Core Brands Strengthens EMEA Sales and Support Team with Industry Pros Marc Waple and Iain Cameron

Furthering its commitment to provide Distributors with the industry’s best sales and support team, leading control, audio and power solutions provider Core Brands, today announced the reorganization of its EMEA sales and technical support team, with the appointments of Marc Waple and Iain Cameron as Core Brands International Sales and Tech Support Managers, concentrating on the ELAN, Furman CI*, Niles, SpeakerCraft, Proficient, Sunfire and Xantech brands.

Marc Waple

“Both Waple and Cameron have produced impressive results, helping Core Brands to grow its business in the CI and Pro channels,” Core Brands Director of International Sales Simon Spears said today. “Their industry expertise will greatly benefit Core Brands’ Distributors, as they continue to drive sales, and provide technical support in the EMEA market. We’re excited to welcome them both as full-time members of the Core Brands international team.”

Marc Waple has worked with Core Brands products since 2006 when he began working as a Niles Audio UK Sales Manager for BMB Electronics UK. Since then, he has held multiple sales and brand development positions at well known organizations within the UK, such as Sales Manager at Midwich Homes, Business Development Manager at Invision UK, and International Sales Manager EMEA at World Marketing Associates. 

Iain Cameron

Prior to joining Core Brands full time, Iain Cameron served as the Managing Director of ICSound, where he utilized his extensive audio engineering background. Cameron first joined the industry in 2001 as the Head Sound and Lighting Engineer at Woodend Arts Center in Aberdeenshire. Throughout the next 15 years, he held positions such as Audio Engineer at Great Big Resources; Audio Systems Design, Integration and Commissioner at the Anglican Center Qatar; and Freelance Applications Engineer for CUK-Audio.

“Marc and Iain bring a wealth of experience to their new positions at Core Brands,” Spears concluded. “Their knowledge of the markets, coupled with their understanding of our product offering, is going to help our Distributors throughout the region build their business volume and profits. We’re thrilled to have them on board.”

*Furman Pro products will remain with Julian Young at WMA.​

SpeakerCraft Now Shipping Highly Anticipated AIM Series 2

SpeakerCraft, the premier audio brand from Core Brands, today announced that its latest architectural speaker series, AIM Series 2, is now shipping to dealers. The award-winning SpeakerCraft AIM Series 2 incorporates new technologies to deliver a superior home audio listening experience.

“SpeakerCraft AIM Series 2 has been 100% re-crafted to support sophisticated installations and advanced object-based surround audio platforms,” Core Brands Audio Marketing Manager Matt Dever explained. “The re-crafting effort addresses every aspect of the speaker, from front to back, resulting in a sound solution you’ll have to hear to believe.”

The most notable of these technologies is the new patent-pending ARC Tweeter Array™. Inspired by large sound reinforcement installations, the pivoting array is nothing short of groundbreaking. By incorporating multiple tweeters in the line array, AIM Series 2 delivers focused high frequencies farther into the listening area than standard tweeter configurations. The ARC Tweeter Array also enables the crossover point to be lowered, thus increasing the sound pressure level at the critical mid-range frequencies. “The result is that, acoustically, listeners enjoy a much larger sweet spot,” said Dever.  

Available with 5-inch, 7-inch and 8-inch woofer sizes, all AIM Series 2 speakers feature an updated WavePlane™ to further focus the high frequency energy into the listening environment for a cleaner, warmer and richer sound. The entirely new speaker housing design allows the woofer to pivot 30 degrees in all directions, while enabling 359 degrees of rotation for the WavePlane and ARC Tweeter Array.  In addition, the ARC Tweeter Array can be adjusted +/- 15 degrees toe-in/toe-out. The result is virtually limitless directional capability.  

While the front of the speaker gets most of the deserved attention, the back of this speaker delivers game-changing technologies as well. The all-new Acoustic Isolation Technology™ decouples the speaker housing from the surrounding materials, providing a more acoustically repeatable installation and improving sound transference to the listening area by minimizing structural resonance created by the surrounding wall or ceiling. The minimized resonance transfer is achieved using co-molded, lower density compounds, setting AIM Series 2 apart from any speaker in the industry. The speaker can be enjoyed as it was meant to be enjoyed – not colored by the resonance of the material on which it is mounted.

