable. S+I: What about heat? is is Australia! OAC: Absolutely. And cold as well — one of the reasons that Canada and Sweden are two of our biggest markets, as well as Saudi Arabia. S+I: And 100 per cent waterproof? OAC: All our products have a minimum rating of IP64 and some have an IP67 rating — the second meaning you can submerge them to a depth of three metres for up to 30 minutes. You need to remember, though, that while our speakers are waterproof, your extension power lead isn’t, so if you’re using the speakers outdoors on mains power, rather than on battery, you shouldn’t let your extension lead get wet. We recommend you always use battery power when using our speakers outdoors. With a minimum 10 hours play time, you’re unlikely to be outside that long… S+I: Based on overseas sales so far, which of the new models do you think will be most popular here in Australia? OAC: Most likely the VG5, which we’ll be selling here for $849. It sounds fabulous, has great bass, plays very loud, is very light-weight and, like all our models, if you buy a second one, you can wirelessly link them to get true stereo sound thanks to our TWS True Wireless Stereo circuitry. Interview by greg borrowman. e Soundcast range is distributed in Australia by Advance Audio: www.advanceaudio.com.au