MQA rescue mission: complete
The Lenbrook Group of Companies, owners of NAD Electronics, PSB Speakers, Bluesound and the BluOS multiroom platform, has created a new business unit that will oversee the growth of the MQA and SCL6 technologies it acquired in September.
The new Lenbrook Media Group, which is being overseen by former MQA CEO Mike Jbara in his newly appointed role as vice president and general manager, will develop the portfolio’s content management solutions and, as per the o cial press release, ‘pursue new opportunities that fit
Lenbrook’s vision to oer increased choice to music fans and enthusiasts for quality audio’.
This is the first MQA-related ‘news’ out of the Lenbrook stable since it rescued MQA Ltd from administration, and it strongly insinuates the company’s intent to use the established MQA and brand-new SCL6 codecs for future hi-res solutions, presumably in both software and hardware.
Both codecs have been designed to deliver high-quality (‘better than Bluetooth’) wireless music streaming. MQA is a codec that e ciently packages studio-quality audio for easy streaming and is used to power hi-res streams on Tidal (now alongside the service’s new hi-res FLAC library). Meanwhile, SCL6 is touted as a wireless transmission technology that can retain the maximum possible sound quality of any audio file over Bluetooth, wi-fi or Ultra Wide Band wireless connections.
Hi-res, PSB-branded wireless headphones from Lenbrook are on the cards, supposedly due to arrive this year, courtesy of a collaboration between PSB, MQA technologies and smart-hearables start-up firm Sonical. And this new division could mean other products aren’t too far down the road either.
Gordon Simmonds, president and CEO of Lenbrook, says that the acquisition of MQA’s assets will help it facilitate high-quality music experiences throughout the chain, supporting “creators in the recording studio with capturing and delivering directly and in the highest quality, their art into the homes of music lovers”.
“Creating the Lenbrook Media Group allows us to fully capitalize on this unique position by giving it focus, and putting the right strategies, structure, and resources in place,” he says.