Fully re-crafted, all AIM Series 2 speakers feature a U.S. engineered transducer, motor and crossover. The new curvilinear cone design creates greater bass response, and the non-conductive Kapton formers, copper caps and extended poles reduce distortion. With increased power handling and sensitivity, the speakers deliver an overall cleaner and louder sound.

“The enhanced aim-ability of the AIM Series 2 presents new options for sound design – from home theatre to whole home audio,” Dever continued. “More than ever, sound can be redirected to a specific section of a room, angled toward a seating area or where an audio impact is desired. In addition, integrators can now offer their clients the most uniform coverage ever in any room, along with increased power and frequency response. We’re proud to make installation easier and more flexible for integrators while providing consumers with a superior home audio experience.” 

All models of the AIM Series 2 speakers are available for immediate delivery to dealers. For more information about the AIM Series 2, visit: www.speakercraft.com. 

After Fire Ravages Their Home, Couple Upgrades to Whole Home Audio and Video with Niles and ELAN g!

After a fire struck the home of Abe and Elina Rodriguez, sending more than half of it up in smoke, newer local building codes mandated that much of their home be brought up to date during reconstruction. When they hired an architect to help rebuild the home and make the nearly 40 required adjustments, their interest in music and home audio came up. This led to a discussion about a whole home audio system and a recommendation to talk with local integrator Digital Logic Systems, who saw that the Rodriguezes were ready to upgrade to a whole-home AV system. 

“We were very thankful that the security alarm woke us up, but it took us 20 years to get that house how we liked it and we watched most of it go up in flames,” said Abe Rodriguez. “When we set out to rebuild the home we basically had a clean slate to design and create our perfect house. For me, music is a huge part of my life and I had outfitted our home with extensive stereo systems on each floor. When I met Daniel Solly from Digital Logic Systems it was clear that he could deliver the type of whole-home music system I always wanted, and he said the best way to do it was with the ELAN g! system and Niles in-ceiling and outdoor speakers.”

But as these projects usually go, the system didn’t stop with audio. Solly won the bid over two competing integrators because of his superior knowledge and experience, in addition to the affordable nature of the ELAN g! system compared with other home control platforms. After drawing the designs and consulting with the architect, Solly and the Rodriguezes agreed that it was time for them to have a real home theater and integrated video and security throughout the house.

“Daniel gave us a real theater experience right in our home, and he was able to keep it affordable,” Rodriguez said. “When you add that to the whole-home audio and video, it’s a home run. I think DVR is man’s greatest invention, and now we can watch whatever we want, wherever we want, because all the TVs are connected to the system. We have the ELAN TV remotes in four rooms, so it works the same no matter where we are. We also use the ELAN mobile app on our iPhones and iPads to select music and set which rooms it will play in, which comes in especially handy when we are outside." 

The home now has 12 zones of audio with independent volume and on/off controls, including three surround sound systems in the theater, great room and basement family room. The theater and the great room use Niles speakers to deliver superior fidelity audio, which continues throughout the rest of the home in nine of the other ten zones, including the patio and deck. The great room and basement family room each have a wall-mounted 65” Samsung Plasma TV and the theater impresses with its JVC projector and 113” Screen Innovations Black Diamond projection screen.

“We did a lot of comparisons with different speaker brands and different speaker types, because I originally wanted big floor standing speakers,” Rodriguez remarked. “I was told they offer the best sound, but Daniel and my wife convinced me that in-ceiling speakers could not only provide amazing quality sound, but also virtually disappear from sight. This means we don't have to worry about anyone touching them, we don’t have to clean them, there’s no potential for wires to move and we didn’t have to make compromises to position them in each room. Daniel designed the speaker layout very carefully to ensure every spot receives equal volume and dynamic range, and he said the Niles directional speakers helped achieve that.”

Likewise, the couple appreciates that there are no longer cable boxes in every room, and visible wires are a thing of the past. Instead, everything is located in a single equipment rack in the basement, where it is easy to access, maintain and upgrade if necessary.

Beyond consolidated control of audio, video and security that the Rodriguezes implemented, one of the best things about a modern home control system like ELAN g! is remote access that allows the integrator to troubleshoot issues without needing to visit the home. Rodriguez learned the importance of this when there was a small glitch during a party, and Solly was able to log in to the system and fix it quickly. The party didn’t skip a beat, and it was all thanks to a reliable, responsive integrator and a high performance home control system.

