Technology Stories We Should Mention: From Innovation to Market

The marketing breakthrough for a new technology is not just about successfully launching another disruptive product. In audio, or any other industry, innovation needs to be supported with clear go-to-market strategies. Sometimes unexpected engineering issues don't work in tandem with the marketing plan after the big product reveal - but really bad is to lose the momentum after all the awards and positive press.

From the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV, to the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show in Anaheim, CA, we have this unique opportunity to better understand the many sides of the complex audio equation. What did we learn?

At the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas there were plenty of new headphones, earphones and earbuds, including many new wireless models. But for the more demanding consumer nothing grabbed more attention than the announcement of the new EL-8 closed- and open-back planar magnetic headphones by Audeze. Also, Audeze introduced its new Deckard high-quality headphone amp/DAC.

Imagination Technologies announced at the 2015 International CES Show that its Caskeid wireless audio IP platform is set to be the first multiroom streaming solution to support MQA (Master Quality Authenticated), the encoding technology developed by Bob Stuart, founder of Meridian Audio, allowing true reconstruction of studio quality audio.

Lossless music streaming service TIDAL announced integration with Meridian Audio’s Sooloos digital media system, enabling seamless streaming of TIDAL’s extensive library of 25 million CD-quality tracks. At the 2015 International Consumer Show (CES) the two companies demonstrated streaming of Meridian’s Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) lossless audio sources.