Apart from promoting concerts, tours and festivals for the most famous bands in the world, from The Beatles to The Clash and Nirvana, for decades Rikki Farr has been involved with designing loudspeakers and other equipment. In 1974, Farr created Electrosound (later renamed as Electrotec) and International Tour Services. In 1993, he founded the car audio company Diamond Audio, which he sold to Cerwin-Vega. He would continue with Audio Solutions, Inc. (ASI), which later merged with Aurasound, a publicly traded manufacturer of speaker drivers used in TVs, laptops and soundbars. From that experience, Farr moved to create Audio Design Experts (ADX) in 2014, which would become the holding company for RIVA Audio, an innovative manufacturer of wireless speakers for the home, based in Irvine, California.
Electrotec Audio was (re)born from a partnership with an awarded team of engineers and designers, motivated once again by the entrepreneurial and enthusiastic spirit of founder Rikki Farr. Essential to the project was also a cooperation with Eleven Engineering, the Canadiuan company behind the SKAA wireless technology. The goal now was to create a new level of party speaker, going beyond what is currently available in the class of party speakers. The new Electrotec STAGE ONE wireless portable speaker features SKAA wireless technology and is now available for pre-order through Electrotec Audio's Kickstarter campaign with an MSRP of $1,499.00.
“Electrotec has one of the best minds in professional audio behind it in Rikki Farr, so only the best possible wireless audio experience would be acceptable, and with that STAGE ONE was born," explains Rex Whitehead, Eleven Engineering Executive Vice President – Sales & Marketing. "In doing so, Rikki and his team did their due diligence and realized that SKAA had to be STAGE ONE's wireless audio solution. SKAA has become the go-to wireless solution for the emerging Party Speaker market due to its long range and the fact that no network is required. Additionally, in environments laden with heavy Wi-Fi and Bluetooth traffic, SKAA dominates by navigating through these hostile environments with best-in-class reliability. SKAA also allows for uninterrupted audio signals which are delivered with the highest sound quality to all speakers without the latency that is inherent in other wireless solutions. From the ground up, STAGE ONE is absolutely incredible."
"We decided that our first product into the market would have to be the most powerful mobile speaker in the world, and we have achieved that with STAGE ONE," explains Farr. "We needed the industry’s best available battery time, weight, and general use availability for both indoor and outdoor use. However, our biggest challenge would be connectivity. If we had the best wireless speaker in the world but the wireless connectivity and latency were awful, what’s the use? We tested them all and also needed a solution that would work right out of the box on top of superior performance capabilities, and SKAA was the overwhelming choice. We are absolutely blown away by the lack of latency, incredible connection speed and connection to our very unique app, and the fact that it will satisfy both beginners as well as the pros."
STAGE ONE draws inspiration from one of Farr’s renowned side-fill monitors, used in performances all over the world. Lightweight yet powerful, it houses the raw sound of a live performance in a portable 40-pound box with weather-proof coating. This one-piece cabinet uses a unique design that takes a full 320 watts RMS divided into a three-way, powered by two Merus MA12070P at 60W per channel, and one additional Merus MA5302 module, providing 200W for the woofer channel.
The all-in-one cabinet designed in the USA features Electrotec's own TRI-AC system, with a 10" woofer, one 8" midrange and 1" compression driver with horn, all drivers being professional level designs with neodymium magnets. The cabinet features an ergonomic weight distribution for easy handling, with a control panel at the top, where the dual hot-swappable battery compartments are also placed. The battery capacity allows up to 120 hours of playtime on a single charge.
The input section includes a stereo 3.5mm jack, professional microphone input with a combo XLR, mic gain and a high pass filter. Wireless options include Bluetooth 5.3, SKAA Wireless and SKAA Pro Wireless modes. SKAA mode allows connecting up to five cabinets in sync with a latency of 36ms, while the advanced SKAA Pro mode enables three cabinets to be used for the same source, with an ultra-low latency transmission of 19ms. Users can send a source signal via Bluetooth to the closer STAGE ONE speaker, from where the sound is carried wirelessly to all other speakers using SKAA transmission. Stereo pairing using SKAA is also possible and there are output. Each speaker also offers a 3.5mm stereo out and two XLR outputs with left, right and mono out options. There's also a USB-A interface to connect a USB Drive with local audio controls, and a USB-C interface to connect a smartphone or tablet and keep it charged while connected.
"As someone who has spent his professional life in the world of high-powered live audio, integrating SKAA into STAGE ONE has been one of the most pleasant experiences I’ve ever had," Farr concluded. "The team at Eleven Engineering provided us with a solution whereas STAGE ONE can be played virtually anywhere... from the backyard to a church to a club-type atmosphere... and used by both beginners and professionals alike with performance second-to-none. Now you can bring the party wherever you go."
Each STAGE ONE Speaker comes with all the cables, one or two batteries depending on the package, battery charger, and documentation. SKAA transmitters work with iOS and Android mobile devices, Mac and Windows computers, televisions, and just about any product with a line output or a headphone jack. SKAA is also available as a built-in technology not requiring an external transmitter in purpose-designed partner products, which are featured at SKAA.com.
Visit the Kickstarter Campaign page.
www.elevenengineering.com
www.electrotecaudio.com
