As the world’s largest designer and manufacturer of amplification technologies, Crown Audio has developed a vast array of patented technologies for professional and consumer applications. Now, having successfully proven many of these ideas in its own offering and those of its sister brands within Harman’s professional, automotive and consumer businesses, Crown Audio is making select platforms available to premium third-parties seeking to integrate the platforms into their CE and CI offerings.
“At Crown Audio we’re continually working with partners within the Harman fold but also with third-party brands in the automotive, professional and consumer domains. Today, for the first time ever, we have formalized this business reality into a business initiative so that we can provide current and select new partners with the appropriate depth of support,” stated John Fitzgerald, Vice President and General Manager, Amplifier and Signal Processing, Harman International. “In doing so, we provide premium partners with the highest levels of innovation coupled with concierge-grade integration and support; we provide our stakeholders with additional value, and we provide our engineering teams with new opportunities to express their innovation leadership.”
The first Empowered by Crown amplifiers offer power points from 75W up to 2x750W continuous and 2x1000W burst @ 2 ohms. All Empower by Crown Amplifiers boast industry-leading voltage and current drive capability; ultra-low distortion (<0.1%) and noise (>110dB S/N). Empower by Crown Amplifiers are EuP compliant, and feature an integrated power supply, plus aux DC supply for input cards and networking options.
Driving Crown’s capabilities to deliver customized solutions is its Elkhart, Indiana-based cellular manufacturing facility, which was recently redesigned to decrease time-to-market for new product development as well as a new 50,000-square-foot Harman Technology Center in Salt Lake City, Utah that opened earlier this year and houses the company’s Corporate Technology Group responsible for leading company-wide R&D.
An example of innovation now being deployed across multiple products is Crown’s DriveCore technology. The DriveCore chip, co-developed with Texas Instruments, combines the amplifier drive stage into the power output stage circuits that are typically much larger in size and power requirements. As a result, power consumption is dramatically reduced and the amplifiers are far more energy-efficient.
The company says the new Crown Embedded Amplifiers are “ideal for confident deployment in high caliber powered speakers,” and “will feature an integrated protection suite including Clipping, Temperature, Shorted/Failed driver, over-current, AC mains over/under voltage that is managed locally through Drivecore.”
“We don’t expect to have solutions to fit every manufacturer’s product mix, idea or particular challenge but when Crown Audio does partner with a third-party we want that partnership to be comprehensive and valuable,” Fitzgerald added. “I am confident that this formalization of our program and the institution of support will lead to new, fruitful and long-standing relationships and exciting, successful new products.”
www.harman.com | www.crownaudio.com