By integrating the security system into ELAN g! as well, the Rodriguezes can now view and monitor their home’s security while on-the-go with the ELAN g! mobile app. They know the importance of a security system since that’s what alerted them to their fire. In the future,  the couple may add consolidated control of their home’s heating and air conditioning, among other systems like motorized window shades, surveillance cameras and lawn irrigation.

SpeakerCraft Now Shipping All-New Amplifier Series

SpeakerCraft, from leading home entertainment and control technology solutions provider Core Brands, today announced its newest series of amplifiers is now shipping. The new line is available from 50, 100 and 150 watt stereo amps to 12 and 16 channel amps with 30 and 50 watts per channel respectively. 

“SpeakerCraft’s new amps are designed to make installation easier and more straightforward than ever before,” Core Brands Audio Marketing Manager, Matt Dever said. “This new series gives our dealers the product they require for any size installation, and enables them to place power where it’s needed for any system, large or small.”

The 2-channel digital, high-current, bridgeable stereo amplifiers—the SC2-50, SC2-100 and SC2-150—offer classic SpeakerCraft power and stability, bringing extremely high current power to custom installed A/V systems. With independent level controls, each amplifier channel enables precise volume matching to the rest of the system. These level controls can also limit volume to prevent abuse of the system.   

The 12-channel fully configurable SC12-30 power amplifier delivers a solid 30 watts per channel RMS into 8 ohms and 40 watts per channel RMS into 4 ohms. This provides the energy necessary to efficiently deliver solid, deep, controlled bass response to a house full of speakers. The SC12-30 comes equipped with a unique BusMatrix™ selector, enabling users to assign each channel to a common Left, Right, or Mono signal bus, or to a dedicated signal input. The BusMatrix™ incorporates advanced PCB construction ensuring extremely high channel-to-channel isolation, providing signal to noise ratios and cross-talk equivalent to a professional mixing board found in a recording studio.

The SC16-50 is a 16-channel TCP/IP fully configurable power amplifier with a web-based IP configuration utility that provides independent EQ adjustments and volume level for each amplifier channel, enabling the user to EQ and set volume levels for 16 different speakers individually. Each of the SC16-50’s eight adjacent speaker output pairs are configurable into a single high power output, enabling the user to create up to eight 100-watt channels using a web-based IP configuration utility. This enables greater power allocation to specific locations, such as large rooms or outdoor applications.

“These new amps share the same industrial design with the new MRA-664 multi-room audio controller,” Dever added. “Together they deliver a branded audio distribution solution that is perfect for any size installation.”

All of the new amps feature three turn-on modes: music sense, external voltage trigger, and manual turn-on via the front panel switch. Additionally, each model in the series has a total harmonic distortion of 0.2% THD from 20Hz to 20kHz, and a 12-volt control out. The audio circuitry is constructed with the finest parts available, including 1% metal film resistors, high quality capacitors and oversized hear sinks for clear and uncolored sound.

Every amplifier in the new series comes with rack mount ears, a removable line chord and a two year limited warranty. SpeakerCraft’s new amps have been tested and certified in the US, Canada, EU and Australia safety and EMC standards. 

Core Brands Continues Receiving Rave Reviews For New Products Debuted at CEDIA 2014

The awards just keep on coming for leading home entertainment and control technology solutions provider Core Brands, a Nortek company. At CEDIA 2014, the company’s new product introductions received critical acclaim from Residential Systems, Technology Integrator and CE Pro. And now, rAVe Publications raves about the Xantech XtraNet IP line and the new SpeakerCraft AIM 2 Series.

The rAVe publications editors judged the 2014 Best of CEDIA Awards from the show floor at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The awards were presented to the most distinguished products displayed at the show in twenty-five individual categories. The Xantech XtraNet IP line received the title Best New CI Install Tool, and the SpeakerCraft AIM 2 Series was named Best New In-Wall/In-Ceiling Speaker.

“The enormous amount recognition we’ve received during and after the show has been most gratifying and it’s an honor to receive these two awards from rAVe Publications,” said Joe Roberts, Core Brands Vice President of Products and Marketing. ”The Core Brands team is thrilled to bring dealers the solutions they need for their future success.”

Core Brands received a total of 12 awards at CEDIA 2014 for new product innovation. The rAVe Publications 2014 Best of CEDIA Awards announcement was made online at www.ravepubs.com.