QSC (formerly QSC Audio) and Q-SYS also share the same headquarter location in 1675 MacArthur Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA. It's just that the company is now split into two separate divisions, each one with its own brand and a different mission. For the QSC Pro Audio division the company announced the appointment of Perry Celia to VP Global Sales and Service, David Fuller to VP Product Development, Ray van Straten to VP Brand, Marketing & Training, and Linda Lee to Sr. Director, Operations.
Perry Celia is with QSC since 2008, David Fuller since 2010 (both came from JBL), Ray van Straten is with the company since 2002, while Linda Lee rejoins QSC with 23 years of progressive growth in key operations and supply chain roles, most recently as senior director of global supply chain and operations at Identiv. Celia is now taking the reins of the division’s global sales and service functions, while Fuller will lead the new development efforts, after being senior director of QSC's Installation and Entertainment Product Strategy for the last 12 years. Van Straten joins the team as a 20-year veteran of QSC, having led the company’s retail sales, marketing, training and brand functions, as well as previously serving as VP of its Live Sound business unit.
As the announcement states, "With this leadership team in place, the company’s new Pro Audio division is primed to position the QSC brand for its next phase of growth, innovation and expansion in the global sound reinforcement market." Not clear what the plan is exactly, since this division basically inherits the QSC audio range that is lacking the innovation enabled by the Q-Sys network technology, which is what propelled the company to strong growth over the past decade.
For nearly 54 years, QSC has been setting the stage for musicians, mobile entertainers, and sound reinforcement professionals, first with a range of pro audio amplifiers - which attracted so much buzz that QSC was very close to being bought by JBL, then a major client, before Sidney Harman decided to buy Crown instead. Based on the strong foundation of the amplifier range, QSC successfully transitioned to active speakers, growing the range from the very successful K Series for musicians, to powerful PA systems and line arrays.
Meanwhile, the Q-Sys network range was born from a foundation on QSC's own Q-LAN technology developed since 2006 by the Boulder, Colorado team lead by Rich Zwiebel and John Britton, who had left Cirrus Logic and accepted management positions at QSC Audio - both are still working at QSC. Q-LAN and Q-Sys quickly expanded to cover all the applications that QSC embraced, from portable PA systems and DSP amplifiers, all the way to its prestigious Cinema systems. More importantly, Q-Sys enabled QSC to grow into the installation business, from commercial audio to meeting room solutions. Particularly since the acquisition of Attero Tech in 2019, QSC was able to grow its audio, video and control networked ecosystem, while also boosting QSC’s development capabilities with Attero Tech’s Fort Wayne-based engineering staff.
Today the Q-SYS business division offers a complete cloud-manageable, software-driven audio, video and control Platform, supported by a vast partner ecosystem. It's range of products includes Q-SYS Core Processors, NV Series, SPA-Q Series/CX-Q Series amplifiers, AcousticDesign Series loudspeakers, Q-SYS software licenses, Cinema products and more.
What is left outside of Q-SYS is what the newly appointed "veteran team" needs to continue to sell to build the QSC Pro Audio division business. It mainly encompasses the TouchMix Digital Mixer range (which deserves to have its own book written, so many were the times that the concept was squashed, stomped and thwarted by market trends), K.2 Series Active Loudspeakers, CP Series Active Loudspeakers, and the KLA Active Line Array.
The QSC Pro Audio range also includes all the "non-networked," non Q-SYS amplifiers, which are now a hard sell in a fast-growing and highly competitive Class-D environment. Where will this team focus to grow its business is hard to say, but with this split structure, QSC is basically saying there is a networked market and a non-networked market in pro audio, which is a strange proposition. Will the QSC Pro Audio division be allowed to evolve to Wireless Pro Audio?
"We are ecstatic about the new leadership of the Pro audio division," states Jatan Shah. "Perry, David, Ray, and Linda are each exceptional in their areas and bring decades of experience to the team. Effectively navigating through our pandemic-influenced world necessitates that we cultivate our relationships with our customers and business partners; serving them to the best of our best abilities, manage and solve complex supply chain challenges, and invest in our talent. We could not have asked for a better set of leaders to not only navigate through these challenging times but position the QSC brand to thrive and grow as we move forward in this exciting new phase of the QSC story."
As Jatan Shah confirms, with the formation of the QSC Pro Audio division, (which maintains the QSC brand name), going forward, the company’s AV/IT business will operate independently as the Q-SYS division. "As our customers, partners and the markets we serve continue to expand and grow, and we look ahead to our longer-term outlook, it became clear that in order to unlock the growth and people potential of our business and teams, operating as two independent divisions under the same QSC, LLC ownership will simplify operations, unlock new growth and value creation potential, and will enable us to better serve our customers and partners."
“The QSC brand has 53 years of history in the live sound and professional audio market with best-in-class products and a prominent brand and product portfolio. This realignment of our business allows us to leverage our strengths and position us for a very exciting future,” Shah adds.
www.qsc.com
