Following a divestment from the consumer market, and a refocus on professional audio, Sennheiser is now investing on growth and new product categories, pursuing strategic acquisitions. With the takeover, Merging Technologies will become part of the Sennheiser Group. Its team of around 20 people will continue to be located at the company’s site in Puidoux, Switzerland, but will work closely with the Neumann team in Berlin. The two companies see great potential for new joint collaborations, particularly in the area of development and innovation.
"Neumann.Berlin and Merging Technologies are a perfect match, and the collaboration opens up new opportunities for both parties," says Claude Cellier, the founder and CEO of Merging Technologies. "Both companies share a passion for excellence and a commitment to always set new standards in audio."
According to the announcement, the existing portfolio of the two companies will remain unchanged. The first joint product of the partnership between Neumann.Berlin and Merging Technologies will be a Neumann-branded audio interface based on the recent Merging Anubis, combining Ravenna/AES67 audio networking and USB ports. This new concept is envisaged to enable the perfect integration of Neumann products into a digital infrastructure.
Neumann.Berlin is regarded worldwide as a legendary brand and - in some categories - as a reference not only by professional users - such as recording studios and broadcasters - but also with users in home studio and content creators. Nevertheless, the companies efforts in studio monitors have not achieved the recognition that the quality of the product deserves, while the legendary Neumann microphones are now often unfavorably compared with a growing number of very aggressive and high-quality competitors.
Merging Technologies SA is a Swiss manufacturer with over three decades of experience in developing groundbreaking, professional Audio and Video products for a wide range of entertainment and media industries. With a dedicated user base in the elite end of the music, film, television, mastering and performances industries, Merging holds a very valuable and diversified product range, which includes the highest-quality converters and recording interfaces, plus a leading software family for recording, studio and live performance applications, with the Pyramix DAW and the Ovation playout and show control system.
Expanding from its renowned Horus audio interface, which can be found in many of the most prestigious studios and media production houses, Merging offers its more affordable Hapi networked audio interface and converter, just recently updated to a new MKII version. Hapi was instrumental in introducing the world to Ravenna/AES67 audio-over-IP, and its economical form factor made it the ideal local stagebox or studio interface for demanding applications, benefiting from a modular interface card architecture, common with the Merging Horus flagship interface.
In 2019, Merging Technologies announced a new ambitious concept, promising to expand significantly the whole audio-over-IP ecosystem in multiple applications, with the launch of the Anubis programable interface, the first of a new class of audio products from Merging designed for complete IP infrastructure integration. Based on a powerful hardware platform, Anubis can expand and adjust to many different applications depending of the software the user chooses to load.
And recently, Merging Technologies celebrated two major anniversaries for the company by introducing major product releases. The most respected of all digital audio workstations, Pyramix celebrated 25 years with a major software release that improves its Dolby Atmos workflow, and because Merging Technologies also celebrated its 30th anniversary, the company announced a major new release of Ovation, the company's orchestration solution for live shows, now offering compatibility with Flux and Dolby as Renderer Partners.
All Merging products are renowned for its leading implementation of audio networking technologies, and all support Ravenna technology (fully AES67 and ST2110 compatible) for real-time distribution of audio and other media content in IP-based network environments. Ravenna is also the first and only Layer-3 based IP audio protocol with full support for high-channel count DXD and DSD signals, which allowed Merging to design and launch a range of products for the extreme high end audio market. IN 2017, Merging created headlines in the high-end audio circles be demonstrating the advantages of Ravenna Ethernet audio as a new benchmark for connectivity.
Over its 30 years history, Merging Technologies never stopped pushing boundaries and surprising with technology innovations, groundbreaking product designs and clever technology alliances and integrations, remaining firmly committed to build tools for people who want more from their systems, and believe that quality always comes first.
Now supported by the Sennheiser Group, working under the banner of Neumann.Berlin and supported by significant investment, Merging can aim to expand its approach and reinforce its global presence. Neumann.Berlin also is recognized for reliability and lasting value, and Merging's integration will enable the company to strategically expand its product range.
"We plan to strengthen Neumann's offering, particularly in the area of digital workstreams, in order to provide our customers with holistic audio solutions in studio quality. Merging Technologies' products and solutions are an excellent complement to the Neumann product portfolio. We are therefore very much looking forward to working together with the Merging team," says Ralf Oehl, CEO of Georg Neumann GmbH.
"We are very pleased to welcome Merging's employees as part of the Sennheiser Group," says Andreas Sennheiser, co-CEO of the Sennheiser Group. "As a family-owned company, we want to grow sustainably on the strength of our own resources in the coming years. To achieve this, we are investing significantly in our professional business." Both sides have agreed not to disclose financial details.
www.merging.com | www.neumann.com
www.sennheiser.com
